18. Juno

18

JUNO

Juno woke up from a surprisingly well-rested sleep. It probably had something (ok, a lot) to do with using Isaac’s chest as a pillow while surrounded by the rest of her pack.

Hazel had mustered up the appropriate amount of outrage a best friend should have for her maligned other half. First, she checked if it was ok to visit the pack house, promising to leave with no hard feelings if Juno felt territorial about another omega in her space. Then she rocked up bright and early with coffee, baked goods and a rather large mystery present.

She pointedly ignored the rest of the pack apart from a polite but distant hello, then proceeded to unveil a dart board with a drawing of Andrew’s face on it.

“I would have used his actual picture but I didn’t want to make you vom.”

After some much needed venting and outrage over what Andrew had done, Juno felt much better. They threw some darts at Andrew and that improved her mood even more.

On one particular throw, Hazel’s neckline shifted slightly and Juno spied a hickey just beside her collarbone. It was a very interesting new piece of information, particularly when paired with the very faint smoky scent that Juno kept getting whiffs of.

Juno tugged her collar until the dark purple mark was visible again. “Hazel. Tell me everything!”

Hazel laughed and batted her hands away. “It’s just for work, Junie.”

“Oh, you didn’t tell me you were branching out of solo stuff.” It would have been more weird if Juno did keep herself up to date with Hazel’s OmegaFans career.

“Turns out boy/girl content, especially POV, is a big hit with my audience,” Hazel said with a shrug. “Means I can buy you priceless gifts like this.” She gestured magnanimously at the now pin-cushioned Andrew.

Juno knew Hazel had a good head on her shoulders, but a single omega working with unbonded alphas still made her feel uneasy. Especially when it was her magnetic, stunning friend. “Just stay safe, ok? Don’t let them come to your place. And always tell someone where you’re going. And—”

“Of course.” Hazel didn’t seem to take offence from Juno’s mother-henning. “Don’t worry, I’m a big girl. And it’s only one alpha and it’s more of a partnership situation. We’re not planning on working with other people for the time being.”

Juno couldn’t resist needling her back like Hazel had done to her so many times before. “One alpha! When’s the wedding?”

Hazel’s extremely offended expression was simply delightful. “Ugh don’t even. We’re professionals!” She blanched, handing Juno another dart. “Your turn. Andrew still has one working eyeball and that’s not ok.”

After Hazel left, giving her a rib-crushing hug on the way out, Isaac directed her to the dining room. The rest of the pack were seated, ready to discuss their next steps now that the proverbial sword of Damocles had finally fallen.

“While revenge porn is illegal in Australia, the police cannot arrest Andrew on the basis of mentioning your videos.” Isaac looked like he was disappointed capital punishment wasn’t an option anymore. “However, our lawyers have cease and desist letters ready to go for SSNN and Pack Zhao.”

It was Juno’s first time getting a glimpse of Business Isaac. Shot caller Isaac. Belonged in the C-Suite Isaac.

Why did that make her squeeze her thighs together?

Isaac looked up from his seat at the head of the table and broke her out of her daydream. “We’ll send them right now with your consent?”

Juno nodded emphatically. The sooner that was dealt with, the better.

Ari leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. “NOC hasn’t addressed the segment directly and our Leon campaign still has legs. SSNN’s known for being sensationalist and a bit of an echo chamber—”

“A bit?” Everett snorted.

Ari threw a crooked smile his way before continuing. “So addressing it could actually draw more attention to it. But they’ve posted on socials reaffirming their mission statement to support, protect and further omega rights. I think that’s all that’s needed right now but they can shift their strategy if it becomes a bigger issue.”

“You’ll monitor and advise?” Isaac prompted.

“Of course.”

“Speaking of NOC.” Isaac shuffled the stack of papers he had in front of him and looked up at Juno. “They’ve offered us, or more specifically you, access to your file if it helps us at any point. From what I understand it’s a snapshot of your time in their care. Statements from your healthcare team, the officers who rescued you.” He paused and there was a grittiness to his voice when he spoke next. “The fact that Eric’s conviction for manslaughter qualified you for one-way bond dissolution. You got priority because leaving an abuser is the most dangerous time for a victim.”

Juno instinctively reached out and laid her hand over his. “I’m ok. I’m here.”

“Could have so easily gone wrong,” he said grimly.

She looked down at their clasped hands and pulled back, feeling exposed somehow. “How would that information help us?”

“It would counteract the narrative that Pack Zhao were good alphas,” Ari theorised.

“But it’s all so…personal.” She felt weak-willed at that moment. Protective of her history, not ready to hand it over for the greater cause.

“It’s your information to do with what you will,” Isaac reassured her. “No one else, not even us.”

Ari rose and made his way over to her. He still managed to be taller than her even when he crouched down by her seat.

“I have to go,” he murmured quietly, lifting her hand up to his lips. Juno liked the ticklish sensation of his beard. “Alistair already covered classes for me when I was in London and I can’t miss any more.”

Juno was lucky in that regard. Her faculty head Dr. Christine Kelly was an alpha whose omega had been outraged over the SSNN segment.

I had hoped it wasn’t you they were referring to. I have informed your other teachers to move you to remote learning for the foreseeable future. Please stay safe.

Plus, Isaac had had a very different reaction to Ollie when he finally found out about the conversation Juno had overheard from the two alphas in her class.

“I want their names, Juno,” Isaac had snarled, before storming off to do god knows what after she told him.

So remote learning it was.

Juno assured Ari it was ok that he left. She totally understood and of course he should go make sure he still had a job. Then had the cheek to slip him a bit of tongue in their goodbye kiss as a way to contradict everything she just said.

“Can we take a break?” she asked the others once Ari had left. “My head’s spinning and I really just want to eat my bodyweight in snacks right now.”

