33. Juno

33

JUNO

“I want money.”

“Hazel, we never made a—”

“I. Want. Money,” Hazel insisted, emphasising each word with a clap. The other omega had set a single footstep into the house, taken one whiff of Juno and let out the most scandalised gasp of vindication.

“Girl, you’re already rich,” Juno said, completely blasé as she ushered her friend inside.

Hazel added her shoes to the growing pile at the front door. “So who’s the biggest?” she asked off-handedly, as if she were inquiring about the weather instead of how well-endowed Juno’s pack was.

“I am not answering that.” She probably should have sounded a tad more convincing.

“Was it Isaac?” Hazel ploughed on unscrupulously.

Juno conducted a visual sweep of the vicinity. “Depends on what you’re referring to,” she said stealthily out of the corner of her mouth.

“Oh my sweet lord, you know what, say no more.” Hazel closed her eyes and held up a hand. “It’s better up here,” she smiled dreamily as she tapped her temple.

That got her a light whack onto arm. Juno knew she wasn’t serious but that pesky omega possessiveness really was something. “Stop picturing my pack naked.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry, that was bad form,” Hazel apologised immediately before her face softened into a genuine smile. “I’m just so happy for you.”

Pack Reyna certainly had a lot to celebrate. New members, new bonds and a new name. It was only fitting that they crammed as many of their friends and family under their roof and plied them with way too much food and drink. It had only just begun and it was already chaos — kids running around everywhere, a game of mahjong kicked off by their Ba, and Isaac already refusing two attempts to get him to the karaoke machine.

Juno linked Hazel up with a couple of other omegas from the Village like a good hostess and went to make the rounds. By the time she finally had a chance to hit the buffet-like spread, she was starving. She was trying to determine the best strategy for filling up her plate as high as possible when she was rudely yanked away by her elbow.

Only one person would be that stupid.

“Just as a general rule, Ben,” she said waspishly. “Never pull me away from food.” Juno tugged her elbow out of his reach and tried to return to her happy place only to get hauled back again.

“You’ll live,” Ben said without an ounce of contrition. “Hey, those are your friends from the Omega Village aren’t they? Who’s the taller one with the long hair?”

Juno glanced at Hazel then back at Ben. He looked feverish and his scent was abnormally sharp. She touched a hand to his forehead and jerked when it came away sweaty.

“Ew, Ben.” She wiped her hand on his shirt distastefully. “Are you ok? You’re not getting sick, are you? You can lie down upstairs if you need to.”

He waved her concern away. “I’m fine. Answer the question.”

“Say please.”

Juno was impervious to his exasperated glare. In fact, she relished it.

“Please,” he added sullenly.

They both turned and looked at Hazel laughing across the room. It was a strange dichotomy, being protective of them both and realising how easily they could hurt each other. Juno felt like she was on the precipice of something that had everything and nothing to do with her.

She sighed internally and let it go. At the end of the day, they were both adults.

“That’s Hazel,” Juno said finally. “We were in the same trial group and lived in the Village together. Do you want me to introduce you?”

Instead of being eternally grateful and kissing her feet like he was supposed to, Ben seemed distressed. “I can’t meet her like this,” he lamented, running his palm across his scalp.

“What do you mean?”

“My hair.” Ben gave her a look like he didn’t expect her to understand. “It’s still so short,” he finished despondently.

“Ben. You’re being stupid,” Juno pried his hands off his head. He tried to stop her and they almost devolved into a slapping war. “You did a very selfless thing for me in the interview. That will be omega catnip for her more than whatever the hell your hair looked like before you shaved it. Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

She spun on her heel and began walking in Hazel’s direction.

“No! Juno. Juno!” Ben’s panicked whispers grew more shrill. “Come back here!”

Whoops too late, she had already gotten the other omega’s attention. What a terrible shame.

“Want to meet my brother?” Juno asked after she let their friends know she was stealing Hazel momentarily. “Despite how we speak to each other, I am fond of him so try not to rip his head off and eat it when you’re done.”

Hazel let Juno walk her over to where Ben was being a jittery mess. “Junie, you think so little of me,” she said serenely.

“Also don’t tell him I’m fond of him,” Juno said in a rush before plastering on a wide smile. “Ben! I’d like you to meet Hazel.”

