003.

Mira's POV

We arrived at Ironridge Academy by bus the next day. Josh sat beside me and pointed out buildings to me. He had been here before.

The students here were built differently. Not just physically, though that was part of it. It was the way they carried themselves. The confidence. The aura around them. . .

I gripped my bag strap and followed Josh off the bus.

Registration was in the main hall. Students from my school, Westhill Schools, stuck together.

A girl in a shirt with an Ironridge badge looked at me as I walked past. Her eyes moved from my face to my neck. Looking for a brand. She found nothing. Her expression shifted. Not hostile. Worse. Dismissive.

She turned back to her friend and said something low. Her friend glanced over. They both looked at me and wrinkled their noses in disgust.

I kept walking. I stuck close to Josh.

Soon, I was separated from him to check into a girls' dorm. We would have drills in the afternoon. Sparring and group exercises in the evening. The top performers would be flagged for the joint trial selection panel.

That was what the orientation sheet said.

After settling in the hall, we were called to the hall for the drills.

The hall was large and smelled of sweat. Other students moved around me. No one spoke to me. A few noticed me and then deliberately looked somewhere else. One boy leaned toward his training partner and said something behind his hand. His partner looked at me and laughed.

I clenched my jaw and started warming up.

The drills were hard. That was fair. I expected that. The instructor moved us through endurance sequences and combat foundations and reflex exercises. I kept up with most of it. Though there were a few things I struggled with because I couldn't shift.

I did not complain. I kept working.

By the evening, I heard the word Omega six times.

Sometimes attached to a question. ~Why is an Omega here?~

I ate dinner alone at the end of a long table. Josh found me halfway through and sat down. His tray landed with a clatter.

"How is it going?" he said.

"Fine."

He looked at me the way he always did when he knew I was lying but had decided not to push it. "The afternoon session looked rough."

"It was fine, Josh."

He picked up his fork. "Marcus heard some of the Ironridge students talking about you."

"I am sure they had a lot to say."

"Mira."

"I am not here to make friends." I kept my eyes on my food. "I am here for the drills and the evaluation, and to watch the top candidates duel. That is it."

He was quiet for a moment. "Stay close to me. . ."

"I don't need you next to me all day."

"I am not saying you do. I am saying stay close."

I didn't answer him. He took that as agreement, but it wasn't.

The evening session was a group drill. Four schools mixed together in the outdoor training ground.

I went through the first two drills without incident. The students I was paired with ignored me mostly. One of them, a tall girl from a school called Eastmark, actually corrected my stance on the second drill without being unkind about it. I thanked her. She nodded and moved on.

The third drill was where it went wrong.

There were four of us. Me, two boys from Ironridge, and another girl from Westhill.

One of the two Ironridge boys looked at me and shook his head.

"We can't win this drill with you in this group," he said to me.

"What?"

"Yeah, you're a liability here. You should be at home. Doing whatever Omegas do."

Laughter echoed around me.

The smart thing was to say nothing. Let it go. Finish the drill and walk away. I thought about that for a full second. Then I stepped forward.

"Say that again," I said.

He held my gaze. He was a full head taller than me. His brand was visible above his collar. His expression moved from surprise to amusement in less than a second.

"You are a liability here," he repeated.

I pulled off my badge and dropped it to the ground.

"I challenge you to combat."