Hypothetically

I open my eyes and sigh. I feel like I'm in paradise. The air conditioning has never felt so comfortable and refreshing before. I guess it's true that you don't value what you have until you're sent to a miserable camp in the desert.

"You’re awake. It's about time," I hear someone say. I open my eyes and see Sergeant Thorne sitting in a leather chair next to my gurney, playing with his phone. I'm in a hospital, I think, judging by the machines, the gurney and the IV attached to my pale arm, "Stand up. It's time to go, I wasted four hours of my valuable time here, all because some delicate lady got dehydrated and passed out."

"Well, what the fuck did you expect?" I huff, regretting it almost immediately, as he squints his honey eyes at me, "I mean, what the fuck did you expect, Sir? I didn't get more than two hours of sleep last night. And you've physically abused me under the sun for two days straight."

"That's not my problem. And I haven't physically abused you, watch your words," he warns, leaning back on the couch and picking up his phone again. It’s the same one I have, "Someone is coming to get us."

"Okay, whatever," I roll my eyes and keep thinking about how different he looks in a neutral place where he's not a ruthless sergeant. He’s just a normal alpha like all the others, "Do you have i***a?"

Elliot turns to look at me like I'm stupid.

"We're not friends, recruit."

"So you do?" I press, making him shake his head, annoyed at me, "I'm just trying to chat with you, get to know you. I mean, you really need to stop hating on me so much for no apparent reason."

"There are several reasons, actually. And I'll stop hating on you when you start acting like a normal person and not this… thing you are," he's angry again, "God, just shut up. Whenever you feel like you should share your mind, don’t. No one wants to hear it."

"Well, you only say that because you hate me. A lot of people appreciate my conversations and brilliant mind. You wouldn't know because all you do is mistreat and humiliate me."

"My job is to mistreat and humiliate you until you learn some discipline. The government trusts me to change you. They put you in my hands to return you as someone new, completely different from what you are now. And I understand them perfectly."

"I am perfect and worthy of love just the way I am..."

"No, you’re not. I don't know what you did, but I know you deserve to be here, so don't complain about my methods. Just do what I tell you."

"What if I... okay... you know what? I think you and I could come to an agreement," I begin, trying to stifle my smile at the amazing idea that just popped into my head. Something that would benefit us both. Elliot squints his eyes at me suspiciously and says ‘no’ before even hearing what I have in mind, "My proposition involves a very happy and satiated Elliot who looks the other way when I make some small mistake, instead of acting like a deranged p…”

"For your own sake and because I’m a good mood, I will propose something to you," Elliot interrupts, making me smile. If he's already propositioning something, we’re definitely getting somewhere, "Do not talk to me about propositioning ever again. Especially not in that tone."

"But you haven't even heard what I have to say," I pout a little, earning an angry sigh from him.

"I don't need to hear it to know what this is about. Trust me, I'm not interested."

If it weren't for my extrasensory omega intuition telling me that Elliot desires me, then his posture, his annoyed scent and his face slightly twisted with disgust would give me proof that he's definitely not interested.

But I trust my omega intuition much more than I trust obvious facts, which is why I put on that special smile that usually gets me what I want.

"Well... let's create a hypothetical situation, shall we?" Elliot sighs again in annoyance, typing furiously on his phone. He only replies with a shrug when I repeat what I said, "After a very long day of being a mean sergeant and running around camp humiliating and hurting innocent people, Elliot is feeling tired and lonely on this cold summer night..."

"I think I can imagine where this is going and, really, I'm not interested..."

"Besides, he can't even remember the last time he had contact with an omega and the lack of sex is starting to be worrisome," I continue, ignoring his frown, "Luckily, he remembers that time in the hospital when a gorgeous girl offered to please him and make all his wildest erotic fantasies come to life in exchange for a little kindness and preference."

For the first time Elliot runs out of rude words to say to me. It's obvious I've surprised him with my words, he even forgets his phone.

