10. Juno

10

JUNO

“You smell like a barista’s worst nightmare.”

“How’s that now?” Ollie asked, a lazy smile spreading across his face. His arm was slung around Juno’s shoulders while his fingertips etched little circles on her arm.

“Coffee with nut milk and brown sugar?” Miles teased.

Yeah, Ollie’s scent was definitely far sweeter now. Her brown sugar scent note melded perfectly with his robust coffee and macadamias.

Juno nuzzled him affectionately. “Well, as a former barista I’d be happy to make that for you any day, sweetness.” She kissed her bondmark on his neck and he shuddered, his hold on her tightening.

“That doesn’t count, you’re clearly very biased,” Julian observed, completely unfazed by Juno and Ollie’s decision to have a full-on make-out session at breakfast.

Everett watched them intently over the top of his mug. “So, where’d he put it?”

Juno made a garbled choked noise and focused very intently on buttering her toast right to the edges. “Oh, you know…” she said vaguely. Poor decision making all round. If there was a way to make sure every person in the room was fully committed to finding out where her new bondmark was — that was it.

Before anyone could say anything else, Ollie stepped in. “That is a private matter between Juno and I,” he said with all the haughtiness he could muster. Which for him was about a teaspoonful.

Miles abruptly swung her stool so she was facing him before stepping between her legs. “Should we try and guess where?” he murmured. He wasn’t even touching her, just bracing his hands on either side of her against the bench and she felt like she was going to catch on fire.

Another hand interlaced its fingers with hers. Julian’s lips found her palm, her wrist, her inner forearm. “That’s an excellent idea,” he agreed, right as Miles’ hand began moving along her inner thigh with a clear destination in mind.

“Stop.” Juno squirmed. Every touch on her body immediately stilled. “I’ve already had one heat spike and I don’t want to be late for uni.”

They released her immediately and heated caresses were replaced with chaste kisses and quick apologies. It was such a sweet ache, knowing her comfort and consent were so non-negotiable for them.

Everett stood up and made his way over to the sink. “It’s on your left boob, isn’t it,” he said impassively.

Juno’s mouth dropped open indignantly. “How did you know?”

He drained his mug and placed it in the dishwasher. “’Cause Lefty was very awake all through breakfast and Righty only woke up when Idiot One and Idiot Two started pawing at you,” he said, unable to stop the corner of his mouth lifting. Juno crossed her arms, muttering about traitor nipples and ogling alphas. But she couldn’t keep her faux outrage up for long, not with Everett kissing her cheek sweetly and telling her he loved her.

“Sorry for spoiling the mood but there’s been a new development.”

Isaac looked grim as he entered, holding his phone like it was a live snake. There was an awful sinking feeling in Juno’s chest, like she was trapped in an elevator descending too fast. “Pack Zhao?” she asked weakly.

“Eric’s still rotting in prison where he belongs. This is about Andrew, specifically,” Isaac confirmed. “I have a video of him. Are you ready to see it?”

Ollie had already grabbed her left hand and Juno reached out her right and pulled Julian close. She felt her pack close ranks around her. “I’m ready,” she lied. Could you ever be ready to see your abuser again?

Isaac turned his phone around and the interface caught her off guard.

“What the hell,” Miles said under his breath. “Is that LoopTok?”

Juno shuddered seeing Andrew’s face again after all this time. She could almost smell him, and more horrifically, taste him. Feel the way his bark would wrest her free will from her.

The video began with a flash of text beneath his chin as Andrew sharply flicked a newspaper downward towards the camera.

The truth about omega bond dissolution for an alpha

“The trials have been an overwhelming success and we are proud to begin offering bond dissolutions to the public,” Andrew recited. Who read newspapers anymore let alone bought them?

Andrew stared directly into the lens of the camera and her blood went ice cold. “I was one of the alphas who lost their omega during those trials and here’s what they’re not telling you.”

Juno flinched as he swiped his open palm across the screen…but it was just a camera transition and he was now in another part of the house.

“What the fuck,” Everett swore in disbelief.

“Imagine the bond between you and your omega is a rope,” Andrew said, his tone instructional and light. He even held up a rope and Juno bit her lip so hard she drew blood because she fucking recognised it as one of Vincent’s. “A living rope that is part of you, as much as your nose, your arm or your heart is.” He touched each body part to emphasise his point, ending with his open hand splayed reverently across his chest.

“Imagine it being tugged, shredded and thinned out over days, weeks, maybe even months. Before it finally snaps.”

Another transition and he was holding a severed piece of rope, the frayed ends in tatters rather than a neat cut.

“It’s agony.”

He was describing the visualisation technique she had used to break the bond. Confirming that he had felt everything exactly as she had felt it.

Juno was going to be sick.

“There’s no warning, no support, no aftercare for alphas. These are dangerous practices and the scary thing is? We’re celebrating it like it’s a good thing.”

