6. Juno

6

JUNO

It was fucking awkward in the car.

Maybe because it was the first time Juno and Isaac had been in such an intimate space together (i.e: trapped) since he brought Julian home late the other night. Worn out and covered in his scent as he tucked him into Juno’s nest with her and a loudly snoring Everett.

She’d been excited for him to finally go on a date with Isaac after they’d been exchanging lingering glances for weeks. Even though she wasn’t with Isaac that way, she could tell he would be good for her anxious little beta. But she hadn’t quite shaken off the undercurrent of nervousness about it all. What it meant for her and Julian, if it would change pack dynamics in any way. Having Isaac bring Julian home to her even though he didn’t have to was exactly the panacea she needed.

Then the radiant tenderness she felt seeing them together the next day — Julian’s leg draped over Isaac’s, Isaac playing with the hair at the nape of Julian’s neck — banished her final slivers of doubt.

“I’ll come back and get him in the morning if that’s ok?” Isaac asked her as he laid another quilt on top of Julian.

Juno wrapped her limbs around Julian like a possessive octopus. “I think he’ll like that.”

“Are you alright?” she asked Julian as quietly as possible. He snuggled up close to her. “Don’t tell me I have to hurt him.”

“Don’t hurt him. His dick should be in a museum.” Julian’s voice was slurred with impending sleep. “A museum of fucking.”

“I assume I don’t have to ask how your night was from 1 to 10?” Juno said, trying not to laugh at how dick-drunk he was.

Julian held up ten fingers, before turning his hands as if to illustrate a great length. Then he promptly passed out.

It was just bad luck that Isaac hadn’t left the room yet and that was the moment he and Juno made direct eye contact. And even worse timing that Juno hadn’t heard Isaac knocking in the morning because she’d been riding Julian to the proverbial finish line after Everett had left. His oh fucking hell, I’ll come back was permanently installed in the part of her brain that liked to recall embarrassing moments at inopportune times.

Now his burgeoning scent in the car was just reminding her of it all over again.

Everett was in the backseat and Juno could sense his faint amusement in the bond.

“Did my brother say why he needed to fly down to tell us whatever he needed to tell us about Pack Zhao?”

There. A safe non-arousing topic.

Isaac made a gesture like he was about to rest his hand on her thigh but grabbed the gear stick instead. “I think he wants to see you, Juno.”

She crossed her arms and sank down in her seat, her bottom lip sticking out. Maybe it was petulant but she didn’t care. “He never wanted to see me before so I don’t know what he’s thinking making a big show of coming here.”

“Whatever his intentions, we’ll keep you safe,” Everett said firmly.

Juno uncrossed her arms. “Well, no. I’m not worried about that. Ben wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Then what is it?”

She became very interested in a loose thread on her sleeve. “He’s just a big stupid buttface,” she hissed under her breath. Juno did not need to look up to know Isaac and Everett were exchanging glances wondering what the hell was going on. “Whatever,” she said, blowing her hair off her face. “Let’s just get this over with.”

He still had perfect hair. Perfect skin. Perfect teeth. The perfect son with the perfect job.

At least he looked tired from the flight.

“Juno,” Ben breathed with obvious relief. His eyes found her the moment he stepped into the meeting room, sitting on the couch next to Everett tapping her foot impatiently. “Wow, I can’t believe—”

“Still insufferable as always, Ben,” she snapped, puncturing his overwrought acting. “Tell me, did you become the perfect doctor son mum and dad always wanted you to be?”

He was taken aback, his steps towards her faltering. “Yes, I did,” he said, much more subdued.

Juno uncrossed her arms and leant forward, her hands balling into little fists. “I’m an artist, Ben. I draw things with no monetary value whatsoever. And I have tattoos!” She gestured at her neck with a grand flourish. “Many of them! What do you think about that?”

“I-I don’t care that you—”

“Oh, Ben doesn’t care, what else is new. Why the fuck are you here?”

