Luca presses his lips together, but nods.
“There’ll be a lot to catch up on for you both,” Ian sighs. “Juniper, I can help you with yours, but Luca, I’m afraid Transmogrification isn’t my strong suit.”
“Hey, man. No worries. Itismy strong suit, and I’m sure I can get help from my professors if I need it.”
Saints know I’ll need Ian’s help with my Advanced Casting work.
Am I really going to do this? Return to my classes while the world around me burns? Sit in a class where I could becaptured just as easily as I could gain important information? No, I’ll be safe with Cassian, Ian and Marcus guarding me, even if it does feel like overkill. Even if it’ll draw more attention to me.
There will be questions, I know. My pack is the only pack to have escaped the consortium. The Soldiers still haven’t negotiated for a hostage release, despite multiple attempts being made by the army’s hostage negotiator. I’ll return to class with faint bruises around my eyes where my father backhanded me, and I’m sure I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. They haven’t come for us yet, and we don’t know if they will. Or when. Everything is fraught, tenuous, unknown.
Is this really the right choice?
It feels like a precious bit of normalcy I don’t deserve.
“Look, Marcus, man,” Cassian begins. “It isn’t as though I don’t trust you with my mate’s life. I do. Wholly. But we’re dealing with someone cunning and ruthless. A merciless monster.”
Marcus raises his hands in surrender. “I’m glad you’re coming to guard Juniper with me. She can’t be too safe. Plus, if things do escalate, I owe that son of a bitch a hex or one hell of a punch.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Get in line.”
“Kit-kat did try to sever his jugular,” Simon points out. “Saints, I love it when you’re vicious, Junes.”
That’s one of the first things to make me smile in a long time. I’ve shown my father my thorns. I’ve entered his devious game, and I plan to win.
Baphomet’s Princeand the Soldiers of Saint Aldous march on toward their new world order. My pack and I watch thenews, numb, as the anchor announces that the Soldiers now hold a narrow margin in the Council of Nine and reveals their new package of draconian laws targeting omegas. It’s only through the grace of Fairhaven Academy’s resistance that Alyssa, Ellie, Bitsy, and I are still allowed to attend our classes.
There’s a new registry all omegas will have to be part of, and another rash of spells we’re not allowed to cast—including one I know will be on my Advanced Casting final. But by far the worst news is that unmated omegas will have to find mates and packs within a year of their designation revealing or become wards of the state, forced to mate those the state chooses. All those who have already revealed as omegas will be on the same timeline: a year to get packed up. While I worry for the too-young women who will be forced to accept mates, I worry for my friends just as much. While Alyssa is mated, Bitsy and Ellie are not.
We meet them all at Ciel and seeing them for the first time since my captivity is a balm that soothes my soul. They hug me tightly, covering me in affection, but I read an undercurrent of fear from all of them. The world has changed too much in just weeks, and we’re all feeling unsure and unbalanced.
My men and Bitsy and Ellie’s honor guards crowd the stairs down into the cafe, trying to look nonchalant and failing utterly. Still, I think we’re all glad for their protection.
“Are you okay, girlie?” Alyssa asks in a hushed tone. “Like, for real?”
I sigh and shake my head. “I’m healing, but it was a harrowing experience. I never thought I was going to see my men again. I thought for sure I’d die in there.”
“Aw, Junie,” Ellie says, slinging an arm around my shoulder. “I know we can’t erase what happened to you, but we’ve got your back. I promise.”
“Who can I hex on your behalf?” Bitsy asks, rolling her scribe between her hands. “I’ll risk expulsion for the chance to hex your father’s dick tiny.”
“Ew, dad dick,” Alyssa puts in, her lip curling in disgust.
“Point taken,” Bitsy agrees. “I’ll have to find another good hex…”
Saints, have I missed my friends. The Omega Girl Gang is finally back together where we all belong.
“Aw fuck,” Bitsy groans. “My dad’s calling. This can’t be good.” She ducks down the hall to take the call, leaving us behind to nurse our coffees.
Ellie drums her fingers on the table and jiggles her foot where it rests on the cafe stool’s bar. She and Simon spoke earlier about her own mating situation. Ellie is staunchly against mating anyone she’s not in love with, but she may not have the luxury of love. Even with Simon and Cassian’s protection, she has to be mated within the year. She’s dodged becoming a ward of the state once with their protection, but that was before the Soldiers passed their oppressive new laws. Saints, her mother must be in a state at the thought of losing her daughter.
Bitsy slumps back into the cafe, pocketing her phone.
“My father’s yanking me out of the academy,” she says, her voice shaking.
“Hewhat?” Ellie demands.
“I’m out of here tomorrow morning,” Bitsy reveals, swallowing hard. “He’s going to start soliciting alphas for my mating contracts, as is his right.”