The look they shared made her feel like a vestigial third wheel. She made an incomprehensible sort of noise to indicate she was going to get food and backed away.

“I thought what you did for Juno during the interview was so sweet. Was that really all your idea?” she heard Hazel say as she left. Juno couldn’t resist turning back mouthing I fucking told you at Ben, laughing when all he could do in response was widen his eyes warningly.

Everett was waiting for her with a plate of all her favourites.

“Making trouble, trouble?” he asked with a knowing smile.

Juno peppered kisses on him gratefully. “I love you, you’re the best,” she beamed, taking it from him. “It’s like you want me to drag you upstairs and play hide Everett’s pickle down my throat,” she added nonchalantly as she walked away.

Everett froze but soon his need for retaliation came hot through the bond. Juno scooted away even faster, finding safety on a couch with his sisters. Her excitement to finally eat quickly deflated when she realised Everett forgot to include cutlery. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so busy giving him an inappropriate boner.

A spoon and fork materialised in front of her. Her eyes followed them up to the cherubic smiling face of Julian.

“Missing something?”

“Yes I am,” Juno agreed. She brushed the utensils aside and pulled him down for a kiss. Aware she was surrounded by her in-laws, she was very discreet when she slipped him a bit of tongue. Just a little bit. Just enough for a combination of blind panic and uncontrollable desire to rocket through their bond. She released him and caught Everett glaring at the two of them. Her lips almost hurt from how tightly she was pressing them together so she wouldn’t laugh and make it worse.

“I’m not really sure why it took my brother so long to get his act together with you two,” Astrid observed impassively. She was born a mere 10 seconds after Isaac and twice as scary. The only person she visibly relaxed around was her bonded omega Sasha.

Julian surprised them all by replying. “Maybe I was the one who finally decided he was worth my time,” he said with a completely straight face. Juno made an odd sound that was a cross between a gasp and the pffft of a deflating balloon.

Astrid blinked. “Excellent. You two and Miles should be able to keep him occupied now. No wonder he seemed a little less insufferable tonight.”

“Hey!” Juno protested instinctively. She didn’t like hearing anyone she loved being insulted, even if it was in jest by their sibling. But the corner of Astrid’s lips lifted and she felt like she had passed some sort of test.

The other Rivera siblings insisted Julian sit down and then Juno finally got to eat. It was where Ollie found her later, flopping on the armrest and throwing his arm around her shoulder. Ari was right behind him, saw there wasn’t any room for him to sit and decided perching on Ollie’s lap was the next best thing.

“Sunshine, I think Everett wants to eat you,” Ollie blinked, pointing a thumb in his direction.

Juno cast a glance across the room, where Everett was talking with Ari’s friend Alistair. He was still staring at her. It was serial killer behaviour and only borderline acceptable because he was her alpha.

“Oh, he wants to do something alright.” Juno made hand gestures at him to try to tell him to focus on his conversation and stop being rude. Everett mouthed upstairs now? and Juno threw her hands up, giving up on the pointless exercise.

“Want to sing karaoke with me and Ari?” Ollie asked, patting the other alpha’s back, unbothered by the fact he was being used as a seat. “We want to see if we were actually any good in Bali or if it was the vodka talking.”

Juno gave them both a quick assessment, noting Ollie’s askew glasses and Ari’s owlish blinks as they awaited a response. She privately thought that this second experiment was not going to differ one bit from the first.

“Nah, I’m good. You guys go,” she encouraged them. “Seems like a very refined experiment and I don’t want to mess up your variables.”

Ari somehow managed to lose his balance just from leaning forward and Ollie caught him just in time by throwing his arms around his waist. “You can mess up our variables any day, love,” Ari said with a wink.

The two of them stumbled off together towards the karaoke machine and she overheard Ollie turn to Ari and say, “Is that how English people flirt?”

Later on, she went to help with getting the desserts all laid out and found Miles and Isaac already busy clearing and plating up in the kitchen. She couldn’t resist giving them a combined squishy hug from behind, ignoring Isaac’s warnings that he was holding a large knife. He had received her vanilla in his scent, just as Miles had predicted, and she nuzzled her nose to his shirt to sniff the very pleasing combination of them both. The sweetened cream took the burning edge off his rum, mellowed and balanced him.