The newspaper was back. He crumpled it in his fist, threw it at the lens…where it flicked downwards and the whole thing began again.

The truth about omega bond dissolution for an alpha

“The trials have been an overwhelming…”

“Turn it off,” Juno whispered and Isaac obeyed immediately.

Tension was thick in the air, dark emotions crackling through the air and seeping in from her bonds.

“The Alpha Brotherhood account has been listed as a co-creator of that Loop,” Isaac said, his voice subdued. “Their views are extreme but their supporters are rabid. Andrew is one of the only alphas who has had his bond dissolved speaking publicly about it. So the likelihood of it being lost in the void is slim.”

Of all the ways she thought Andrew would retaliate, this was the last thing she expected. It was all so staged, so calculated. She almost wished he’d tried to break into the house or yank her off the street. At least she could fight back or call for help. At least there would be an end.

But this? This was a slow-acting poison, undetectable, designed to corrode her until she was nothing but dust and bile.

Methodical. Unavoidable.

How was she supposed to fight against this when she didn’t even fully understand what he was trying to do?

“Isaac,” Juno began and Isaac stooped in front of her so they were eye level. “What is he doing? What does this mean?”

“I have a few suspicions. None of them good. I’ll have this video and all discourse around it monitored and we’ll formulate a strategy from there.” He straightened, tiredness creating shadows on his ordinarily flawless face. “The good thing is that he hasn’t mentioned you by name.”

“Yet.”

“Yet,” Isaac agreed. “He might. We will have to be prepared. I’ve gotten in touch with NOC as well to ensure your privacy and safety is paramount.”

Juno didn’t know what she would’ve done without him leading their pack. “Thank you,” she said, feeling utterly helpless as she stared at her lap. A tender kiss was pressed on her forehead, followed by a delicate stroke of her cheek.

And then he left, carrying her burdens with him.

Ollie’s concern for her pulsed in their fresh bond. “We can still head home anytime.”

He had insisted on driving her to uni. And accompanying her all the way to the door of her lecture hall. For a brief second, Juno had considered wallowing at home. But the idea of just staying home and letting her brain marinate in thoughts of Andrew was vomit-inducing.

She gave him an unconvincing smile. “Class will distract me. Hopefully.”

It was a gorgeous day as they walked hand-in-hand across the quad towards the Design Faculty building. Their sombre mood hung like individual storm clouds above their heads.

It was fucked. Juno didn’t want Andrew to have this power over her.

She turned to Ollie, ready to tell him exactly how she felt, but found him bent over in the grass. He straightened with a wide smile and there was a flower caught between his index and thumb.

“For you,” he said, as he tucked it behind her ear, adjusting her hair so it hid the stem.

God, he was perfect.

Ollie did a quick double take when he noticed the Advertising Faculty building nearby. The building where he had come to Juno’s rescue all those weeks ago.

“Do you still see Ari?”

Hearing his name sent an unexpected pang through her, like bumping a hidden bruise. “No,” she replied, feeling herself withdraw slightly. “We’re not in the same faculty and his class was just an elective.”

“You never really said how you felt about him after that night he came over,” Ollie noted.

Juno went quiet, unsure of how to answer. It was silly really. Ollie had never given her a reason not to be anything but honest, but the scarred trauma centre of her brain still sent out warning signals.

“You still think about him?” Ollie asked kindly, without any judgement.

“Sometimes yeah.” The words came out stilted. “He’s my scent match too. I know that isn’t everything, obviously, after everything with Everett,” she found herself needing to explain in a rush. “But on the other hand, you and I…”

She was pulled into a tight embrace bordering on crushing her. “I think it was meant to be, because no omega would look twice at me unless we were fated,” Ollie said, hiding his face in her hair.

Juno was caught between wanting to assure him he was a fucking catch while also refusing to acknowledge the idea that anyone else could lay claim to her alpha. Ollie seemed to know the direction of her thoughts and kissed her, shaking his head.

“But,” Ollie continued, his face sombre. “If I had found you and then somehow lost you? I don’t think I could live with myself.”

The look on Ari’s face the last time they saw each other flashed before her eyes. All the pain he carried, the loneliness he lived with. What had happened to it since then?

They stopped outside her lecture hall. “I didn’t mean to bring your mood down again,” Ollie said worriedly. “I’ll be back to get you later, ok?”

“Don’t you have a job, silly?” she said, bouncing one of his curls affectionately.

“Psh, freelance hours,” he said by way of explanation, kissing her goodbye. “I feel better knowing you’re not alone right now.”

She spent most of her classes doodling a dagger with a very detailed hilt. In the middle of her last class, she drew a screaming stick figure at the bottom before scrawling the initials A.Z. like a vengeful teenage girl. Pointless but it made her feel better.

“You think she went through those trials?”

“I mean, come on, look at her neck. You wouldn’t do that to yourself unless you had something to hide.”

