7. Juno

7

JUNO

They were all drinking coffee Isaac’s assistant had brought, pretending Ben did not just detonate several land mines within seconds of each other. Watching her brother try and make small talk with her alphas was unexpectedly hilarious.

“So um, how did you two meet and decide to be a pack?”

“We’re brothers,” Everett replied tersely.

Ben did a double take between a poker-faced Isaac, with whom he shared almost identical colouring with, and the surly Swedish giant next to him. “Oh…ok.”

Juno took a sip to keep from laughing.

Ben tried a different tack, turning to Juno this time. “So you’re bonded to Everett but not Isaac? Is it normal to not be bonded to your prime?”

It took betas a little longer to pick up on the intricacies of bonded relationships. They didn’t automatically pick up on the pheromone changes between designations and relied on scents to try and figure it out.

“Don’t sniff us, you fucking weirdo,” Juno said, lobbing a sugar packet his way.

He dodged it easily and threw it back at her. “I’m not weirdo, moo moo! I’m just trying to get to know your — ow, stop throwing sugar at me!”

“Don’t call me moo moo!” Hearing Ben’s childhood version of mei mei did something to her. “If anything you should be called moo moo after you drank that milkshake before going in the pool that summer. Or should I say poo poo?”

Ben looked furious and his voice rose several octaves. “I didn’t know that would happen and non-dairy milk alternatives were not as common back then! And I made it out of there before anything got, you know, contaminated,” he asserted wildly. “And hey if you want to talk about sniffing — remember when we went to that restaurant for Mama’s birthday and you sniffed that waiter you thought was cute?”

“Oh my god, shut up!” Juno screeched, covering her face with her hands and sliding down the couch into a shameful puddle. “I was on the verge of awakening, I couldn’t help it!”

Everett turned to Isaac. “We were never like this, were we?”

“No, I think we just whaled on each other,” Isaac said calmly. “You and Leah though?” He expelled the air from his cheeks loudly at the mention of one of their middle sisters.

“Fuck she was annoying,” Everett said without malice, rubbing his jaw. “Don’t forget you and Astrid either.”

Isaac’s face automatically blanched at the thought of his alpha triplet. “Maybe we’re not so different, then,” he conceded.

Juno felt the cushion next to her sink down and Ben’s faint peppermint scent hit her, so nostalgic it made her heart ache. He awkwardly attempted to part the fingers she had held over her face without poking her in the eye so he could see her.

“You’re an artist?” he asked tentatively.

She twisted her hands in her lap. “Actually, I’m studying graphic design at SCCA.”

“That’s great. I hear that’s one of the top schools for design and communication courses.”

This version of her brother was so jarring compared to the villain she had painted him as for over five years. She was suddenly very tired. “This…this is hard, Ben.”

“I know,” he agreed, staring at the floor. “There’s still one more thing I need to tell you.”

More? Juno wasn’t sure she could handle it. Everett flooded their bond with strength and affection, until the awful sinking feeling in her gut lessened. Her grateful kiss on his hand was met with an incredulous shake of his head — of course he was here for her at a time like this.

She turned back to Ben, her spine straighter than before. “Ok. Tell me,” she prompted.

Ben’s leg bounced up and down restlessly. “The Page Slick article came out and I questioned why you would need to seek out bond dissolution. I’d studied it, you know. Not intensively, but it was a groundbreaking clinical trial so I followed its progress. I knew the National Omega Commission only accepted omegas with one-sided bonds from alphas that had been convicted of a serious crime or proven to be…” His knuckles went white as he gripped his knees. “Abusive. So I asked our parents. Asked them why you would have been accepted into trial with such a specific requirement.”

A heavy sadness dragged her heart to the floor. So much pain, so much time wasted. When would the wounds Pack Zhao inflicted on her life cease reopening?

“I was beside myself when I finally learned the truth about what our parents had done to you. I had to get out of the house. I slipped back in later that night and heard mum and dad arguing.” Ben paused, wringing his hands to summon the courage to continue. “I managed to catch Baba saying ‘Why should I care, she’s not mine anyway. Just be grateful they still consider the debt paid.’”

Juno was surprised the floor was still intact under her. Everett was lacing his fingers between hers, rubbing her thigh urgently back and forth but she felt nothing.

“What?”

