Chapter 13 Afternoon Tea #2
I’ve never met a monk. I’ve heard about the alpha monastery. I know that they brew beer, sell honey, and have a lavender farm. I thought I also heard they vowed against ever being with an omega. Perhaps that’s why Freddie’s girlfriend is a beta.
I heard about the monastery because it’s on the same mountain road as the Liberal Arts college I attended. You can see the signs for the turnoff.
Freddie tells the hostess we’d like a quiet table.
I look around the ritzy dining room. It’s got lots of alcoves and private rooms. There are mirrors everywhere, making it feel like a maze.
The lighting is low, and the noise is muted.
The hostess leads us to a couch and chairs in the middle up against the window. It’s oddly intimate.
I sit on the couch, and he sits in an armchair, which is slightly above me. The corners of our seats meet.
He orders a coffee. I reach over, without thinking, and pull his watch to me so I can check the time.
4:30 pm. His wrists have stacks of bracelets along with the watch.
I wonder if he made them. I let go, but his arm stays.
He looks a bit discomforted by my sudden touch.
I consider apologizing. I just checked the time, though.
So I don’t. He finally takes his arm back.
“I’ll have a tea. Do you have a list?” I ask the server. She nods and leaves. Returning shortly with the list.
I lean back and look over the list. They have a great selection, including teas with dandelion, which are my favorite. I end up ordering two different teas. A dandelion tea and a raspberry leaf tea. Excited to try them both.
Freddie leans over the armrest. “You’re Shadow’s omega. I got to admit, I thought he preferred men. Big, self-centered, alpha men.”
Freddie is going to be just a joy to spend the late afternoon with, isn’t he? He’s trying to snuff out my character. And if he gets to talk shit on his brother along the way, then he seems pretty good about that, too.
I cross my legs and get comfortable. The couch is marvelous for that. Jake’s button-down shirt falls again off my shoulder. I should maybe button it up a few more buttons. But I don’t.
Freddie notices.
“He seemed to enjoy himself during my heat. So maybe he’s got lots of preferences you don’t know about. How close are you two?”
His eyes leave my shoulder and meet my eyes. “Not that close. Actually. I’ve been away.”
“At the monastery?”
He nods. “It’s been twenty years now.”
“Wow, that’s a long time. What do you do there?”
“I’m learning. In training.”
“To brew beer?”
He barks out a laugh. The server returns with our drinks. Freddie dumps a pail of sugar into his coffee. He drinks nearly half the mug in one go. “Have you had their beer?”
“I went to Fair Castle. Of course, I’ve had your beer.”
His smile grows. “A Fair Castle girl,” he muses to himself. Of course, he’d know about my college. “A princess.”
Fair Castle Liberal Arts College has an unfortunate mascot—a princess. Personally, I think the men love it more than the women who attend. During football games, more men are dressed as yellow-haired maidens than you can imagine.
“So, how does a monk afford all of this?” I refer to the hotel and the splendor of it.
“Monks can be rich,” he says, but it’s not a great joke.
So he offers the truth. “It’s not that kind of monastery.
It’s more of a school.” He pauses, and I think he may not continue, but then he adds, “We’re training to deal with our feral tendencies.
” He looks nervous. “That got a reaction out of you. Does that bother you?”
“My parents were both alphas. My mother and my dad. I’ve heard about alphas who are feral.”
“Two alphas? I thought female alphas couldn’t have children?”
“It’s rare. Very rare. The doctors told her I’d most likely not survive. And they assumed I’d be an alpha. But to their surprise, a very beta baby girl was born.” I laugh, but it’s not funny.
“Beta?”
Freddie notices my tea has steeped long enough, and since I’m deep in my thoughts, still trying to locate the memory of my parents, he pours my first cup. He drops in a lump of sugar and a spot of cream, then hands me the cup.
“Until a year ago, I’d been registered as a beta. Besides my small size and this voice of mine, I’d been a through-and-through beta. I don’t even know where my omega mark is.”
Lie. I know now where it is. But I was unaware until I perfumed and it became sensitive.
“But the blood tests and scans…” He is leaning over his legs, his body tipped toward me. I take a sip. Damn, this is good tea.
“All beta then I perfumed on the night of my graduation.”
“What did your parents think?”
“I don’t know. They weren’t there. We haven’t been close for many years.
They have a lot of things going on, and so do I.
I wrote them an email. Didn’t get a reply for a few weeks.
The reply was mostly about how they changed the terms of my trust fund so I’d have access to it now.
Which is generous. I use it to pay for rent at my place downtown.
If I’m careful, it’ll last my whole life. ”
He smiles. God, that smile. It looks like he’s got an agenda. “That’s what I’m living off of, too. My trust fund. And investments. But I think mine might be a bit more than yours.”
I look around at the chandeliers and marble statues. “Yeah.”
