Page 103 of Mindeater

Slow, like a leaking faucet before speeding up and finally washing over my vision.

“Why are you afraid of surgery, Saren?”

We’ve been friends for a while now, and he’s never told me. I’m not stupid. I saw how scared he got when Patryn came to get me.

I always catch him rubbing his stomach like it hurts. He’s doing it right now. His skin gets that sickly shade of white whenever he thinks about it.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he grumbles, shoving my journal back into my hands. “Finish your assignment.”

“I don’t need to write,” I argue. “I want to know. You said we are friends.”

“That’s called manipulation. Ma-ni-pu-la-tion.” I hate when he does that. Slowly says a word so I will say it right.

“Maniplasion then. Tell me.”

He purses his lips, wanting to correct me, but doesn’t. Instead, he sighs and closes his notebook. “The council didn’t like that I was born omega. So they fixed me.”

“Fixed?”

“Yes.”

“How?” I stare at him hard, like if I keep my eyes on him, some part of him will stand out.

“Do you know how babies are made?”

My nose scrunches immediately, and I feel a little weird. “No.”

Saren sighs. “They didn’t teach you anything except curse words.”

“I’m a kid.”

“And an alpha. You should know these things.”

It takes some convincing, but he gets me to follow him down to the library, where he shows me this creepy book. Inside are tons of pictures of bodies and cocks. He points at one, reading the words I haven’t learned yet.

“Sex designation: Omega. Reproductive organs. Male and female omegas have wombs. Here is the gland that creates slick, which lubricates the birth canal and makes impregnation easier.”

My stomach hurts.

This is gross.

“See this part?” He taps at a picture of a butt with weird tubing and an odd circle inside it. “That’s the womb. They took mine away.”

“Hey,” Saren says, snapping me out of my daze. “What happened?”

Blinking, I shake off the dreamlike sensation and glance down at his belly. “They took your womb?”

Something hopeful explodes in his eyes. “You remember that?”

I nod slowly, but still not quite believing it’s real. I was inside him. I felt the fleshy barrier that only opens during a heat. “Saren…I don’t think that’s true.”

That hope shatters, replaced with rage. “Are you saying I’m lying?”

“Who told you they removed it?” I counter.

“I was there! I was wide awake! The surgeon cut me open, pulled it out, and sewed me back up! How dare you!”

“Hey,” I rush out, palming his shoulders and squatting so we are eye level. “Calm down, okay?”