Page 10 of Sweethearts and Savages
Enit had climbed off his lap, which was something. Not that I begrudged her happiness. I didn’t want her all to myself. I could be a lot.
My brain never switched off. I was distracted all the time. Sometimes I forgot to eat, or call, or sleep. I was bad at expressing emotions or understanding other people's emotions outside of a psychological context.
I hated being out of control and I feared the unknown. Like I said, I was a lot.
I suddenly realized the feeling that was making my chest burn wasn’t jealousy that he was touching her. No, it was regret that she wasn’t touching me too.
“We best get started. You’re fine, Alpha. Keep the wound clean and it should heal with the day.”
He uncurled his body from the chair, giving me a smile that I’m sure made a lot of girls fall at his feet. “Bohdie.” I cocked my head to the side and frowned. He frowned right back. “My name, it’s Bohdie.”
“I know. Enit introduced you when you walked in.”
Bohdie looked at me again, his eyes considering. “I’d like it if you called me by my name, and not my designation. You don’t call Enit ‘Omega.’”
“I’ve known Enit since I was a child. Before I understood the variances in designation.”
Enit clicked her tongue. “You’re being deliberately obtuse, Stace, and you’re better than that,” she said with gentle reproval.
I shrugged at her and she shook her head at me like she used to. “Fine. You’ll survive, Bohdie. You’re fine to go back to class. I’d avoid Christopher’s baseball bat in the future.”
He looked at me and laughed. “I’ll take your advice, Doc.” He turned and dipped his chin at Enit, his eyes downcast respectfully. “Omega.”
A pretty pink flush lit up Enit’s cheeks. “Alpha.”
Then he straightened, and bent down, kissing her cheek. “Oh, I nearly forgot.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of Skittles, pressing them into her hand. “I’ll see you later, Enit.” He loped toward the elevator. “See you later, Doc. Nice to meet you.”
Then he was gone.
Enit’s eyes lingered on the doors, and my eyes lingered on her. She was interested in the Alpha, past the biological draw. There’d been plenty of Alphas at Eden through the years, and she’d shied away from nearly all of them. But I could almost see the connection between her and Bohdie.
Her gaze whipped back to me, and I saw her shift from foot to foot uncomfortably. “How have you been, Stace? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
I shrugged. “I saw you in the cafeteria sixty-seven days ago. You were wearing pink.”
She laughed, and the sound danced along my skin, making me feel happy too. “An eidetic memory is definitely handy.”
She was wrong on that front. I would take writing things down over having memories of every awful damn thing that ever happened. But I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I turned on my heel and walked out the back door of the treatment room, which led into the lab.
I could hear Enit moving quietly behind me as I spoke. “Miss Pea said that they are having trouble finding you an Omega teacher, and that she thinks that learning scientific healing methods would aid in your future position as Pack Omega.” That chest pain was back when I thought about her marrying into some Pack and leaving me. I pushed the feeling down. “From my research, historically Omegas tended to double as Pack healers, so I agreed that learning some general medical procedures would be beneficial. Perhaps, you would let me study you in return, for my Alpha/Omega dynamics research, to see what genome defines an Alpha from an Omega or a beta. You and your littermates are an interesting case study. What is the statistical probability that there be one of each designation in the same litter? You aren’t identical triplets, so there was trizygosity, but does that mean that nature balanced you and Christopher? Or perhaps Christopher and Carmen, as they share the same physical characteristics.”
“Stacey—”
“But even that seems unlikely. What I need is a larger sample group from differing—”
“Stace!”
I stopped and looked over my shoulder at her.
“You lost me at tri-zi, uh, trisyo...”
“Trizygosity,” I supplied and she nodded.
“Yeah, that. Science isn’t one of my areas of learning. But I’m happy for you to study me. I could probably talk Carmen and Christopher into it too.”
I smiled and it stretched my face uncomfortably wide. Yes! They definitely wouldn’t say no to Enit.
“I’m also happy to assist you in your studies, but I don’t understand any of it, okay?”