Juno’s pen slowed to a crawl. Don’t turn around. Don’t let them know sound travels like a fucking slingshot in this lecture hall. She forced herself to act normal even as her fight-or-flight instincts ramped up her heart rate and made her fists curl.

“Bet you her alpha didn’t have a say in whether their bond broke.”

She could hear his disdain as she tried to place who was speaking on voice alone. Juno was fairly certain it was the two cinderblock (in both shape and brain matter) alphas who spent the time before, after and sometimes during classes leering at any woman wearing yoga leggings. Then not understanding why they didn’t fall at their feet immediately after begging for their knots.

“Apparently it’s painful as fuck. NOC don’t tell you that though, do they?”

A derisive scoff. “Course they don’t. Heard it’s like a rope being shredded. Over months.”

A high-pitched hum seared through her eardrums. They’ve seen Andrew’s video. It wasn’t just Andrew she had to worry about now, it was everyone else. Juno swallowed the whine scratching at her throat as her seat, the row she was seated in, really, the entire fucking hall felt way too small.

She looked down at the stick figure she had drawn and felt thoroughly stupid. This was the best she could do?

Juno had never felt more powerless as she waited out the final minutes of class before making her exit, head bowed and praying they wouldn’t try anything. She almost cried when she saw Ollie was waiting for her.

“Come here, sweet girl.”

Ollie wrapped her up immediately in his arms and her nose immediately sought his neck, drinking in his sweetened coffee scent until she felt safe again. Cuddled in her nest, legs entwined, one arm stuck underneath his shirt to feel his skin as he gave her a stupid amount of kisses on her forehead.

“What happened?” He was keeping his worry at bay as best he could in their bond but Juno could feel its pacing, urgent sensation infiltrating through.

“Please, let’s just get away from here first,” she pleaded.

Ollie was very quiet when she recounted what she had overheard as they sat side-by-side in the quad.

“I would never dream of telling you what to do,” Ollie began.

“But?”

“But if you feel unsafe, there are always things we can do to help you with that at whatever level you’re comfortable with.” He looked off into the distance. “I think Isaac has a colour-coded binder with several action plans.”

“Of course he does.”

Ollie turned back to her. “There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to your teachers to see if they are open to you going remote again. And don’t feel like you have to make a quick decision based off a one-off incident either — nothing makes me happier than schlepping you to and from class. Best job ever.”

Juno smashed her palms over his widely grinning face because he was too fucking much sometimes. Only it led to a flurry of kisses on her hands, wrists and finally her giggling lips before Ollie finally hopped down from the ledge. “But there is something I’m going to insist on.”

Juno joined him. “Oh?”

Ollie directed their gaze towards the campus convenience store.

“Snacks. A lot of them.”

That earned him a huffy look.

“I don’t need it, Ollie.”

“But do you want it.”

Silence.

“Come on, I want to buy you a mountain of junk at a ridiculous mark-up.”

Ollie pulled her through the beeping automatic doors, waxing lyrical about his big plans to empty the every aisle into her tote bag. It was hard to keep pretending she didn’t want any of it when he kept waving all her favourites in front of her face like a TV shopping hostess. She really did feel a lot better very quickly, and wondered how she missed her own transformation into a squirrel hoarding nuts for winter.

Once she was satisfied with her chocolate haul, she went searching for chips and accidentally ended up in the health and personal care section. The figure at the end of the aisle made her baulk. She ducked back into the previous aisle, running into Ollie who was hot on her heels.

“Oof.”

“God, this fucking day,” Juno hissed under her breath, tugging Ollie’s head down so he was hunched over like her. And bless him, he just did it without protesting. “Ari’s in the next aisle. Should we say hi? We left things so weird.”

She used a box of biscuits to shield her face slightly as she peeked over the shelving before ducking back down again. Ollie took it from her and his face lit up. “Hey, I haven’t had these in ages. I’m gonna get them.”

“Ollie, focus!”

“Sorry.”

It was risky but she took another look. Limp strands of his dark hair hung from his pulled up hoodie and she caught a glimpse of his downturned lips. His clothes were so creased Juno was unsure how he actually achieved that level of wrinkle. He picked up a box of tablets, read the back before muttering under his breath as he put it back.

“He looks terrible,” Juno said guiltily.

Ollie got a second box of biscuits in a different flavour and gave her a little nudge with his shoulder. “Go on, say hi.” He grinned and took her bag out of her hands. “I’ll mosey on down the chip aisle, pick the best ones and meet you outside.”

He was gone before she could rationalise why that was a bad idea.

“It’ll be fine. No big deal,” Juno said to herself as she smoothed the front of her clothes down. “Just your scent matched alpha who you sent on a downward spiral.”

His run-down scent hit her as she turned down the aisle, the Earl Grey steeped to the point of bitterness and even his honey was beginning to sour. She swallowed a whine, her omega instincts eager to see his scent happy and bright again.

“Hi Ari.”