001.

Mira's POV

I held the metal pole above my head in the bullet train and stared out the window. Buildings blurred past.

Josh stood beside me, scrolling through his phone. His school bag dangled on his left shoulder.

I wasn't really focused on the buildings. My mind was on the joint trial for The Inter-School Shifter Warrior Selection.

Every strong school in the region sent their best candidates. The judges pulled the top fighters from the pool and placed them in an elite combat program. It was brutal and prestigious. It was everything I wanted.

I tore two application forms before I finally submitted. The problem was the rule printed in bold at the bottom of the form.

~Weak candidates are not eligible to apply.~

I was an Omega. Unable to shift. My kind was weak and powerless in this society, but I applied anyway. Secretly.

I had trained every morning before school for two years. My knuckles had bled on the punching bag in our garage. My legs had given out on runs I refused to stop. I deserved a spot in that trial whether the rules agreed or not.

"Help..." A muffled scream went off from the back of the coach.

I turned my head. A young man in a sleeveless shirt stood over an elderly woman seated near the rear door. He had knocked her shopping bag to the floor. Apples rolled across the aisle. The woman pressed herself against the wall. Her hands were shaking.

The man leaned down and said something to her. The morning sun glinted off the gorilla tattoos on muscular arms.

Nobody around them moved. A woman across the aisle licked her lips and looked down at her lap. A teenager near the door hooked on his earphones.

My stomach tightened.

I needed to do something.

"Josh," I called.

He looked up from his phone. He followed my gaze to the back of the coach. Then he looked at me, slightly shaking his head.

"He is scaring her."

"I can see. You can alert the train officials."

"It might be too late. I need to help her."

Josh sighed. "Can you see his neck?"

I looked. There was a mark just below the man's left ear. Dark and pulsing. An Alpha shifter's brand.

"I see it."

"Then you see why you should mind your business."

I let go of the pole. "I'm sorry, I can't just watch him bully her."

"Mira..."

I ignored Josh and hurried over to the bully. I reached him in a few seconds. The old woman looked up at me. Her eyes were wet with tears.

"Leave her alone," I said calmly.

The young man straightened up slowly. He was tall. Wide across the shoulders. He looked me over once, from my head down to my shoes, and then he burst out laughing.

"Beat it, little girl."

"I am not going anywhere." I held his gaze. "Let her be."

He tilted his head. His jaws clenched and his body tensed.

"If you don't leave, you'll regret it," he growled.

My stomach clenched. I had never faced off with an alpha. But I wasn't about to walk away out of fear. Petra had trained me to be able to fight in any situation.

The Alpha's body changed. It happened fast. His bones cracked and his shirt split. Dark fur spread across his skin. He dropped forward onto massive arms. His face pushed outward into a heavy brow and flat nose. His hands became fists the size of my head.

Right before my eyes, he completed his shift into a silverback gorilla.

"Mira!" Josh yelled behind me.

Fear squeezed my guts. Could I really handle this monster? I had fought humans and other Omegas like me. But nothing close to this beast.

The gorilla charged. Yeah, I couldn't run now. I had to fight back.

I dropped low and drove my foot up hard between his legs. He grunted and stumbled. I spun and hit the side of his neck with my elbow.

He yelled out in pain and slowed for half a second.

Then his punch came around.

It caught me in the ribs and I floated off the ground. I hit the wall hard and slid down. Air left my lungs. I pressed my hand to my side and forced myself to breathe.

The gorilla rushed at me before I even got up.

"I am going to break every bone in your body." His voice came out thick and strange through the shifted jaw but the words were clear enough. "You will learn to mind your own business."

I tried to get up. My ribs screamed. I pushed the pain back and stood again.

He got closer.

A white Bengal tiger with black stripes slammed into him from the side.

Josh.

He was now five hundred pounds of muscle and striped fur. His blue eyes narrowed with rage. He hit the gorilla hard enough to send him into the seat.

Then Josh rushed over and closed his jaw around the back of my jacket. He dragged me toward the door at the end of the coach. I grabbed the frame out of instinct.

"Josh, I was handling it well."

He ignored me. He lowered his massive head and rammed the door with his shoulder. It burst open. Wind and noise flooded in. The ground outside blurred past at speed.

He leaped, taking me with him.

We hit the embankment hard. Josh cushioned most of it. We rolled through wet grass and came to a stop. The train continued on without us. I lay on my back and stared up at the grey sky.

Everything hurt.

Josh shifted back. He sat up beside me and ran a hand through his hair. He was breathing hard.

"That was stupid," he told me.

"I was doing fine."

"No, you weren't. He was way bigger. You couldn't win that fight."

I sat up carefully. My ribs ached with every breath. "I would have figured something out."

Josh looked at me for a long moment. His expression was tired.

"Can you stop," he said. "Please. I am not asking you to give up or be somebody else. I know the rules are unfair. I know what people say about Omegas. But you do not have to walk into a fight every single day just to prove they are wrong about you."

I brushed grass off my sleeve. I did not answer him.

"Mira. Did you hear me?"

"We are going to be late," I said.

We got to the road and flagged down a cab. I climbed in and leaned my head against the cold window. The city moved past outside.

I kept my face turned away from Josh.

My throat felt tight. I was not going to cry. I never cried over things like this anymore. But the tightness stayed.

I was used to it now. Shifters moved through the world like they owned the air inside it. They probably did. They ran the government. They ran the military. The best schools sorted students by shift ability in the first week.

My parents had both shifted at sixteen like all others. I was eighteen now. No shift. No spirit animal.

I blinked hard and looked at the buildings going past.

The cab stopped outside school. Josh paid and we got out.

I walked through the gate without looking at him. He fell into step beside me anyway..

I stopped at my locker. I spun the combination and pulled it open.

There was an envelope sat on top of my books. It had not been there yesterday.

I opened it. Official header. A school crest I did not recognise. I scanned the page.

My name was typed on the front. I turned it over. The seal on the back was the joint crest of the Inter-School Selection Committee.

My fingers went still as I read it slowly.

~ Dear Miss Mira Larsen. We are pleased to inform you that your application for the Joint Shift Warrior Trial has been accepted.~