“Let it go, Richard,” Grandpa said, then shot me a weak smile. “Go, be with your mate, darling, and congratulations, Tris.”
That was delivered with much less warmth, but still. I understood that he had a gigantic hurdle to climb over to get those words out, even if I didn’t condone why. This was a foreshadowing of what was to come, at best. Felicitations spoken in strained voices, eyes staring as they thought way too hard about how this worked. Was I the alpha or was Tris, needing to reduce everything down to the simple alpha-omega dichotomy for it all to make sense.
If it weren’t for Cress, for the conspicuously silent Theo, for the young people in James’ family, I could deal with that as I did best—ignoring them or telling them to fuck off if they persisted. But Greta was right. I saw my sister’s face, what was written there in the lines of it, undermining the words she’d said. I wanted to be happy, but Christ, did it have to come at the expense of others? James seemed to sense my discomfort, his hand going to my hair.
“I’m taking the omegas to my place to decompress. You had to bring this to our attention, but the way you did it…” He surveyed the room. “I know what you’re going to say, that we’ll be facing down hostile crowds no matter where we go, but I shouldn’t think it too much to expect there not to be one in our own homes.”
“Of course, darling. I’ll let the academy know that the offer is a serious one and that Tristan will need to be free to come and go as he pleases.” Greta shot my father a sidelong look. “Perhaps we could set him up in a place of his own.” James’ head jerked up. “Not at your place. That wouldn’t be right, not until the bond is formalised. Somewhere with sufficient protection from other alphas, but more freedom of movement. An omega still residing in an academy at twenty-six is not an ideal situation.”
Dad bore the criticism stoically, but what else could he do?
“I would appreciate that…a lot, Mrs Chadwick,” Tristan said, dropping his head.
“Greta, please.” She smiled down at the chastened looking Tris. “I’ll be in touch, but for now, something to ground the omegas.” She looked pointedly at James. “It is tempting while everything is new to make it about heat—”
“Trust me, Grandmother, that wasn’t what I was thinking.”
He didn’t elaborate on what, instead turning around and sweeping us with him, out of the library, the house, and then into his car. I huddled up in the backseat, Tris’ arm going around me.
“It’ll be OK, Kit,” he murmured. “It’ll be hard, but it’ll be OK.”
But if that were the case, why was James sitting there in the driver’s seat, his hands on the wheel, but not moving, not twisting the key in the ignition, not driving us out of here, just…sitting? Then as I leant against Tristan’s chest, I saw James cue up a call through the car speakers before turning the car engine on.
“Len,” was all the response James got when the call was picked up, just as we were easing out of the driveway.
“Where are you?” James asked.
“Figured I’d get a jump on what was decided—taking Jacks out for a beer. He reckons he’s gonna convert me to that fancy micro-brewed shit, but I…” I heard the moment the penny dropped. “What’s happened? Are the omegas OK? What the fuck could’ve happened on the way to dropping them off home? I’m coming, tell me where you are.”
“Don’t,” was James’ taut reply. “Go on the date. I’ve only just met the man, and even I could tell how much it would break Jackson’s heart if you cancelled on him. Anyway, the right micro-brewed ale is far superior to anything the massive breweries put out.”
“I?
?m gonna pretend you didn’t just say that,” Len rumbled. “Now stop bullshitting. What went down?”
“There was a video taken last night.” A ragged sigh on the other end of the phone line. “From that, I think you’ve guessed how this will play out.”
“Fuck…” Len growled. “Fuck!”
“What happened?” There was a much fainter voice in the background, then their voices muffled as Len explained to Jackson what he’d just been told.
“The omegas, are they OK?” Len asked in a despairing tone.
“They’re here,” Tristan said drily.
“Jesus, Tris, Kit… I never would’ve… I shouldn’t…” A noisy exhalation of breath, and then Len asked the thing that no one in my family had. “How the hell are the two of you coping? You must be feeling violated.”
I hadn’t felt anything really. I was too used to shoving all those pesky feelings to one side. There was shock, all-consuming, never-ending shock, and I got an ominous feeling about what would happen when that faded, but right now?
Back at the house, no one had asked me how I felt, how Tris felt, how any of us felt. They had talked so long and in such depth about the wide-ranging consequences, like we were mangy cats dragging back endangered wildlife to deposit on their doorstep. Our actions were so beyond the pale, it didn’t warrant a mention, but not for us. I looked at Tristan, saw the concerned, wary expression, felt the regular sweep of his thumb over my knuckles, and didn’t know what the hell to say. He nodded, familiar with my moods and their vagaries.
“We’re still processing,” he said for me. “It was a bloody awful shock.”
“I get it. If I find out who the fucker who took that video is, I’ll…”
“Get in line, Rafferty,” James said, emotion finally colouring his words as he wove through traffic, every muscle on display as he handled the wheel like a madman. “I’ve got some choice words to share with Athena.”
“Me too, mate. I can talk to some of my old buddies, the ones that are still running the streets. Plenty of them with interesting connections. I’ll put the word around, attach a nice chunk of change to any information that’s useful. That’ll bring people out of the woodwork.”