Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Well, this should be interesting. Though Lila had said she'd been sick since the full moon, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume she'd been more mentally sick than physically. Though that bracelet I'd given her could bring about fairly unpleasant side effects if tested. Considering she was marked twice over and had picked out such a beautiful dress for the night, it was very likely that it had been.

I set down my Calculus book and turned to the fourth chapter. She'd only missed a couple classes, so it was unlikely that she was terribly behind, but any excuse to get her alone was a good one. She was whip smart when it came to math anyway. Chances were likely, she knew the material as well as I did just from reading my notes on her phone.

While I waited for her to make the ten minute walk across campus, I also made a point to grab a couple text books from the Lore section. She was always transfixed on werewolves, like they held the secrets of all shifters in their chemistry and customs, but that was fairly offensive to apply to a Zodiac Shifter. She knew not of which she spoke, so I'd offer concessions for her ignorance, but if we could avoid ever looking at werewolves again, it would be too soon .

Instead, I grabbed the Astrology books from the regular shelves and the "Mimics and Skin Walkers" encyclopedia that was right above the werewolf tome. I couldn't say why she'd never made the connection that there were other names for shifters throughout the world—none of them starting with the ‘were' prefix, I might add—but she constantly ignored anything outside the most conventional and popular of magic, it seemed. For some reason, humans were obsessed with the idea of werewolves, to the point they never noticed the true monsters who lived right next to them every day. If only they knew that the "sweet ones" who were always in "control" were anything but.

I rolled my eyes at the thought, though a smile betrayed my lips.

What fun this little mystery woman has already been. It had been a long time since I'd ever felt such intense interest in another person.

I'd just finished laying out our feast of literature when my beautiful, doe-eyed coworker entered the empty library. It was rare that anyone else spent Saturdays on campus and studying, but I may or may not have latched the enchanted lock on the door, just to be safe. It would keep out humans for a few hours, which had long been used by the witch covens that met here for regular gatherings in days long past.

All of the doors at Graves Academy had such a function. It was rarely necessary, considering less than a quarter of the student body was presumed to be human, but it certainly wasn't never necessary. Even professors and administrators had moments of slipping.

Cross breeding was such fun .

"Why are you here on your day off?" Lila asked as she sat down at my prepared table.

Odd question. "I don't understand. Where else do you spend a day off?" I tilted my head to the side in confusion. Were there places in the world more relaxing and enjoyable to pass the time than a chamber overflowing with books?

I drew in a deep breath through my nose, letting that scent of paper, ink, and leather bindings fill my nostrils.

Certainly not. Unless she was implying she'd rather be at a fabric store. That may have been a close second for scent and peacefulness.

"I don't know: Going on a hike or to a lake or something?" She said with a smile that implied any of those things were enjoyable. A joke, perhaps? Surely no one would choose to be bombarded by insects and cold water for entertainment. Not in early April. Perhaps Lila was a masochist. I'd not read that in her, but I'd admit my judge of character was imperfect.

Painfully imperfect.

"I prefer to engage my mind more than my body." I took a guess at what I was supposed to say to sound more normal and appealing, while also rejecting anything so unpleasant as a hike . "But I would be willing to try those things with you, if you feel that they're worthy pursuits."

Lila laughed. A lovely sound. "You're even more awkward than I am." She said as she leaned over the table, her elbows on the hard wood and her chin supported in her palms. "But no, I think I prefer the library, too. It's a lot easier for times like this, honestly. "

"Times like what?" Everything she said was perplexing. I settled in across from her, then slid the stack of books between us.

"Times where I have to admit you were right." She blurted out, staining her cheeks in red in the process. "I guess I'm… not human."

Oh . My smile was involuntary. "Of course you're not human." I nudged the book on skin walkers across the table. "I knew that from the moment I saw you. Only magic-kind can see the Lore section, after all. It's hidden by a cloaking spell, as it would be terribly reckless to provide an entire section on beast characteristics to those who have hunted us the most aggressively and unapologetically throughout history."

Lila opened her mouth, only to stare at me in stunned silence. She was ridiculously adorable when she was confused.

I closed my eyes to avoid rolling them, but I still laughed despite myself. "Not only that, but shifters truly can't mark a human. None of the Devil's children can mark a human. Not a shifter, not a vampire, not a harpy or fae or kraken. Despite the similar appearances and physical structures, humans carry an entirely different type of blood." I shrugged and opened the book, flipping through to the chapter on Purmina and instincts. "Did you think I would have revealed myself to someone if I had any doubt they may not be of like blood? That I would have hired someone who wasn't?"

"Why… why didn't you ever say anything?"

I blinked rapidly to dispel my disbelief at the question before I spoke. "Was I too subtle about my assumptions?" Baffling. Perhaps I should have called her Shifter Lila, so my sarcasm would have been more clear. I always get these things wrong.

Her eyes darted to the side and those soft cheeks of hers deepened in their redness. "I guess you weren't." She forced a laugh. "In hindsight, I was the one who refused to listen."

"I'm glad we cleared that up." A second time, I avoided an eye roll. "So I assume this revelation is closely related to the last full moon and your supposed flu, yes?"