She was too loud, too rude, too unreasonable. There was a dim part of her brain muttering at her to be a good omega and a good sister. But the much louder part that lacked control had taken over. Seeing him again after all this time was bringing on an awful deluge of emotions. Feelings of abandonment. Of not measuring up. And worst of all, reminding her of the frightened, newly-awakened eighteen year old Juno about to go through three years of bonded captivity.

Ben was lost for words, starting sentences he didn’t know how to finish. Isaac cut him off. “I would get to the point quickly, Ben.”

His shoulders sagged in numb defeat. Juno felt a twinge of guilt in her gut. No! Be strong! Ben sat himself down on the nearest chair and leaned on his forearms. He no longer tried to make eye contact with any of them and Juno wished it wasn’t crushing to see him like this.

“Andrew Zhao has been making noise within our community back home ever since that photo appeared in Page Slick. He’s up in arms over the one-way bond dissolution,” Ben said mutely. “He’s managed to catch the attention of the Alpha Brotherhood.”

The extremist alpha rights group who frequently made the news for their loud opposition against anything to do with giving omegas more autonomy? Wonderful. Just the fact that they called themselves a brotherhood when alphas could be female as well pretty much summed up their doctrine.

Ben continued. “I don’t know what they’re planning but leaving you alone with your new pack would be quite low on the list, I’d imagine.”

Everett turned to Isaac. “Did you know this already?”

“Suspected with no proof, so it’s good to get confirmation,” Isaac replied, grimly.

“There’s something else you need to know.” Ben chanced a look her way. “When you disappeared—”

“Escaped,” Juno corrected him.

“Escaped…they came to us first. To see if you’d made contact.”

“Pretty fucking dumb considering you were responsible for selling me off like cattle in the first place,” she said flippantly.

“I didn’t!” Ben half-shouted before getting control of himself again, the muscle in his jaw constricting as he exhaled through his nose. “What I’m about to say next, just know I’m not making excuses. I want you to know the headspace I was in when you awakened. I’d just started med school and I wasn’t coping with the massive increase of hours required. Mum and dad were hounding me to keep up my part time job so they could pay the bills. I didn’t know what dad was doing, gambling it all away. If I’d known…” Ben crushed his fist against his thigh before releasing it. “I was trying to do what I thought a good son was supposed to do. All they told me when you left was that you’d found a pack. I was relieved to know you were taken care of. One less thing to worry about.”

Regret and shame poured off him in waves.

“I went to see you, you know. I tried several times. But Andrew always turned me away. He said a newly bonded omega would only want their alphas around and would find other people distressing. I-I’m just a beta, I didn’t fully understand how pack dynamics worked so I just accepted it.”

Juno was caught between wanting to finally understand what he’d done and screaming her lungs out at him.

“Then I heard mentions of you over the years. Baba would say he saw you with them at some fancy restaurant when all I could afford to wolf down during my night shift breaks was ramen. A family friend mentioned seeing you picking out designer goods at a luxury store and I was wearing out my shoes until the soles were like paper. I realise now that these were lies Pack Zhao had carefully fed to me. But it worked. Because I resented the cushy life I thought you had and how you didn’t have time for us anymore. I finally saw you for the first time in three years at Vincent’s wake and you could barely look at me. All you did was cling to your alphas.”

A hot tear spilled from the corner of her eye. Of course she clung to them. She was trying to survive. Ben reached out to take her hand but Juno flinched, setting off Everett’s growl.

“When Baba told me you ran away, instead of questioning why, I was mad. It was easier to blame someone I thought had abandoned us than to look closely at why that was.” Ben shut his eyes tight, hating what he was about to say next. “Then I never heard from you again and thought you’d decided you were better off without us.”

He thought she was better off?

“They sold me, Ben!” Juno screamed. “Sold. Me. Do you understand how fucked up that is?”

He was visibly shaking now. “I know. I didn’t know then but I know now.”

“You were my big brother and you did nothing!”

A loud sob cracked her open and Ben crumpled at the awful sound.

Isaac’s hand came to rest on her shoulder, warm and steadying. “I think we should take a break,” he suggested.