31. Juno

31

JUNO

“I mean, do you even know where she is right now?”

God, he was so fucking smug. Juno had been waiting for the right moment to wipe that smile off Andrew’s face and it had finally come. She turned around from where she had been ‘feeding the ducks’ and shook her blonde hair free from the grandpa cap it had been tucked into.

“I’m right here, Andrew.”

Juno shrugged off her shapeless men’s jacket — that had been doused in scent-neutralising spray — and left her disguise draped over a nearby bench before joining Isaac. The alphas were standing now, facing each other in a tense stand-off. Isaac smiled down at her beatifically as she slipped her hand into his. But she could sense his worry as he squeezed it, unable to hide how he truly felt from her.

Isaac hated this part of their plan. If it had been up to him, she would be back at home in her nest, security along every perimeter of the house while she watched everything unfold on a live feed.

“I’m not asking to do this myself. But you cannot finish this without me,” Juno had told him unflinchingly days earlier.

In the end, he just had to settle for being surrounded by security here instead.

Andrew almost hid his surprise entirely, except for a tiny clench of his jaw that Juno relished. He had met his match and it wasn’t Isaac at all.

It’s me, you maggot-infested piece of shit.

There was something she wanted to know and she wasn’t sure she would get another chance to ask.

“Surprised it took you this long to come after me.”

She almost wished she could take it back when a pleased expression crossed his face.

“You miss me, omega?” His words skittered across her skin like cockroaches. “Honestly, you were starting to bore me. I mean, your heats were fun and all, but the caged animal act was getting a bit draining.” Andrew clicked his tongue like her abuse was an inconvenience for him. “Sure, a beta girl can’t take a knot as well as you can but at least they showed a bit of enthusiasm.”

Juno refused to give him a reaction and kept her face schooled in an expressionless mask.

“When it became clear you’d run to NOC and were breaking our bond, I knew it would only be a matter of time until you found a rich, well-connected pack who would fall for your sob story. Then you’d actually be useful.” He looked down his nose at her, his disdain clearly evident.

Isaac was gripping her hand so tightly. She caressed her thumb across the back where Andrew couldn’t see.

“So you’re telling me after all these years, after your cute little attempts to get famous — how is that going for you by the way?” Juno saw him open his mouth to retort and promptly charged on before he could speak. “You thought the next best thing to do was to send that bloated, unhinged rat of an alpha after me?”

Andrew sighed, apparently uncaring of what had happened to his brother who clearly had failed to kidnap Juno. “Eric has his own ways of working. If I had to do it all myself I could.”

“Do what?” Juno said, incredulously. “You’ve literally failed at everything you’ve tried to throw at me.”

She’d kicked the hornets’ nest. Andrew locked eyes with her and she could feel the familiar pulse of his alpha power. “This is just the beginning, Juno.”

She refused to drop her eyes. “Do I look scared, Andrew?”

God, that felt good. And her knees were only 50% water.

“You’ve gotten quite insolent from your time with this new pack of yours. I think your heat videos being leaked is exactly what you need. You know, humble you a little.” Andrew had the audacity to say it like he was doing her a big favour.

“Revenge porn is illegal, Andrew. Are you that eager to be reunited with Eric again?”

“Juno, Juno. Please.” Still the same condescending prick this many years later. “You have to understand that I’ve been so careless with my phone lately. Leaving it unlocked, having insecure passwords on my accounts. I’ll be devastated if it falls into the wrong hands.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be, is it?” Isaac asked evenly.

The answer seemed quite important to him.

Andrew decided a disdainful once-over of the other alpha was a good enough reply.

“Interesting choice of prime by the way,” Andrew said offhandedly to Juno. “He didn’t even think it was worth negotiating a price for your videos. And still unbonded. Has your pussy dried up, Juno?”

Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t s— ahh, fuck it.

“Oh no, that’s all your doing Andrew, don’t worry.”

The hornets’ nest was doused in gasoline and set alight.

“Well, let’s find out then.”

Juno felt his bark hit her in waves. The first initial shock of alpha power crumbled her defences, leaving her open and vulnerable. The second seized her like a fist, wrestling her control away from her.

Then finally, she registered his actual words.

“Come to your alpha, Juno!”

Juno wanted to fight. Juno did fight. She bit and clawed and raged against everything her body was forced to do even if it hurt her. Her first step collapsed beneath her because she threw herself forward so she wouldn’t gain momentum. Her nails filled with dirt as she dug them deep into the ground even as her arms pushed herself back up.

She looked up with hatred just as Isaac’s foot stepped into her view, blocking her from Andrew.

Juno swore every living creature in that park; from the oblivious children, the birds flitting between trees, down to the beetles scuttling through blades of grass; went silent in that moment.

“She is not yours.”

