epilogue
JUDE – A MONTH LATER
The alumni pavilion smells like cheap beer, grilled burgers, and whatever cologne the lacrosse team bathed in before showing up.
I know this because Bishop told me when we walked in, wrinkling his nose and muttering something about sensory warfare.
To me, it smells like outside and food and too many people, which is fine because I stopped expecting my nose to be useful a long time ago.
Graduation was three hours ago. My cap is somewhere in Bishop's car, my gown is crumpled in Hollis' backseat because he insisted on carrying it for me and then immediately forgot where he put it, and my diploma is in a folder tucked into the bag slung over Bishop's shoulder because apparently I can't be trusted with important documents.
He's not wrong. I left my wallet in the natatorium twice this week.
The pavilion is packed with every post-graduation cliché Knotlocke has to offer.
Fairy lights strung between poles that weren't designed for them.
A DJ playing songs no one asked for. Alumni mingling with current students like the age gap disappears after enough cheap champagne.
The auction banners are still up from the final Spring Splash, which raised enough money to fund the swim program for two more years and buy Marsh a new pace clock that he cried over in his office when he thought no one was looking.
Hollis has my hand in his, which is unnecessary because I'm not going to bolt from a barbecue, but his thumb keeps stroking across my knuckles and I've stopped pretending that bothers me.
Bishop is on my other side with his fingers resting at the back of my neck, guiding without steering, the way he does everything.
I spot the table before Milo spots me, which gives me approximately four seconds of peace.
"JUDE!" Milo is already on his feet, both arms windmilling like he's directing aircraft on a runway. His long brown hair whips into his brother’s face, though Quentin doesn't even flinch, just reaches up and holds the hair out of his eyes without breaking his conversation with Iris.
"Over here! We saved seats! Well, I saved seats.
Quentin said saving seats is territorial behavior, and I said good! "
Parker is already shifting down the bench to make room, her smile wide and easy as she elbows one of her Alphas to move his plate. Fox grumbles but shifts, and Arlo leans across the table to offer me a fist bump that I return before I can decide whether I'm a fist-bump person now.
"Sit down before Milo dislocates something," Parker muses. "He's been tracking you across the lawn for five minutes."
"I have not been tracking. I've been monitoring. There's a difference. Avery, tell him there's a difference."
Avery looks up from where he's tucked against Declan's side, the esports Alpha's arm draped over his shoulder. "There is absolutely no difference," Avery says, grinning. "You were tracking."
Milo gasps with his whole body. Quentin catches his elbow before he tips backward off the bench.
I sit down a seat away from Parker and next to Hollis, who immediately presses his thigh against mine and starts purring at a volume he clearly thinks is subtle.
It’s not subtle. Blair, seated across from me with his boots crossed on the bench beside him and his lip ring catching the fairy lights, glances at Hollis' chest and then at me.
"Your Alpha purrs louder than my dishwasher," Blair says. "And I have a very loud dishwasher."
"He's happy," I say. "It's a medical condition."
Hollis beams. "It is. Bishop diagnosed me."
Bishop sits on my other side and reaches across me to steal a fry off Blair's plate. Blair lets him, which from Blair is practically a declaration of brotherhood. "I diagnosed him as impossible," Bishop says. "The purring is a symptom."
Blair's gaze slides back to me. The same look he gave me in that art class months ago when he decided I was worth his money and his attention, in that order.
"For the record," Blair says, tapping one nail against his drink, "I always knew Reece had clearance-rack villain energy.
Discount evil. Bargain bin cruelty. The man couldn't even sabotage properly without getting caught by a freshman holding a vending machine snack. "
Parker snorts so hard her drink almost comes out of her nose. Fox catches her cup and Arlo hands her a napkin. The coordination between the three of them is so practiced it barely looks like a choice anymore.
"Nelson is never going to let that go," I say. "He's already telling people he cracked the case."
"Let him have it," Hollis says, his purr hitching when I lean further into his side. "He's been insufferable about it for weeks. If we take this from him, he'll start showing up to practice with a detective hat."
Milo leans across the table with both elbows planted dangerously close to Parker's plate.
