19. Six Month Agreement
Six Month Agreement
That could have gone better, but no one is dead, so it definitely could have gone worse.
Look at me being optimistic.
So what if his brother thinks I’m a lunatic?
I’ll change his mind with time, and Alpha Henri already loves me (mildly traumatised by me), and I consider that a win.
You would think with a brother like Alpha Cassius, he would be a little more understanding, and it’s not like he’s never killed anyone.
He’s a Councillor for fuck’s sake. The rest of the world might think they are perfect Alphas, made to protect, but I know it runs deeper than that.
The shit they have to do to be initiated makes me look like an angel.
Angel. Sigh. He really did call me that.
I can’t stop myself from staring at him. He’s perfect. A strong nose, with a slight bump in the middle, piercing blue eyes, deep with grey flecks, and sharp teeth that I want nothing more than to sink into my neck.
Auggie leads us to what is either a small meeting room or an unused office.
Though I am fully aware that this conversation needs to happen, I’m not happy about it.
I really hope my mate is not a talker like the Council. I assumed with his job, he would be more of a doer than a thinker, but I’ve been wrong before.
Alpha Cassius takes a seat, keeping me in his arms, and my head pressed to his neck.
His scent gland is calling to me, and although it would be entirely inappropriate, I want to lick it.
Fuck, he smells good.
Auggie pulls out the seat opposite. He sighs and grunts a little on the way down, one of the few things he does that reminds me he isn’t young anymore.
“Before you start. I’m going to warn you, no matter what you say, it won’t change the outcome.”
He’s not a talker.
“Which is?”
“Omega Evangeline will be my mate.”
Auggie sighs, watery concern fills the air, and a sour stress stings my nose.
“It’s not that simple. Legally, she can’t.”
Legally, I can’t kill Alphas. That hasn’t stopped me before.
I understand his concerns. Especially given this morning. But I don’t understand how the Council have been trying my whole life to get me to act like the Omega they expect me to be and now that I’m doing the most Omega thing an Omega can do. Mate. They lose their shit.
“I don’t give a fuck. The law doesn’t stop me from biting her.”
That’s my man.
“Don’t be fucking stupid. She’s a ward of the Council, and she’s in some serious trouble.”
Trouble. When am I not? Since they found me, I’ve run away countless times, fought, and refused to go to school. Why do they keep acting surprised when I haven’t changed?
Alpha Cassius gently pries my head from his neck, holding my cheeks in his palms. A confident wooden smell weaving with his smoky scent.
“Are you in trouble, Angel?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I shrug.
“Yes, she is, and yes, it’s more than she can handle. She killed an Alpha yesterday.”
Traitor.
I narrow my eyes and grumble.
“Okay.”
“That’s it? Okay?”
“Do you have proof?” He tilts his head in a way that screams Challenge me.
“No,” I say.
“Yes,” Auggie says at the same time. “There were cameras in the house. The Council is currently sifting through the footage.”
The smile Alpha Cassius gives is nothing short of sadistic. It’s the same one he gave me before stepping into my knife. My heartbeat quickens, pulsing loudly in my ears.
“They won’t find any.”
He’s protecting me.
The unspoken words hang in the room, the meaning clear: he destroyed evidence for me.
Auggie gives a shallow nod, and his whole body relaxes. He would never have said it to me, but I can tell this whole thing is causing him stress. He loves me and would do anything to protect me. But if the Council takes that right away from him, he would never forgive himself.
I try to break the tension. “Even if they did. It would have been fine. It’s not like this is the first time.” I say with a light chuckle.
“Eva,” Auggie scolds. “We’ve talked about this. You cannot go around killing Alphas. They won’t let you get away with it forever. You were a child the last time they knew for certain. You’re not anymore. If you keep pushing them, they will lock you up.”
“They can try,” Alpha Cassius sneers.
The legs of his chair scrape across the floor, and Auggie stands, pacing in the small room.
