HEIDI
Distance is good. Fresh air is better. It gives me a chance to sort out fact from fantasy. Because all of a sudden I’m feeling and acting like a fresh Omega unable to control a single sense or reaction around these Alphas.
I seriously have to try pretty hard to remember a single lesson taught at Unity, instead my thoughts keep looping back to how I felt.
How I keep feeling. I’m so angry at Kai for blindsiding me, for promising me the world then pulling the rug out from under me. And then his brother? The sense of peace I felt in his arms is as confusing as it was comforting. His rich, warm clove scent wove a path right past my barriers too.
The whole situation is completely disorientating. I find it hard to believe I could meet another scent-matched Alpha. Logically I know it can happen. In a practical sense, there’s a whole lot of consequences to resolve. And then on top of that, I’m pretty sure I should be feeling a little more pissed off than I am. Whenever I start to focus on the fact they set me up, my thoughts twist in on themselves and all of a sudden I’m back thinking about good looking Alpha’s and the way they smell.
Then on top of all those opposing thoughts is the very real, and unavoidable truth, that I acted like a spoilt fucking brat turning the situation into an epic me moment. And humiliation burns.
It burns through happy memories with Kai and an insight that he is my scent-matched Alpha. It also affects my self-confidence. Of course, it does. One thought tumbles to another, and I half expect to see the Board suddenly appear and start lecturing me on being a disappointment again.
Except I’m not fucking crazy, just confused. And completely alone.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I was completely alone. Like alone, alone. Or I was outside like this. How sad is that.
Instead of freaking out more, I take off Kai’s hoodie and use it as a pillow after finding a soft patch of lawn to lie on. The second I look up at the clouds, there’s a peacefulness that settles all the noise of my thoughts. I should spend more time outside, it’s cathartic. For some reason, gazing up makes me think of my family.
Everything changed when Margot got sick, and despite the promises Allan and I made before she died, we never stopped falling apart. Instead of shutting out the memories of my parents to focus on my problems, I watch the clouds float by while I linger in memories.
Whenever I think of my childhood, a deep sense of loneliness makes my chest ache which is why I usually lock all those memories away. But today, I go with the melancholy and jump from memory to memory, from good times to awful ones. And it’s not hard to attribute the surge of sentimentality with seeing Kai with his brothers.
I can easily admit as soon as I saw them, I saw and felt the bond that they shared, and that stirred up my jealousy and envy. Because he has and had the one thing I always wanted… a sibling or two.
“Oh Jesus,” I sit up, horror dawning on me like a bolt of lightning.
Realisation hits, hard and fast, and without needing to hear any explanation from them, I owe them an apology. Because sometimes people do have to lie to protect themselves.
“Fuck, Heidi.” I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the pity party so I can remember the laws regarding triplets.
Despite what the government and the Alpha council insist, their policies pertaining to triplets is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction based on fear. There’s a fancy name for the law against anyone birthing triplets but at the end of the day all it is, is designation-cleansing. Quite simply triplets are outlawed and illegal, and the punishment is severe. And it all came about because of the first case of alocasia diplotaxis verdune, ADV for short. The disease my family legacy is forever tied to because of my grandfather discovering the disease and my own father finding the cure.
My thoughts suddenly arrow back to the spicy Alpha’s offhanded comment about all this starting before he and I were even considered. Fate has an awful lot to answer to, if what he says is true, the Scorned Girls and I are in for another reminder of the phenomenon.
Pack Alastor had no choice but to be a fake pack because if the Alpha Council knew three identical Alphas were roaming free in our society, there’s a high likelihood they’d either be locked away in an offshore prison or exterminated like vermin.
Everyone irrespective of designation is aware of the basics of the law, and the penalties if you step outside them. But overachievers like the Verdune family have a knowledge of the laws extends way past necessary. God, I remember Margot testing me when I was younger on the spelling of the overly long words I could barely get my tongue around.
Tergemin Lex—Triplet Law—is a relatively new amendment to our constitution coinciding with the discovery of ADV, or the aftermath of the first case might be more accurate.
In the scramble for answers after the first Alpha dropped into ADV madness and ripped his pack apart with his bare hands, corners were cut. Including the research on the probability of genetics, more particularly on triplet Alpha males being part of the cause and reason why ADV is now the bogeyman in our lives still. Because sadly the Alpha who succumbed to the virus was a triplet himself, and that’s what the research focussed on.
If the same research was done now, it would be exhaustive and include genetic modelling done over generations, not within the space of a few weeks or months. But fear makes smart people stupid and even after all this time there has never been a single person to stand up publicly and demand they relook at their archaic and backward ruling on triplets being prohibited in Alpha families.
I can’t comprehend for a moment what a pack would do if they discovered they were having triplets—it is too shocking to think about for a second, having to choose. The alternative is Pack Alastor—a life built on secrets and lies.
And I’m the one that had the temper tantrum after Pack Alastor trusted me enough to expose their deadly truth in the first three seconds of my arrival. They were going to explain, Kai said it repeatedly and I freaked out before they had the chance to say a word.
Racing through their house, I find Kai in their kitchen sitting at a small table with a book open in front of him, but I’d put money on him not reading a word. I make it a foot in his direction before he sweeps me into an arm. I squeeze him so hard while I whisper in his ear how truly sorry I am.
“It’s like he said, we argued about how to tell you.” He pulls away. Kai’s hands wrap around my face, his thumbs trailing under my eyes that are not watering, but I’m sure they’re not hiding the gamut of emotions I’m feeling either. Kai leans in slowly, carefully even before pressing his lips to mine, in a kiss that is full of rawness.
I could float off happily and would if I didn’t have to meet and apologise to other Alphas. I lean up for a smaller kiss before taking a step out of his orbit. “I’ll be back.”
It’s not hard to figure out where the Alpha that carried me is. His rich spicy, sweet scent rolls up the stairs. It is thick and warm, like opening the door to a sauna, but it’s also like an invisible tether coiling around to lead me to him.
The music is deafeningly loud, the lights are off, and I nearly fall flat on my face, missing the last few steps when I see him. He is shirtless, sweat making his body look like it’s been oiled as he races so fast on the treadmill he looks like he’s trying to race away, or catch something.