Then something weird happens. Something that has never happened in my sex life before.

Elliot starts laughing at me.

It's not a nice, kind or cute laugh, it's totally a loud, mocking laugh that leaves him breathless for a few seconds.

I cross my hands in my lap and wait patiently for him to stop laughing and answer me.

I wholeheartedly believe that getting sexually involved is the solution to our problems. Elliot is obviously sexually frustrated and, between us girls, so am I. He is extremely handsome and I am extraordinarily beautiful. He is alpha and I am omega, how can I make this any clearer? By the law of nature we must be together.

Besides, we are not inexperienced little children, we are adults and, as such, a healthy, merely sexual relationship is not a big deal.

"Angelique... what, in the biggest pit of hell, makes you think I'm attracted to you?" He asks, once he stops laughing.

"Well... it's obvious," I shrug, "I'm beautiful."

If I were any other woman, my ego would really suffer from the look he gives me, like he doesn’t think that.

I frown and look at him in confusion because, in all honesty, I don't get it.

Does this mean he doesn't want me, is that even possible? I've never been in a situation like this before. Well, only once. But it's not the same.

"So, you don't like women?" I ask, because that seems to be the only viable answer to this incoherent problem.

"No, I do like women a lot. I'm just not attracted to you specifically," he shrugs, as if he hadn't just said the biggest blasphemy ever and then turns his full attention to his phone again, "It’s time to go. Uh, I'm going to assume for a moment, hypothetically, that you know how to use your brain and will never speak to me about this again. Ever."

I'm too shocked to say anything, so I just get the IV out of my arm, I get up and follow him out of the room like a lost dog. We ignore the human doctor who advises me to rest and drink lots of fluids and we get into a dark green Hummer that is apparently here for us.

Elliot's father came to pick us up. I know that because the resemblance is undeniable, they have the same last name and Elliot calls him father.

It wasn't too hard to deduce.

Elliot's bitterness is not hereditary, though, his dad is actually very polite and kind to me, which seems to bother Elliot a lot.

General Thorne asks me several times if I'm okay and tells me I can take the rest of the day off to get myself together, though the look on Elliot's face belies that. The General also tells me that he knows my father; that they and two other men fought together in some war to win over some territory. I don't remember what pack or what specific situation because I couldn't pay much attention, but I know they are very close. That's a surprise both to me and Elliot.

And when the General asked him to 'take it easy' on me, Elliot nearly had a stroke. But he didn't refuse. And that is very reassuring to me.

Later, when the sun is starting to go down and even though I only lost consciousness a few hours ago due to dehydration, we are called to formation and then we walk for a while, drinking water from our canteens unnecessarily every five minutes, until we reach a part of the desert with a few dry trees, sacks piled on the ground and big rocks.

"For reasons beyond our control, the punishment will have to be postponed, but don't think it will be like this forever. Not everyone is as lucky as Monroe. Instead, we will do the dynamic that was planned for today. A friendly game to break the ice," Elliot says, somewhat excited and dare I say happy, which is rare. He looks less like a sergeant and more like a children's party animator. He then proceeds to make teams of two, but since I don't have any friends here, he finds it necessary to force someone to be my partner. He points to the other person alone, the tomboy who hates me, "You. You go with Monroe."

The tomboy couldn't disagree more, but she's smart and swallows all the things she wants to say, walking beside me. Then the beta sergeant with the ugly name and Elliot's dad show up carrying a big box full of something pretty much like guns. Before we can panic, they explain that they are just paintballs and then hand one to each of us. The General just stands with his arms behind him, watching Elliot . Maybe he wants to supervise him.

"There are no allies in this game, all teams go against each other and you should shoot to kill,". Elliot explains, taking his gun and pointing it at a boy in front of him. Without any kind of preamble, he shoots him five times, creating a blue circle on his chest and making said boy cry out in pain, "There won't be any kind of safety equipment and these little bullets hurt. Pretend you are at war. The winning team gets to eat ice cream for dinner."