Ben’s voice was faraway and very quiet now. “It might explain why you’ve awakened as an omega from a family of betas. And I left them, Juno. Living at home so I could continue helping with the mortgage, supplementing their income so they could keep their lifestyles up…I did it because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. But I left when I learned the truth of what they did to you.”

The air she was breathing felt far too thin, her chest rising and falling but the horrible claustrophobic feeling refusing to alleviate. Her fingernails scraped along the armrest as panic scuttled along her veins like a million angry fire ants.

“Ben,” Juno rasped as every head turned her way. “Are we…are we still…are you and I…”

He was in front of her in seconds, stooped low so their eyes were level. “You’re my sister, Juno. Half is irrelevant. You’re my sister.”

“You’re sure?”

“God yes. Remember those photos Mama hid away and—”

“Screeched when we found them,” Juno finished his sentence. Her heart was still pounding but it had turned into a rhythmic bass line, anchoring her. “You were holding me as a baby at the hospital but she hated how she looked in them…”

“You were so little. But you didn’t cry and I held you until my arms went numb because I was too scared to move in case I woke you.”

Ben made a hook with his index finger and wiggled it towards her. She didn’t even have to think. After all, she’d been doing this as long as she could remember. Before they crossed roads, when she was shy around strangers, anytime she needed cheering up.

Her fingers became a little nibbling fish and grabbed onto his.

Things could’ve been so different.

“No wonder mum and dad were so fucking miserable with each other,” Juno mused, her eyes distant. “Why would they even stay together after all that?”

“You know what they were like with their friends. All about—”

“Saving face,” they said in unison.

Conflicting, heavy emotions collided nauseatingly in her belly. Ben. Pack Zhao’s manipulations. Her mum. Her not-dad. It was all too much at once.

“I don’t…feel very well.”

Isaac’s lightning reflexes saved her in time as she retched into the bin in his hand. Trying to exorcise every shitty thing Ben told her, every fucked up feeling it brought up. Everett rubbed her back soothingly, a bottle of water waiting for her when she was done.

Embarrassment quickly replaced the gaping chasm left behind.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Everett told her warningly, pulling her into his lap. “If you so much as apologise for reacting in a very understandable way to some very messed up things...” He cast a quick look at Ben before pressing his lips against her ear. “You’re going to be in for it when you’re feeling better.”

Stupid bond with a beastly, giant of a—

“Juno.”

“Ok,” she croaked. “I get it. Vomiting is super.”

She really wanted her nest now. Soft things. Sleep.

Mostly so she could be unconscious.

She could see Isaac rise up out of the corner of her eye. “I think we’re done here, Ben. Thank you for telling us what you know.”

The weight of unpacking their trauma leeched all colour from Ben’s complexion. He stood up in mute acceptance and walked unsteadily towards the door. Ben hesitated, his hand outstretched toward the handle.

“I’m starting my first year of residency this year and I’ve applied to hospitals here,” he said haltingly. “I-I’ve missed you, Juno. I’d like to know the person my little sister has become. If you’ll let me.”

She said nothing, unable to process that in the moment on top of everything else. Her nose found the crook of Everett’s neck and she found solace in his deep, restless scent. The click of the door opening had a dreadful sort of finality to it.

“Thank you for seeing me. I’ll go now.”

Juno was unsure how long she sat there, Everett’s worry churning and Isaac watching with undisguised concern.

“Tell me what I should do. About him.”

“Whatever you want,” Everett answered quickly. “You don’t owe him anything.”

Isaac took a bit longer to consider his response. “I believe him. His story, his…explanation. But Everett’s right. You don’t owe him anything.”

There was a bit of pilling on the fabric of Everett’s t-shirt. She absentmindedly caught the balled up bits of cotton between her nails and began to pull them off. “He never got annoyed when I wanted to play his video games with him, you know. Bought snacks for me, learned to do my hair. It’s like he knew he was my parents’ favourite so he gave me all the attention that they didn’t.” She spotted more near his sleeve and Everett moved his arm so she could reach it better. “I mean, we bickered too but he still loved me and I knew it. Then he got distant in my last couple of years at home, I guess with uni and med school and work.”

Juno stared at the ball of lint she’d amassed, unsure of what to do with it and was grateful when Isaac reached over and carefully took it from her. There was so much compassion in the deep darkness of his eyes.

“He was such a good big brother to me growing up.”

“Maybe that’s all he wants to be again,” Isaac murmured gently.