“I’d do anything for my mate, Martin,” Ian replies. “You already know the trials of being mated to a bright, curious scholar.”
Sienna shoots the headmaster an impudent little smile. “That he does.”
A scholar. Just like my father once told my professors I’d only be at my future pack’s acquiescence. Now I have mates who encourage my scholarship. In so many ways, I’ve cut the puppet strings binding me to my father. Still, I must stay vigilant. I must keep fighting.
Despite feeling scared,I return to my classes the following Wednesday, accompanied by Marcus. My life has changed so much since the convocation ball that I’m barely the same woman that sat through these classes weeks ago, though I’m no less determined. I’ll arm myself with whatever skills and knowledge I can to bring down my father and Baphomet’s Prince.
Professor Grafton draws me aside before the start of Spellcrafting Theory. Marcus’ hackles go up, but the kindly professor only wants to offer me additional tutoring. After trying to catch up to his lecture and completely failing, I take him up on the offer. Spellcrafting Theory and Advanced Spellcrafting are going to be more challenging than I thought, especially since I’ve missed so many of the fundamentals. I get similar offers from Professors McNamara and Hayes and gratefully accept their help.
Omega Seminar is the only class I don’t have to catch up in.
Leigh purses her lips as she surveys the three of us.
“Pack Jordan is going to find Bitsy a pack,” Ellie says, her voice hollow. She still comes to class but spends the rest of her time in Bitsy’s old cottage. Whenever we see her, which isn’t often, her eyes are red from crying. She’s inconsolable and doing something I know too well: she’s withdrawing from the world.
Leigh sighs. “As I expected they would in light of the new legislation. It’s still unfortunate. I was truly hoping Miss Jordan would find a pack well suited to her outgoing nature.”
I can’t imagine Bitsy as meek or submissive. I only hope her father solicits kind and patient alphas for her mating contracts—once the most I could have wished for for myself.
“I’m afraid to announce that we have a new curriculum, passed down by the Council of Nine,” Leigh presses on. “You will be tested on this curriculum, and the results will beprovided to the government. Failure to meet their criteria will result in immediate expulsion. As to be expected, I had no say in this. I’m surprised the Council has even let me continue to be your instructor.”
“As Bitsy would say, this is some bullshit,” Alyssa mutters.
“Indeed, it is, Miss O’Neill. Indeed, it is.”
“We’ve gotanother missing persons report,” Simon mutters, tapping a few keys on his laptop. “Another omega, taken off the streets.”
“Saints,” Cassian mutters darkly. “She’s probably being processed into an omega rehabilitation center as we speak.”
“She was mated,” Simon continues. “Another mated omega they’ve stolen away from her pack under the assumption that she was unmated.”
“Is nothing being done about this?” Ian asks, looking up from his lesson planning.
Cassian sighs. “From what I hear, there are new cases every day. Many packs are pursuing the legal route to free their omegas, but details are scarce, and many omegas seem to have been… misplaced during processing. Packs are taking to the streets not only to protect their omegas, but to free them. There have already been seven attempted attacks on the omega rehabilitation center in Fairhaven. The packs perpetrating these attacks have been imprisoned.”
“That’s terrible,” I murmur.
“We need to get you out of the city,” Cassian says. “I don’t think you’re safe here. The squads picking up omegas have been seen at the gates to the academy’s campus. The only things stopping them are Langford’s will and Ian’s old wards. It doesn’t matter that you have a pack. The squads are taking omegas and asking questions later—if they even do at all.”
I swallow and nod, immediately thinking of Ellie. “Where will we go?”
“My parents’ estate,” Cassian replies with a grimace. There hasn’t been any news about the hostages, and I know it scares him every day. “It’s warded just as well as the pack house and has the added benefit of armed guards patrolling the premises. Juniper, I hate this, but I don’t want you anywhere but my family’s house, on campus and in the castle.”
“I understand,” I say quietly. “But we need to bring Ellie and Melissa. Jace too.”
“That won’t be easy,” Simon huffs, looking up from his laptop where he has several missing persons reports open. “Ellie barely leaves Bitsy’s cottage as it is. Even I can’t get through to her.”
I shake my head. “No. It’ll be easier than you think. She’ll be scared. Saints know I am. She loves Bitsy, but she still has instincts for self-preservation. Trust me, she’ll come.”
Ellie does indeed joinus at the Leclerc estate accompanied by Jace, her mother joining us only a day later. She drifts around the estate like a ghost, her eyes puffy from crying, entirely inconsolable. She does nothing but stay in her nest and go to classes.
I’m not much better. I wander the empty halls in a daze. The estate feels empty without Bethany and her mates, and I’m pierced with guilt that they’re still trapped in the consortium while I’m free. If they’re even still alive. It’s been long enough that we’re all beginning to have our doubts, though none of us voice them. We talk of feeble rescue attempts, but we know we don’t have the numbers. We live in guilt and terror, and yet, Cassian has been strong for me to the pointof neglecting himself. Saints, I’ve been a terrible mate to him. He’s done so much for all of us, and I haven’t been an attentive mate. He even hired one of Douglas’ oncologist colleagues to come to take care of Jeanie in his father’s absence. The other omega is always guarded, and when Marcus expressed his sincere gratitude, all Cassian did was wave it off, telling Marcus that he’s one of us. My mate has been so kind, so strong. But still so closed off to me and Simon.
I pause in my wanderings and peek into his father’s study where he’s taken to reading the textbooks for the classes he didn’t get to attend. If not buried in one of the textbooks, he’s nose deep in some of his father’s old law books, digging through them to find anything that will let us fight the Council’s newest rulings.
“Cass?” I say gently. “Will you meet me in my nest?”
He looks up from his book. “Of course, Junes. Is something the matter?”