Juno knew she had indulged a bit too much when Everett braved the crumb-laden wreckage to silently push a nutrient-dense smoothie bowl at her. She would’ve protested but he had taken the time to cut all the fruits into stars and goddamn was she a sucker for cute aesthetics.

Just as Juno took the bowl and Everett breathed a sigh of relief, the doorbell rang.

“He’s early,” Isaac said distastefully, glancing at his watch. “Ben’s coming. Or rather, he’s here.”

“Why didn’t he just tell me?”

Isaac started to reply, mentally assessed that Juno would probably not like any of his answers no matter how tactful, and promptly shut his mouth.

“I see.”

Juno put down her smoothie to Everett’s great distress and skipped over to the front door. She swung it open just as Ben’s hand was hovering over the doorbell to press it again.

“Hi Booger.”

“Whatever, Stinky.”

“You don’t have to ask Isaac for permission to come here, you can just ask me.”

Ben stammered a bit before realising there was no saving himself. “Sorry, Juno. I was just trying to do what I thought was right and not bother you.”

She stepped aside to let him in. “Well there’s your problem. You always bother me,” she said blithely.

They exchanged the slightly awkward hug of siblings who had not done so in years. Ben had a strange look on his face when he pulled back. “Smells good in here. Is that you? Doesn’t smell like you.”

“Well, I did just eat a family size bag of cheese and onion chips so it probably is me,” Juno said, giving her hair a sassy flip.

A long pause accompanied Ben’s thousand yard stare. “I said smells good, not smells like I want to die.”

“Oh,” Juno said with a frown. “Want to make sure?” She took a big exaggerated inhale like she was about to huff her rancid breath in his face.

“No!” Ben dodged her, limbs flailing. Once he was out of her blast zone, he straightened himself up and looked around. “Nice place,” he whistled appreciatively.

“Hey Ben, you got a bit of…” Juno made a motion around the corner of her lips.

His hand shot up and gave his mouth a wipe. “What? I haven’t eaten anything in ages.”

“Just drool, because this house is beautiful.”

Yes she was being immature. Ben just had a talent for bringing it out of her.

“Oh, here?” he asked, without batting an eyelid. It took all of two seconds before he’d wet his finger and stuck it in her ear because apparently she brought it out of him too.

Her banshee-like shriek brought the rest of the pack rushing in.

“Do I kill him?” Everett said with the grace of a rampaging rhino. “Am I killing him?”

“No!” Juno stood between them, frantically wiping out her poor ear with her sleeve. “Leave him alone. I’ll get him back later.”

No one was allowed to kill Ben except her.

Being a sister was weird.

Ben assured her he did not fly all the way down just to give her a wet willy. He also came with a DNA test in hand.

“I think it’s important to confirm that dad isn’t your biological father. It’ll put what he’s done in an entirely new light.”

Juno and Ben dutifully spat into little tubes and sealed them up. Ben promised to mail it express and let her know as soon as he received the results.

“There’s something I always wondered about,” Julian said between mouthfuls of pizza they had ordered. “Why did Andrew never come after you? I mean, NOC officers rescued you and once he felt the bond dissolution start, surely he realised where you were?”

In the early years when she was living a ghost-like existence at NOC, she did spend a lot of time looking over her shoulder. Expecting Andrew to pop up like a horror movie jump scare and steal her kicking and screaming away. But time dulled the fear and eventually she did not think about Andrew at all.

“Honestly? I don’t know,” Juno said, absentmindedly munching on star-shaped fruit between pizza slices. “I always thought he would and he just…never did.”

The day had been mentally draining, leaving her feeling like she’d been handed ten balls to juggle when she couldn’t even juggle one. Maybe talking things out made someone like Isaac visualise the bigger picture but it left Juno more confused than ever.

“Holding back and waiting is as much a strategy as fighting back. The cease and desist letters have gone out. Let’s see how they respond,” Isaac concluded with the gravitas of a judge holding a gavel.

Before Ben left, he asked if she might want to do something while he was still in town — with at least one of her alphas tagging along for her safety. He had approached it with the same caution one might lob a grenade and then run away before it exploded. Juno suggested Korean BBQ, keeping her face a bored expressionless mask. All while her heart stung with a wretched kind of hope as she felt their relationship slowly repairing.

Miles sidled up next to her as she was drying her hands on a tea towel after helping Ollie wash up.

“Can I show you something?”

Juno wasn’t sure what to expect when he opened the door to the shared study on the second floor but a completely made over, fully furnished bedroom was fairly low on the list.

“It lacks proper storage, hence the bulky wardrobe over there,” Miles said. He pointed at the freestanding tall cupboard like that was what she was confused about. “But I’m sure Ari can make it work for the time being.”

Her heart was a tiny hummingbird flitting in her chest. “Really?”

Isaac joined them, giving Miles’ handiwork an approving onceover. “Until we can find a bigger house, yes.”

“But you love this house. You built this house,” Juno stammered, her brain still refusing to catch up. “Ben’s jealous of this house.”

There was an extraordinary kindness in the way Isaac looked at her. “Any house we live in at the end of the day only needs to do one thing. Be home to our pack.” He looked at the walls of the new bedroom thoughtfully. “We’ve now outgrown this one.”

“You think Ari is pack?” Juno wrapped her arms around herself as if she were afraid all her emotions might spill out.

Isaac laid a hand on her arm and the warmth of it sank into her skin. “He messed up, apologised sincerely and respected your space. Then when you needed him, he showed up for you in a big way without expecting anything in return.” Isaac ducked his head so he could catch her eye. “So yes, Juno. He’s pack.”

“You should go see him,” Miles suggested.

He held up his hand, a newly-cut house key dangling from his fingers.