"Okay, but can we talk about the fact that Jude literally told Reece to fuck off in front of the entire hallway?
Because I wasn't there but Avery heard it from Declan who heard it from Kit who was apparently lurking near the vending machines for unrelated reasons. "
Kit, seated at the far end of the table with his legs thrown across Easton's lap, looks up from his phone long enough to say, "I was getting a Sprite."
"You were eavesdropping," Easton says, his arm draped over Kit's shins like they're furniture he's claimed.
"I was getting a Sprite while information happened to reach me. Context matters."
There’s a moment of silence and then the table breaks into overlapping conversations, Blair’s Alphas stomping up to the table and immediately dragging him off somewhere. The Omega looks like a pig in shit as his women carry him toward what looks like the parking lot.
My attention moves back to the table, my chest finally settling all the anxiety I had been holding over the last year. There were so many things I missed out on, trying to curl into myself, and be whatever I thought I was allowed to be.
But one look around the table, and I can obviously see that how much happiness I hid from. Each of these Omegas have found happiness through the auctions or weird connections or even just because they let themselves have what they wanted.
I reach over to grab Bishop and Hollis’ hands, pulling them into my lap. And now I’ve let myself have what I wanted. In my own way. And not one person at this table is asking for the explanation, the reason why, or demeaning my choice or how I call myself pack.
Unable to find anything else to say, I look around before stealing a fry off Blair's plate.
Milo starts laughing at me as Parker cuts off her conversation and looks at me. "When he gets back, he’s going to make you pay for that."
I squint at him as I steal another. “Stingy much? He has like a billion dollars or something.”
Avery cuts in. “And he already spent like five grand or whatever on you so you could have boyfriends.”
That’s not what happened at all. Well, that’s kind of what happened. I steal another fry anyway. “Well, he’ll have to count them to see and I’ll be gone before he gets back. I’ve heard stories about how often those three…” I stop, my cheeks heating up a little.
Parker bites her lip as her Alpha answers for her. “And they’re relatively quick about it, even if they come back smelling like a whole Omega slick factory. No shame. At all.”
“I’m glad I can’t smell that,” I say and then immediately freeze, waiting for the usual pushback but it doesn’t come.
“Lucky,” Milo mutters. They all burst out laughing as I tighten my grip on my men’s hands before looking down at where my wrists press against theirs.
“I think I know where I want my tattoos,” I mumble, looking over at Hollis and then at Jude. “Not now but soon?” I twist my arms so that my wrists are both face up. “Right here. So when we walk, it’s like they’re both touching you.”
Hollis immediately drags me into his side. “Not now, like as in tonight? Or like can we leave now?”
I open my mouth to say something as Milo cuts in. “No one is leaving! There’s food. We need food. And there’s pictures! We need to see everyone being crazy for the year and—” His words get muffled by a sudden kiss, his Alpha squeezing between him and Quentin.
I’ve only seen the football coach’s daughter in pictures and none of them do Iris any justice. “Milo, please, for one second just be quiet, okay? Now, let’s get this slideshow over with because I’m sure we’re all eager to leave campus.”
I frown. “I mean, I get that we’re graduated and everything but why…”
Bishop snorts at my side. “Sweetheart, the summer auctions are way more scandalous than the ones during the school year. And the kids who are taking summer classes… let’s just say they’re a completely different vibe.”
I almost get around to asking when I see something out of the corner of my eye and am immediately intrigued. Tats and piercings for days. The Alpha has to be nearly seven feet, the scar across his face hot as fuck. “Wait, what kind of sports are in the summer?”
I twist around to look at the packs littered across the table.
Hollis seems the most confused until I look at Iris again.
She offers me a wry smile. “The ones that everyone pretends doesn’t exist but enjoy anyway.
You see, Knotlocke has always been a bit scandalous but uh… it goes way deeper than that.”
“Are we talking like fight club or like street racing or like some kind of hunting…”
“Yes,” one of Parker’s Alphas say.
I pause for a moment and then nod, leaning back into Hollis’ chest. I know they were trying to give me a bit of a warning but I’m more than curious. I just have to get my men to agree to come back for one of those games.
For now, though, I need to make a tattoo appointment.