32. Juno

JUNO

Juno was buzzing as she left her presentation. She thought back to when she first brought up the idea of blue-boating Ari to Ollie. It was his “You have to. You HAVE to!” followed by a manic little giggle that sealed it for her. She still couldn’t quite believe that it worked. Her thumbs flew across her phone screen as she bounced along.

HE TOOK THE BAIT

Three little circles popped up immediately (he must have been waiting to hear how she did, bless him) and then a flood of excited gifs came through. Juno laughed, trying to focus on how well she had done rather than the fact that she had seen Ari for what was likely the last time.

“You bitch!”

A sharp stinging blow whipped across her cheek from out of nowhere. Her body was caught completely unaware, the force of it sending her reeling. Then, impact. Shoulder, hip. A glancing knock on her head off a hard, flat surface. Vincent’s rancid breath across her face as he gripped her hair in his fist.

“Why is he blowing me off? What did you say to him? I know it was you, you fucking whore!”

He was shaking her head back and forth and her scalp screamed as clumps of her hair were torn violently away. The muscles in her neck strained as she fought consciousness. Just let him take what he wants. Let him get this out of his system so it’ll be over quicker. Hair grows back and bruises heal.

A roar of anguish. An alpha. Another alpha? Just one alpha. Because Vincent wasn’t here. Vincent was dead, and the person being ripped away from her body was not a long dead alpha but a screeching, enraged beta.

“Help her, Ari. I’ll deal with this.”

Barking. Hate barking. Can’t ignore, can’t disobey. Two alphas. There were two alphas after all. But none of them were Vincent?

No more alphas, I can’t take it.

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

Juno flinched at the shaking hand on her cheek. A pair of dark, devastated eyes swam into view. She couldn’t stop trembling. She was losing control, her limbs and racing heart not her own.

“You have to get here now.” The alpha was on his phone begging. “Ollie, she needs you."

Ollie?

A scent memory rose up instinctively. Steam curling from a warm comforting cup of coffee, hugged between cold hands. Snuggles and crinkled laughing eyes. Safe. Where was he?

A whine slipped out and she sensed the acidic burn of Ari’s stress. His hands were ghosting over her skin, too afraid to touch but desperate to comfort her. Coffee blurred into tea, citrus-laced and aromatic and a viscous drizzle of honey.

This one’s yours too.

Ari let loose a choked sound when she clasped his forearm, trying to ground herself back to reality. Voices and imminent footsteps tap, tap, tapped at a far corner of her brain. He scooped her up in his arms, carrying her into a nearby classroom and shut the door.

You are not back there.

A shaking hand stroked her hair, and his cheek pressed against her forehead as he curled the tall length of his body around hers protectively. Her nose slid easily into the crevice between his chin and neck and she breathed his ambrosial scent in.

They have no power over you any longer.

“Please tell me this ok — holding you like this,” Ari said, fingertips playing over her skin. “I need you to be ok,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

She wasn’t ready to talk yet. Instead, she found his hand with hers and looped their pinkies together. He squeezed back tight in understanding.

* * *

She’d never seen Ollie angry before.

It was kind of…hot? Maybe it was because he was so angry on her behalf. He was so careful as he embraced her, taking her from Ari as soon as he arrived. Telling her what a brave and clever omega she was as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. But his face was thunderous as he glared at Ari, demanding explanations.

“Priya’s been after her for months. Juno told me you thought she was the aggressor. Do you think that now, Ari? Are you satisfied now that it’s come to this?”

Ari was distraught, Ollie’s words unable to inflict more pain than the flagellation he was giving himself. Ollie scoffed, turning away from him and focusing on Juno.

“Does anything hurt, sunshine?”

Everything and nothing. How to explain it to him? Her cheek on the surface, and her heart deep below. Yet everything was numb and she still had no words.

Ollie didn’t push further, grazing his cheek and neck over her shoulder and leaving her with the most lovely cloud of his scent.

“Did you at least have her seen by a doctor or nurse?” he hurled at Ari.

“Yes, I-I had a first aid officer come by. I asked that they didn’t stay after they were done because I didn't want her to feel unsafe around a stranger,” Ari replied dejectedly. “He said she was just in shock but was physically ok and left an ice pack for her cheek. I was able to pull Priya off before she could get a proper grip on her hair and—”

Ollie interrupted, white with fury. “She tried to pull Juno’s hair?”

Ari looked stricken and nodded. Ollie pulled Juno even closer and pressed loving kisses along her hairline.

“Oh sweet girl, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, understanding exactly why she was frozen like this. “Can I take you home to your nest? I think I know a few people who want to give you some snuggles right now.”

Juno released a tired little sigh and Ollie lifted her like she was air, making his way towards the door.

“Ollie, I—”

“Save it, Ari.”

* * *

The passing streetlights lapsed across her face in a hypnotic rhythm. She stared out the car window, letting the sparkling city blur out as her eyes unfocused. Ollie’s hand was steadying and warm on her knee as he drove.

“I thought Vincent was alive again.”

His fingers tightened reactively before gently palming even more of her skin.

“I could smell him,” Juno continued tonelessly. “Feel exactly the way he used to hurt me.” She laid her head against the window. “I was doing so well too,” she mused quietly to herself.