Lila nodded. "I shifted." Her words were barely more than a whisper. She glanced around the library, as if someone might be hiding somewhere and listening in.

"We're alone. You're safe." I assured her, not wanting anything else to interrupt this little confession before I got to the plot twist. "What did you shift into?"

"A… Virgo, I guess?" That part seemed somewhat obvious, considering she carried Marcus Emery's scent, and he'd dropped her off at work that day. Being a Zodiac Shifter would be par for the course for him to show that level of interest.

"Was a trigger involved in this transformation?" I supplied next, hoping whoever she'd been rendezvousing with that night had provided some sort of insight, be it Emery or her other potential mate.

She shook her head. "Just the moon."

"Forced transformation?" I asked to confirm. She tipped her chin in an affirmative. Interesting . "So you're a Hybrid and a Beta." The way my whole chest relaxed at the confirmation that she was not, in fact, an Alpha, could not be overstated. "A hybrid what exactly? "

"I don't know. I was hoping you could help me figure that out." She played with her fingers like a nervous tick. "Or at least help me understand the positives and negatives and whatever comes with being a Beta."

Oh my, that is tragic . But then, at least she wasn't an Omega. I suppose the breeding-resistant bracelet I'd given her hadn't been necessary after all. I'd have preferred to be a Beta, myself, honestly. The silent nobodies in the background could lead a peaceful existence compared to… the rest of us.

"There's no test to determine your other bloodline, but those characteristics should surface and make themselves obvious with time." I felt confident I could get those out of her as we spent more time together, anyway. "But as for being a Beta…" Positives. What are the positives? "It doesn't mean a tremendous amount in this day and age. It's a fairly innocuous designation. Your only responsibility is to exist and be just-productive-enough. Alphas might try to take advantage of you, but you should be largely infertile and useless as breeding stock, so there's no reason they should be terribly possessive."

"Wait, I'm infertile?" Lila's eyes widened, and I wondered if I'd said something wrong. Was that a bad thing?

" Largely ." I restated. "Only Omegas are capable of breeding another shifter. But while a female Alpha can be impregnated by a Male Omega, or a female Omega can be impregnated by a male Alpha, only a male Omega can impregnate a female Beta. A male Beta is completely infertile, and a female Beta is completely immune to Alpha seed. The hierarchy is reasonably simple. "

She swallowed, but as much as I hated the concepts and expectations placed on Omegas, she seemed even more uncomfortable with that brief explanation than I was. "So an Alpha can't really be with a Beta at all if they want to have a happily ever after with kids and a house in the suburbs?"

I snorted, and she frowned, and that made me realize I'd definitely missed some nuance of the situation. What exactly that nuance was though, I was at a total loss. What shifter was trying to live a traditional human life?

… One who thought she was a human until a week ago, most likely…

"Is that what you were hoping to find here at Graves?" I asked with a furrowed brow.

"I don't know." She fidgeted uncomfortably in her chair. The frown weighing on her lips bothered me viscerally. "I don't know what I want out of life yet, but I figured ‘normal' was still on the table."

I sighed, then took a moment to better parse my words so I wouldn't upset her further. I'd thought infertility was a gift, but my perspective may have been skewed. Plus, she was still perfectly capable of bearing children with the right Omega, and many an Alpha learned the hard way that they weren't as immune to pregnancy when mixing species. She simply wouldn't have to worry about anyone who smelled like Sage or Rosemary .

"Normal," I added finger quotes for emphasis, "is entirely possible. If it makes you feel any better, other species have no such limitations when paired with shifters, which is what has created so many hybrid species. And even among shifters, an Alpha can use an Omega as a middleman if they insist on choosing a Beta as their mate." Going into the whole system of imprinting and sexual slavery involved in that dynamic was the type of heavy trauma-laden lesson that was entirely too much for Shifter 101. I rubbed at the necklace beneath my coat, and I opted to force the conversation to go literally anywhere else. "We're getting way too far ahead of ourselves here. All of that is a bit more in depth than you need to know right now. What will be much more important is assuring your safety during full moons going forward, and understanding the unique way that the moon affects your bloodline."

"Right." She said, her chin dipping to her chest. "Sorry, I don't even know how much I don't know, so I'm not sure what to ask here to be productive. It's a lot all at once."

"It's fine." Hoping to reassure her, I closed the skin walker tome, and instead pushed the Calculus book between us. "You have all the time in the world to figure it out. You don't have to know everything right now. Why don't we focus on something less daunting for a bit?"

She nodded, but said nothing as she turned the page to the current homework. I wasn't sure if this discovery was a positive revelation. I was assuming her parents were out of the picture, considering this complete lack of baseline knowledge and her initial denial. Fortunately, whether we figured out the rest of her blood or not, there were many aspects of shifter life that I could help her with as she navigated this new chapter. I felt lucky that she'd agree to work with me, even if I wasn't terribly thrilled about the prospect of contending with at least two different Alphas in the process.

That was no matter. Fortunately for both of us, there was much, much more to my bloodline than the curse of being an Omega Gemini.