“We’re getting off track. You both want to mate, correct?”
“Yes,” we reply at the same time.
I can’t help smiling at my mate. He gently strokes his fingers up and down my arm, leaving a heated trail of goosebumps.
“Then, to make that happen, you are going to have to prove to the Council that you are stable.” He pins us both with a glare.
“Like what?”
“Start by not killing Alphas!” he points out, like it’s the most obvious thing. “And you need to take school more seriously.”
He practically pleads the last point.
“I’m serious. This Council has put a lot of energy into the new Omega laws.
Attendance is no longer voluntary. The curriculum has been completely overhauled, and the positive outcome is undeniable.
By being an active part of it, you are showing them you care, that you are capable of being a functional member of society. ”
He’s not wrong.
My first year attending Golden Sanctuary Finishing School was during the big change.
Suddenly, more students than ever were in class.
The teachers changed. The content they were teaching was different, and safety became the number one priority.
I could feel it in the air. It didn’t matter that I was attending part time, or that I was working with the Council.
They treated me like a student. Like an Omega.
“You do go to school?” Alpha Cassius asks, the space between his eyebrows creasing.
“Sometimes,” I shrug.
“She is supposed to be attending Golden Sanctuary Finishing School part time. She completes most assignments and classes from home, but they determined that it would be detrimental to her socialising if she were to miss out completely. Realistically, she goes once a week, and as far as I am aware, she hasn’t spoken to a single other student.
Not that she stays long enough in the building to try.
But I’m serious, Eva, if you want the Council to allow you to mate, you need to give them something.
Proof that they don’t have to watch you constantly. ”
A bone deep discomfort settles inside me. I want to be good. I want to be able to confidently say I’ll go to school and then do it. But my delusional self isn’t that strong.
“School, got it.” I say with the same fake confidence I have been running on my whole life.
“Until the end of the year.” Alpha Cassius adds.
“What?”
“If she proves that she can go to school consistently for the rest of the year—that’s when you graduate, right?”
“Yes.”
“—then we’ll wait until she graduates, mate, and the Council can stay the fuck out of our business.”
My scent gland aches and I tremble in his arms.
Auggie scoffs. Rude.
“That’s six months away,” he says, shaking his head.
“Yes.”
“The longest Eva has ever gone to school consecutively has been a month. That was last month. Do you know what happened after that? She killed an Alpha.”
I don’t personally think the two things are related, but I understand his concerns.
Alpha Cassius ignores Auggie’s (completely valid) concerns. “Will the Council agree to the terms?”
“What makes you think Eva will complete the six months?”
“Because.”
Love the confidence in me. I would love the reason more. Because I, for one, have no idea how I will be able to do it.
* * *
“The security footage showed nothing?” Alpha Browen narrows his eyes, accusation dripping from his tone.
The building feels eerily silent since most of the Councillors have left.
After the revelation that I might not be the killer, only Alpha Knight, Alpha Browen, Alpha Henri, Alpha August and Alpha Cassius remained.
The room they picked is no doubt too big for the six of us, and I would guess chosen with the intent to intimidate me, given it was Alpha Browen’s pick.
But I find it oddly comforting. The tall ceilings and the empty space feel less confining. The windows are letting in the evening light, and the orange hue of the sky reminds me of a painting.
The most stifling part of this whole experience is the scent of angry dominant Alphas.
“Given the evidence—”
“Or lack thereof.” Alpha Cassius mutters.
“—we have to assume that Omega Evangeline is not responsible for the murder of Alpha Morgan Dean.” Alpha Knight continues. “Now, given the recent revelation that Omega Evangeline is the scent match of Alpha Cassius Atwood. We should discuss what this means for both of them.”
I hold my breath. A large, warm hand envelopes mine, and the simple reminder that he is here, with me, makes me breathe again.