Isaac’s bark sliced through Andrew with the lethal accuracy of a sniper. All his power concentrated at a single, deadly point. Juno felt Andrew’s command lift off her immediately. Her breath returned and restored feeling ran pins and needles through her limbs. She scrambled to her feet to find Isaac standing over Andrew. Her old alpha had sunk to his knees from the weight of Isaac’s command.

Alpha barks did not work on other alphas. At least, they weren’t supposed to.

But Isaac had brought a gun to Andrew’s knife fight.

Not content with having brought him to his literal knees, Isaac grasped Andrew’s hair and yanked it back, forcing the lesser alpha to expose his neck. Andrew scratched and grappled at Isaac’s arms but the stronger prime stood firm and unyielding.

His voice was like standing beneath the great white crest of an avalanche. Ruinous and inevitable. “You will hand over every copy of Juno’s heat videos. I have infinitely more resources and more connections than you can even begin to comprehend, and I will be using every single one of those to ensure that if you ever stick your miserable head out of whatever bolthole you end up hiding in…I will be there with my foot on your fucking neck reminding you of where you belong.”

Andrew let out a whine and it was too surreal. Juno couldn’t process it. Couldn’t fathom what Isaac had done. Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she glutted herself on the beautiful sight of this immensely powerful alpha unleashing himself for her.

He’s yours.

He’s always been yours.

She let out a surprised squeak as a burst of slick slipped from her. Juno pressed her legs together but it was too late, both their heads snapped towards her. Isaac took great offence to that and shoved Andrew’s face into the dirt.

“Seems your pitiful submission has gotten my omega wet. Hold your fucking breath until we leave.”

Isaac released him and stood up, but not before he wiped the hand that had been in Andrew’s hair on the back of his shirt in one final act of humiliation. He wrapped his arm around Juno’s waist as he guided her quickly from Andrew’s presence. Juno couldn’t help but cast one final look behind her shoulder at the defeated alpha, his face growing redder as he was forced to obey Isaac’s final directive. Isaac nodded at the plainclothes Sanctumguard security team dotted around them and they swarmed on Andrew.

Juno felt like she was floating on a cloud as Isaac led her out of the park. She barely even noticed when he stopped, inspecting her all over. Growling at the scrapes on her hands and knees and staring worriedly into her dazed eyes. She really ought to say something because he was so very concerned but all she could think about was him.

Why did she ever think she wasn’t drawn to his scent? How could she possibly smell his rum and not imagine it poured down her bare skin, splashed between her breasts and pooling in her belly button waiting for him to lick it up? And that earthy leather, hearkening back to his dignified office chairs. She wanted to bend herself over the armrest, muffling her cries in the leather covered cushion while he fucked her deep from behind.

Isaac was stroking her face, calling her name over and over, desperately trying to get her attention.

“Are you all right?”

The poor thing sounded so panicked.

“Yes.” Juno let out a breathless little laugh. She finally looked him in the eye so he could see she wasn’t lying. “I’m amazing.”

“Good.”

Then he kissed the ever-loving shit out of her.

Their scents flared up around them, igniting the air with brown sugar sweetened, rum-drenched peaches. She could taste his smoky leather on her tongue and had a flash of his belt between her teeth to silence her as her vanilla cream slid down her legs for him to lick back up. The press of his rapidly hardening cock against her thigh sent a whip crack of desire stinging on her swollen clit that radiated through her whole body.

He was somehow wild and tender and controlled all at once. The way his fingers dug roughly into her hair while his thumb traced her skin. The fevered grind of his hips as his lips moved with a velvet sensuality over hers. Losing his mind over her while refusing to let her feel anything but loved.

Why had they never done this before? Why hadn’t they been doing this the whole time? It seemed stupid, so fucking stupid that it had taken this long to taste him, hold him, surrender to him.

They both pulled back at the same time, staring wide-eyed. Unable to speak, chests heaving as they reclaimed the breaths they had stolen from each other.

“Again,” Juno demanded, feeling herself grow more feral with each passing second they were apart.

“Thank fuck,” Isaac breathed as they crashed together once more.

A theatrical ah-hem broke them out of their reverie. They both turned to see a giddy, borderline maniacal, Miles grinning at them. Gleeful was too mild a word to describe how he was feeling at that moment.

“As much as I am loving this,” he said, indicating back and forth between them before showering them with air kisses. “This really isn’t the best place for it.” Miles then clutched his chest, his face contorting in visible pain. “Oh my god, it actually hurt me to say that.”

Julian trotted over, clapping Miles on the back. “There, there,” he consoled him, stifling the laugh threatening to bubble up. He turned to Juno and Isaac, who still had yet to let each other go. “Come on,” he said, tilting his head towards the direction of the car. “We’ll get you home.”