“So, Ben and Hazel, huh?”

Juno finally let them go — to Isaac’s great relief — and stole a grape from the fruit platter Miles was arranging. “You’re the worst!” she laughed. “Just ’cause our pack’s finally settled doesn’t mean you have to find somewhere else to be a sticky-beak at.”

“Of course I do, the compulsion doesn’t just go away,” Miles said shamelessly, like she was the crazy one.

Isaac lifted his overturned dish slowly, pleased when the flan underneath was revealed to be perfect. Juno ooh-ed and aah-ed and made his ears go red.

“Astrid is still scary, by the way.”

“Do I need to—”

“But I think she likes me.”

“Well, that makes one of us.”

He draped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close, kissing her forehead.

“Have you thought about finding out who your biological father is?” Isaac asked without preamble.

“Woah, where the hell did that come from?” Miles stared at their prime in disbelief.

But Juno understood. They were surrounded by so many of her pack’s family and she only had Ben here. If there was ever a time to wonder about her roots, now would be a natural time for those feelings to arise. The sad truth was, biology or not, her parents had not been her parents for a very long time. Neither of them had the guts nor care to contact her after her interview. Cutting them out was an easy decision and she lost absolutely nothing.

Ben, on the other hand, had his own demons to slay in that department.

“No, I don’t care,” she said truthfully. “I have the family that matters already.”

Isaac pulled her in for a very determined kiss that left her heart beating erratically when it was over. She was half expecting Hazel to appear suddenly demanding money again but she hadn’t seen her best friend in a while.

It was a relief when the night ended with all of them in her nest. Her social battery was drained but the happiness from the evening sparkled in her veins. And right now, she was so very glad to be surrounded by the ones she loved the most.

Julian combed her hair away from her face with his fingers. “1 to 10?” he asked, but his smile said he already knew.

“What’s this?” Ollie whispered.

“Shh,” Miles cut in quickly. “It’s like their rating system for how they’re feeling. It’s cute.”

“Ten,” Everett offered, kissing her hand.

Isaac for some reason decided now would be a good time to be insolent. “Technically infinity is also a number and there’s no rule about going off the scale.”

“Oh fuck off,” Everett grumbled.

“Ooh, I want to play.” Ari fumbled around until he managed to pull out his phone. “758,000. That’s how many kilometres it is to the moon and back.”

“You fuck off too.”

It probably wasn’t wise but Juno added fuel to the fire and kissed Ari. “Aww.”

Ollie twisted a curl in his fingers the way he usually did when he was thinking. “I’m feeling…9.”

Miles flicked him. “What the hell, man.”

“Cause you’re the only one I need,” he announced proudly in a mad rush to deliver his terrible punchline. His satisfaction did not wane despite everyone’s groans.

“Sorry, and you were ragging on my flirting?” Ari couldn’t resist jabbing back.

Isaac turned to Miles. “Anything to add?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare.”

Juno linked her fingers with Julian and snuggled deeper into the curve of his body. “I don’t think we’ll ever need to ask each other that question again, will we?” she asked him softly.

She felt him shake his head behind her, his contentment warm and mirroring hers in their bond. Her eyes drifted shut, ready to let sleep overwhelm her.

Except she couldn’t because there was a slow, permeating emotion in all her bonds that was decidedly not contentment.

She opened one eye and saw Ollie doing a very bad job of pretending to sleep. “This is nice and all, but I don’t need all of you to be in here every night,” Juno declared, stifling laughter.

“Oh thank god.”

“I’m already cramping.”

“I can barely stretch one leg out and I’ll be honest, I like to starfish when I sleep.”

Everett rolled onto his back and pressed his fingertips into his eyes. “Ollie’s butt is literally in my face.”

“You don’t like my butt?” Ollie sounded mortally offended.

“Not as the last thing I see before I sleep, no.”

Juno sighed, grabbed Everett’s hand and laid it over her boob. His thumb grazed her hard nipple and he promptly shut up. One insistent tug and Ollie’s head was level with hers, her mouth finding his at the same time as her hips rolled back suggestively against Julian’s.

Luckily she had a win-win solution to get everyone fast asleep.