Elliot's dad gives us a little introduction to the weapons we were issued, an explanation of the game and then gives us five minutes to take cover and put our plan together. The tomboy and I decide to run farther than we saw the others run and hide behind a large dry log.

"I'm thinking maybe we should hide here until most of them have lost and then go out and kill whoever is left," the tomboy offers, taking her gun as if it were her lifeline while I hang mine on my back and hope I don't have to use it. I shrug and sit on the floor, while she peeks out to see if anyone is approaching us, which I highly doubt.

"Wow, this is boring," I mutter, after a few minutes. It's almost completely dark now, I can hear shouting and some laughter in the distance and for a second I consider approaching the fun, but then I remember that we would most likely lose immediately.

"That's because we're out here doing nothing instead of on the battlefield," my dear partner complains, as if hiding out here had been my idea, but I don't say anything, I just roll my eyes so she knows her comment was stupid and unnecessary.

"I think enough time has passed, it may be safe to come out and..." a movement to my right catches my attention, but before I can even notice it's a small snake, the tomboy gives a yelp, gets up and starts running.

I follow her immediately, gasping in horror.

I have never run so fast in my life. I turn around after a few seconds to see if the thing is gone, but it has decided to follow us.

"Don't stop, it's following us!" I yell to the tomboy, grabbing her arm in an act of sisterhood so she doesn’t try to leave me behind. Either we die together or we save ourselves together, there is no in between. But the tomboy releases her grip on me and grabs her gun.

Then, like something out of an action movie, she turns a little and starts shooting at the snake, managing to scare it away. Unfortunately, this is not an action movie so the poor tomboy trips over her own feet and falls hard to the ground, taking me to the floor with her. And, (please consider that I've been drinking fluids non-stop for the last three hours and don't judge me) my bladder empties completely.

"What the hell!" the tomboy complains as millions of gallons of my urine are transferred to her by our proximity on the floor. Luckily, I'm sure it's 90% pure distilled water.

"Just keep shooting," I demand, dying inside.

She makes a disgusted face but keeps trying to hit the snake. She doesn't hit it many times, but the scare is enough for it to decide we're not worth it and start crawling the other way. We both sigh with relief and then fall into complete silence, still in a wet human knot.

"You're fucking disgusting," she whines, not moving, dropping her gun and closing her eyes for a second.

"Do you realize what this means?" I ask, lifting myself up a little and wrapping an arm around her slender shoulders. She's not the prettiest girl, that's true, but she's not too bad either. She has good potential. She looks at me funny, waiting for me to answer, "This means I marked my territory. So you're my best friend from now on."

"Are you crazy, Monroe? I don't like you. I actively dislike you, actually. I hate everything about you."

"So? You're not exactly what I'd take as a first choice either, but I've pissed all over you and the only way to ratify that you won't go around telling everyone is to secure your friendship."

"Wow... you really are the weirdest person I've ever come across," she laughs dryly, shaking her head, "I won't tell anyone, you don't have to force me to be your friend."

"Thanks, but you're my best friend now anyway," I repeat using a bit of dominant power behind my words so the beta can only nod. I give her a big smile and finally get up off the floor, spreading my legs and sighing in disgust, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Eva," she answers, realizing I don't care that she doesn't want to be my friend and standing up just like me, her left thigh completely wet, "Shall we go back? I don't want to get in any more trouble. We've already earned two punishments because of you."

"Fine," I nod, thankful that our uniform pants are dark and no one will notice my accident unless they're looking too deeply or sniffing around us rudely, "We'll be covered in my pee all night. If this isn't a way to create a bond of eternal friendship, I don't know what could be. Even Mother Nature doesn't create bonds as long-lasting as this."

"Just shut the fuck up once in a while," she growls giving me a tired look.