“You are doing well,” Ollie corrected her fiercely. “Being triggered doesn’t make you weak or mean you haven’t worked hard. You can’t be strong all the time, and you don’t need to be. I certainly don’t expect that of you.”

Juno stared at him, slightly awed at the maturity of the tirade coming from the ordinarily puppy-like alpha. Ollie ploughed on, unaware of her transfixed gaze. “And during times you can’t be strong, letting me be here for you…it’s a privilege, Juno.” He faced her, radiating sincerity. “It’s a blessing to love you.”

She couldn’t stop the cascade of emotions even if she tried. Everything that had been held back from the moment Priya’s hand connected with her cheek to right now came flooding out.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” she sobbed.

Ollie laughed, bringing their clasped hands up to his lips and kissing her knuckles. “We’re almost home, sunshine. Then just try and stop me from loving the fuck out of you.”

* * *

When Juno told Isaac that Ari had reached out wanting to talk, the very last thing she expected him to say was—

“Invite him to the house. How about this Saturday? Everyone will be home for our game night anyway. Tell him 5pm, before things really kick off.”

It was…unsettling. Nevertheless, the invite was extended and he accepted, probably grateful she didn’t just send him a profanity laced response. Saturday 5pm rolled around and she opened the door to an extremely nervous Ari. His hair was the longest she’d ever seen it, curling around the nape of his neck, though he had clearly tried to tame the strands into some sort of neatness. Despite him making an effort in his outfit, there was still an element of unkemptness he couldn’t escape no matter how hard he tried. Neckline slightly pulled to one side, frayed edges on his sleeves and his heavy boots scuffed on the toes. Juno didn’t mind it though. It would’ve been more alarming if he’d turned up in a suit.

Isaac held his hand out, popping up from behind her like a haunted house attraction. They exchanged introductions, shaking hands a bit too firmly. Something alpha passed between them, a sense of finality thudding as Ari dropped his eyes a moment later and Isaac gave him a curt nod.

Juno fought the urge to roll her eyes. “If you want to measure dicks, do it later,” she complained as she swished back inside, ignoring Ari’s spluttering and Isaac’s cough.

She sat in the lounge room between them, feeling a bit like she had just introduced two thoroughly incompatible cats to each other. Ari’s ratcheting anxiety only grew worse with Isaac’s beady-eyed assessment and she felt the need to say something.

“Ari, you had something to tell me?”

He looked at her, breaking Isaac’s hold on him. Yes, good. Focus here instead of at the alpha that looks like he’s mentally skinning your flesh.

Ari leaned forward, elbows on his long thighs and hands clasped. “I thought you should know that Priya has been expelled,” he intoned flatly. “She showed no remorse and it was a very easy decision for Alistair. Especially since he witnessed everything that happened. It’s since come to light that she has a pattern of this behaviour,” he shifted uncomfortably. “Chasing alphas and exhibiting prejudice towards omegas. This was the first time it escalated to violence.”

It was certainly a relief to know she could go back to school next semester and not have to worry about running into Priya.

“I’m sorry she set her sights on you, Juno. I’m sorry I did nothing to stop it and only made it worse. I’m not making excuses when I say this but my own experience with omegas coloured how I saw you with her. And that wasn’t ok.”

His pain festered in him like a boil. Juno wanted to lance it and release the immense, agonising pressure he had put himself under for so long.

“Tell me,” she murmured, the soft request more disarming than a harsh demand.

Ari flicked a look over at Isaac, who had not moved a single muscle, and turned back to Juno with a slight shudder.

“I was in a pack in London. Friends I’d grown up with. We were closer than brothers, and they were everything I wanted in my chosen family. Two of them found their scent match in the same omega so she joined our pack. Amelia and I didn’t love each other like that but I respected and cared for her as my pack omega.”

His hands were trembling as the buried memories clawed to the surface, undead and poisonous.

“Then I fell in love with Lucy, a beta, and everything changed. Amelia didn’t want me but she didn’t want anyone else to have me. Slowly but surely, she turned my pack against me and they cast me out. And I lost Lucy too in the end, because she couldn’t deal with the guilt and who I’d become without my brothers. I wouldn’t have stayed either. I was a depressed, bitter mess of a person and because I’d bonded her, she felt everything.”

Ari angrily wiped a tear from his cheek with a broad swipe of his palm. It was hard for Juno not to reach over and do it for him.

“So when Alistair offered me a job on the other side of the world, I took it. The bond had been fading already from the stress our relationship was under. Not seeing her every day sped up the process. I swore I would never have anything to do with omegas ever again. And then on the first day of what was supposed to be my fresh start…”

“I walked in.”

“You walked in.”

The silence stretched between them, a tightrope of emotions and possibility.

“I thought if I resisted you, it would prove somehow that my old pack didn’t have to stay with Amelia just because they were scent matched. So I told myself you were like her, Juno. Selfish. Narcissistic. Hating betas simply for their designation. I saw what I wanted to see. I was wrong, so wrong, and you paid for it. I’m so sorry,” Ari said, shame and remorse eating him alive.

“Thank you for sharing your story and for your apology,” Juno replied, softly.

Unsure of where to go from here, they stared at the floor and pushed their toes awkwardly into the carpet.

“Ari.”

The reminder of Isaac’s presence in the room was like the crack of a bull whip. They both turned to see the prime alpha rising from his chair.

“Do you play gin rummy?”