Page 46 of Follow Your Instincts

I kept myself busy over the next week by running as much as possible, studying for the detective exam, hanging out with Kira a few times, and getting to know Bridget.

She was quiet at first, but her quiet demeanor hid a dry sense of humor. She may have seemed delicate and soft but she had a core of steel. And she was clearly very smart and dedicated to her research into Omega biology.

“So, why are you here?” I asked after one of our 90’s romcom nights:10 Things I Hate About You. “You’re brilliant, beautiful, kind, funny. Why aren’t you all packed up?”

Bridget leaned back against her headboard and tipped herhead up. Then she fixed those green eyes on me. We were snuggled in her room, surrounded by stray popcorn kernels. Bridget was also a secret slob. “You don’t want to hear about that.”

“I do! If you’re okay with talking about it. Sorry if I’m pushing,” I said.

“No, it’s okay,” Bridget said. “It’s just not fun to talk about. And I don’t want you to pity me because I promise things are much, much better now.”

“Pinky promise I won’t think of you any differently,” I said, holding out a pinky. She wrapped it in one of hers with a smile.

“My pack growing up was abusive,” she said quietly. “My fathers were the worst kind of Alphas: narcissistic and cruel. Those kinds of Alphas seem to find each other, and I think they feed off each other's worst instincts.

“They controlled everything my mother did; who she talked to, where she went. She wasn’t allowed to have a job. They said her place was at home, raising the kids and being the perfect Omega. Except she couldn’t even do that part right because after she had me, she couldn’t have any more kids. I almost killed her,” Bridget said as an aside, looking at me quickly before turning back to stare at the far wall.

“So it was just her and me, trying to survive in a house with three Alphas that treated her… badly. She tried her best. She was the best mother I think she was capable of being. And myfathers,” Bridget spat the word, her sweet voice taking on a surprising amount of venom. “They treated me like a little princess. As long as I acted like the perfect girl, they loved me. But if I didn’t listen, or showed any personality they didn’t like… I quickly learned to be who they wanted me to be.

“Somewhere along the way, I realized I would probably present as an Omega like my mom. With Alpha dads and an Omega mom, it’s pretty much guaranteed that at least one of the kids will be a designation other than Beta. And I knew that thelastthing I ever wanted was to be stuck like my mother was,” she said, and took a pause.

She looked over at me. “Did you know that gymnasts, ballet dancers, and ice skaters often have delayed menstruation?”

“What?” I asked, bewildered at the conversational whiplash.

“They have to be as lean as possible to excel at their sports. And because of that, their bodies delay menstruation. It’s an evolutionary thing. If you don’t have enough body fat, your biology says ‘Sorry, not ready for a baby, let’s wait until the next mammoth is caught.’ I learned about that in one of the biology books my mom brought home for my homeschool science class, and I had an idea. If I could keep my body fat low enough, maybe I could delay presenting as an Omega, too.”

My heart sank as I saw where the story was heading.

“It worked, by the way,” she said with a tinge of pride. “I starved myself and didn’t present. I turned sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nothing. My fathers were livid. They had already been talking to other packs about me, setting up future courtships with their… friends. But then I was nineteen and then twenty, and even though I was stuck in that house, at least I wasn’t being auctioned off like a prize cow. It got easier over time, not eating. And it made me feel powerful, gave me literal control over my future. As long as I was thin enough, I was safe.”

Bridget paused and looked over at me again, as if looking for signs of pity, then took a deep breath.

“By the time I was twenty-one, I had a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Fairview University Online, and I was dying. I don’t know how thin I had gotten, but I passed out one day and wouldn’t wake up. My mother convinced my fathers to let her take me to the hospital. And three years later, here I am.” She smiled, and her face softened back into the sweet disposition I was used to. “I’m really, really lucky to have a safe place like this where I can continue studying.”

“God, I’m sorry, Bridget,” I said softly. Bridget rolled her eyes and flicked me.

“Ow!” I said. “What the hell?”

“You weren’t supposed to pity me, remember?”

“It’s not pity! That’s a really sad story! What else am I supposed to say?”

“I’m joking. Kind of. Sorry for trauma dumping. I kind of get on a roll when I talk about it,” Bridget said.

“I mean, you know why I’m here, right? It’s nothing compared to your story, but that asshole Alpha attacked me just because he thought he could get away with it. And we’re supposed to want tobewith these men? Fuck that.” Anger thundered through me; at Todd Phillips, at Bridget’s fathers, and at Lachlan for ripping off my rose colored glasses about Pack Murray.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think Alphas are the problem. It’smen,” Bridget said.

I groaned. She was right. I had responded to enough domestic disturbance calls to know there were horrible men in every designation.

“Whyaremen?” I asked.

“I hope that the next evolutionary leap will be a designation that allows women to reproduce asexually. Like Komodo dragons,” Bridget said.

She looked so serious that I burst out laughing.

“What? I’m serious! It’s called parthenogenesis,” Bridget explained, her eyes wide.

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