“What did you study at Fair Castle?”
“Piano.” I smile and he returns it.
“You play beautifully,” he tells me, and I wince.
“Do I?”
He cocks his head to the side. “No, I guess not. You play monstrously. Like there’s a creature inside you trying to rip its way out.”
I beam at him. “Now that, I like to hear.”
We both take a beat to drink our drinks. The server brings us a tray of assorted treats and sandwiches. I try a pink cookie with some sort of jelly center. It’s too sweet, but I eat it anyway.
“So tell me, Freddie, why does this Man-ho want your father dead?”
Freddie’s eyes darken. He swallows hard. “I don’t know. But I know I want Man-ho dead.”
“You have history?”
“Yes, we do. But it doesn’t involve my father. It doesn’t involve the Senator or these large schemes.”
“What do a monk and a local businessman have in common?” I’m trying to be charming, but he is getting more and more serious.
“What do you know about Lee Man-ho?”
“I see his name on businesses. I’ve heard he owns restaurants and bars. And I think there’s a martial arts school or something.”
“Or something.”
That’s it then. The school.
“I passed by it once on my way to the gardens. It has a beautiful archway. Tall stone walls. I don’t know what’s behind it.
” I don’t even remember the sign on the gate.
It’s near the central gardens of Cash City.
Acreages of reserved land for parks and pathways.
There are giant ancient trees, little streams, and bridges.
“The Man-ho School for Adolescent Alpha Boys.”
“What happens there, Freddie?”
“Hm?” He wasn’t listening.
“Did you go to that school?”
“No.”
“What goes on there?”
Freddie pushes all his air out of his lungs, then fills them again fully.
Like he’s trying to lower his heart rate.
“I was 13 when my parents were done with me. I couldn’t help my nature.
I was unruly. I didn’t listen. I stole. A lot.
I was violent. I handled most interactions with my fists or my alpha bark.
My mother was sick of it. She called the school and had me escorted there.
She was adamant it would fix me. I didn’t want to go. ”
“Why?” I ask, but it feels rude. Like I’m being too nosey.
“I often walked by, like you had, on my way to the gardens. I’d seen the boys coming and going, and do you know what I started to notice?”
“What?” I barely say above a breath.
“Broken. They were broken.”
“Their spirits?”
He smiles, showing all his teeth. “Yeah, that too. Their bones. Broken arms. Limping. Black eyes. Tender stomachs. I’d watch these kids coming and going, broken.
I knew if my mother sent me there, I’d break too.
And I’d seen Man-ho’s eyes watching me. Like he was hungry.
I’d never been afraid until that day, when one of his goons took me out of my home. Took me to the school.”
My stomach sours. I look down at my cold tea. I set it on the table and wipe my palms on my jeans. “Do you want to know more? You seem upset.”
I look up at him. I feel this buzzing in the air between us. Like I’ve known him for much longer than just today. “I want to know what happened next. But if you don’t feel comfortable…”
“I feel very comfortable with you. Is this just how alphas feel around an omega?”
Is it?
“I never asked an alpha how he feels around me.”
He smirks at me and then finishes his coffee, setting his mug down next to my cup. He pours me hot tea from the pot, then hands me the cup so I don’t have to reach for it myself.
“So what happened?”
“I fought my way out. I beat the shit out of their handler. But Man-ho himself found me. It was raining that day. He offered me a dry place. A hot drink. An ear to listen to. He wasn’t the monster I imagined, so I went with him.
He sat me down in his office. In his chair.
He told me things that would make any young boy excited.
He told me what they were doing at that school.
He offered me everything. He offered me magic. ”
A steady stream of adrenaline pumps into me at this story. What did Man-ho tell him? Why does Freddie look so afraid?
“But you rejected him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He looked too excited. I realized he needed me. He needed all these boys. He wasn’t telling the whole story.
No one, not even my parents, offered me what I wanted.
I wasn’t dumb enough to believe in his good nature.
There’s no such thing as fairy godparents.
I didn’t believe him. Even with his kind, grandfather eyes and his perfectly made hot cocoa.
He was warm and welcoming and told me everything I wanted to hear. I called bullshit.”
“What did he offer you?” I drink all my tea, so Freddie takes my cup from me. Our hands brushing. “He told me about primeval lusus naturae. It’s a fancy way to say that he wanted me to accept my feral nature. Give it to him.”
I want to know more. I want to know everything. His dark oil slick eyes lock with mine. It feels like magic between us.
But I don’t get a chance to ask him more.
Jake, Shadow, and Sebastian come into the dining room.
Freddie looks over my head, and I turn to see them at the host stand.
They spot us and come over. Jake kisses my cheek and then sits across from me.
Sebastian sits next to me. Shadow on a chair across from Freddie. Then I notice Jake’s bloody knuckles.