With renewed strength, knowing both Alpha Cassius and Alpha August are on my side, I am cautiously optimistic that this will go our way.
“We have come to what I think is an agreement on a time frame for their mating—” Auggie starts, taking the floor with a wary smile.
Alpha Browen doesn’t let him continue. He throws himself out of his chair, despite Alpha Henri pulling on his shirt.
“Mating? You have to be kidding me. This meeting should be about how to keep them apart, not a plan to bring them together!”
Alpha Cassius’s hand clenches around mine, his muscular fingers flexing, and a deep growl rumbles in his chest. Despite the anger and violence itching to come out, he holds his ground. Auggie explained that the worst thing he could do is to show the Council they have a right to be worried.
“Who are you to pick and choose who should be with their scent match?”
His eyes flash with anger, ready to retort, but Alpha Henri forces himself between them, breaking their line of sight.
“What is your suggestion, Alpha August? Please continue.”
He nods.
“Thank you. As I was saying. Eva is a bright young Omega. She has been steadily going to school, working with the Council and living under my roof for years without an incident. I don’t see a reason not to approve their mating if they wait until she graduates. It’s the same choice all Omegas get.”
“Without incident? She broke into your apartment and stalked you. How is that normal Omega behaviour?”
My eyes widen, and I send a panicked look at my mate.
“You know as well as I do, because I told you. I let her into my apartment. What kind of mate would I be if I didn’t want my Omega safe and in my home?”
Let me?
Is he saying that to appease his brother, or is he telling the truth?
“You believe six months is enough time?” Alpha Knight asks.
“Yes. As I said. Most Omegas are afforded the choice to mate before graduation. She should get the same opportunities. That is, if the entire point of the Council having Eva as a ward was to ultimately rehabilitate her and allow her a normal life, and not as a way of monitoring and controlling her?”
“All we want is for Omega Evangeline to be safe, even if that means from herself.”
“And you will be able to stay in school for the next six months?” Alpha Henri asks.
I readily nod, agreeing to whatever terms they set if it gives me a chance to have my mate.
Despite their reluctance, the Council (sans Alpha Browen) seems to be coming around to the idea.
Alpha Browen’s eyes lock on mine, and now I know he and his brother are more similar than they realise, because that smirk is the exact same bloodthirsty one Alpha Cassius has. Though I’ve never felt so unsettled from his before.
“Full time.”
Everyone in the room turns to him.
“She wants to prove she is like every other Omega and should get the same rights as every Omega? Then the law states that she is to attend school full time.”
Bastard.
If there’s one guaranteed way to get me to fail, it’s making me sleep in those prison cells they call dorms.
“Fine.” An unearned confidence shudders through me, and I don’t recognise myself as I speak. “But I’m not living there.”
“That’s not—”
I interrupt. “—You wouldn’t expect me to move a nest I’ve had for years, would you?
I will, if I have to. But I won’t be able to sleep in a new space, and it takes months to make a nest.” False tears well in my eyes, and I project a distressed scent of wet, cold metal.
Though my anxiety is not entirely false, I am definitely pushing it.
But Auggie taught me a long time ago that Alphas are suckers when it comes to a crying Omega and nine times out of ten they fold.
Alpha Knight glares at Alpha Brown, his distrust and anger towards his fellow Councillor growing.
“We would never move an unwilling Omega from her nest. Of course, you can remain at home.” His face softens as he turns towards me, and I find myself trusting him completely.
I tug on Alpha Cassius’s sleeve. My eyes droop close, and the exhaustion from the day finally hits me.
He gently lifts my chin with his finger and thumb and searches my face.
Silently, we manoeuvre, moving so that I sit on the floor between his legs.
His fingers rake through my long hair, scratching at my scalp, and my brain drifts off.
All I can feel, smell, and think of is him.
All the worries and concerns I have go. His smoke keeps my lungs breathing and my heart beating.
The surrounding conversation becomes nothing but a gentle buzz.