40. Brotherly Love
Brotherly Love
Cassius
The Council is not happy. When are they really?
Mostly they’re annoyed that we didn’t listen and follow their rules rather than the actual outcome itself.
And when I say ‘they’ I mean Browen. He might be over his Evangeline hating game, but he hates being ignored and defied. His way of showing me just how pissed he is? Getting Dain a pass to be here. Family reunion. Great.
“We said six months.”
I don’t know how many times they’re going to repeat that. It feels like we won’t be allowed to wrap up this stupid fucking meeting until every single Councillor has had a chance to say it.
Like it will make a difference.
Say the words three times, and the world will shift on its axis and roll back in time to where my bite isn’t scarring her neck.
Idiots.
“I meant it. At the time.”
“At the time?” One of them, whose name I have not bothered to remember, asks.
They all appear to be on the same power trip. Angry and annoyed that anyone dared to defy them.
“The circumstances changed.”
Fuck. August lectured me on how this would go, but fuck, it’s hard to try to remain calm.
“What changed?”
I want to rearrange his face and cut it up into tiny pieces and feed them to a pig.
“I went into heat, okay.” Evangeline exclaims.
I tighten my arms around her, keeping her firmly on my lap and press a gentle kiss to her head.
“You don’t have to explain yourself.” I whisper.
Her heat is no one else’s business. The fact that we are here at all is ridiculous. I’m not going to let them bully my mate into talking about her body.
“She most certainly does!” The fucker closest to us shouts.
“We are scent matches. She went into heat. Did you really expect me to leave her in pain because you lot hadn’t decided if an Omega was worthy of mating?”
“You didn’t have to mate her to help with her heat.” Dain sneers, breaking the silent seething he has been doing for the last hour.
“And only a person who hasn’t found their scent match would think that.” I growl. “She didn’t want to wait. I didn’t want to wait, and I sure as fuck wasn’t thinking about the Council while I was fucking my mate.”
The air tenses. The reality of what we are: mates, something that defies laws, something science cannot explain, hangs heavy. An unchangeable reality despite their wants and rules.
“Well, what’s done is done. The law states you will still need to attend school, and it safe to say we are done here.” Browen says, glaring at our brother, regret at his decision to include him evident on his face.
“That’s fine.”
Evangeline leans into me, quiet and just as desperate as me to leave.
“Though I hope you know the consequences of your actions. We try to examine special cases individually and give each Omega a lifestyle that’s best for the circumstances that they’re in, but now we’re going to have to re-examine that.
It seems as though the best course of action might be to have all Omegas adhere to the law. ”
He better hadn’t be threatening my mate.
“Are you trying to make my mate feel bad for mating her scent match or feel responsible for every Omega in the country?”
“No. Not at all. This is a Council matter and should not have even been brought up here.” Alpha Knight glares at the one who spoke, and he slumps down in his chair.
The look Alpha Knight and Browen share is one of murder. I think there will be a few Council positions available soon. They don’t take chances with bad Councillors anymore.
“What he meant was that all Omegas should have the chance to mate, and perhaps the law for Omegas in Finishing School was the right direction and shouldn’t be discretionary.”
Likely story.
“There’s one other thing before we leave.” I announce.
Dain jolts in his seat, but Browen throws an arm over him, holding him in place.
“What is it?” Alpha Knight asks.
“We found Evangeline’s parents.”
Everyone stills. I personally don’t think they deserve any more information about my mate.
However, knowing what I know about what happened to Omega Daisy and the kind of facility she was in, the Council needs to know they have more work to do.
Missing Omega children and scent trafficking are tied together like a fucked up balloon animal, and if this piece of information can help bring families back together or give someone closure, then so be it.
Or at least that’s what my Angel convinced me of.
“They’re dead. She killed them.” Dain growls, throwing off Browen’s arm and standing, his chest heaving with anger.
August growls low and fierce. Pinning my brother to the spot, daring him to move a muscle.
“I’m done beating around the bush. She kills Alpha. She is deranged. She’s barely even an Omega, feral, and just like feral Alphas, we should put her down.”
I gently gather my mate in my arms and move her to August’s lap. I know, no matter the outcome of this, she will be safe with him.
I run at him. My arms wrap around his waist, and I take him to the floor.
We fall, his head smashes off the ground with a crack, but I don’t stop.
My fist shatters his nose. Blood spurts out.
My eyes gloss over and the calm, controlled yet adrenaline filled feeling I get when I stalk and kill a feral Alpha settles inside my chest.
I don’t let up.
His moans of pain turn to muffled murmurs, but nothing but his death will satisfy. I snarl and growl, punching until my hands feel slippy with his blood.
The world tilts.
My eyes droop shut and fly open in what feels like less than a second.
I stare up at my beautiful mate. She presses her fingers against the mating bite on my neck and presents hers to me. I open my arms and gather her close to my chest. Her spicy scent fills my lungs and calms the anger raging inside me. She is here. She is safe.
I hold her tightly.
I can’t imagine a world without her in it. My brother, wanting to kill her, makes me sick. How, how can he not see how amazing she is? Even if she did kill her parents, even if they weren’t monsters who deserved to die, I would still love her with my entire being. There is no me without her.
Without moving or looking away from me, she addresses the silent, watching room.
“I was scent trafficked. The Alphas, the ones I killed, were not my parents. My real parents have been looking for me since I was taken from a park when I was six. They live in a different country and the traffickers moved me here, so I was never found. I didn’t remember them or the trafficking.
The trauma of it all was too much for me, so I locked it away.
It took mating Cassius to unlock it. It took feeling safe and having a home, a mate, for me to see it.
I killed my captors. Alphas who were planning to sell me for my scent and do unspeakable things to me.
I escaped, and I’ve been blamed for a crime I didn’t commit ever since. ”
“Fuck.”
I don’t see who says it. I don’t need to. It’s the same thought every single Councillor in this room is having.
They blamed a traumatised child who saved herself. Even if most of these Councillors didn’t have the role when she was young, they perpetrated the mistake of their predecessors by limiting her freedom and choice.
I pick up my mate, refusing to spare the room a last glance. They don’t deserve to be absolved of their mistreatment.
August walks with us, not so subtly kicking Dain while he groans on the floor, clutching his face and stomach, as we leave.