Chapter 31 #2
There’s a new registry all omegas will have to be part of, and another rash of spells we’re not allowed to cast—including one I know will be on my Advanced Casting final.
But by far the worst news is that unmated omegas will have to find mates and packs within a year of their designation revealing or become wards of the state, forced to mate those the state chooses.
All those who have already revealed as omegas will be on the same timeline: a year to get packed up.
While I worry for the too-young women who will be forced to accept mates, I worry for my friends just as much.
While Alyssa is mated, Bitsy and Ellie are not.
We meet them all at Ciel and seeing them for the first time since my captivity is a balm that soothes my soul.
They hug me tightly, covering me in affection, but I read an undercurrent of fear from all of them.
The world has changed too much in just weeks, and we’re all feeling unsure and unbalanced.
My men and Bitsy and Ellie’s honor guards crowd the stairs down into the cafe, trying to look nonchalant and failing utterly. Still, I think we’re all glad for their protection.
“Are you okay, girlie?” Alyssa asks in a hushed tone. “Like, for real?”
I sigh and shake my head. “I’m healing, but it was a harrowing experience. I never thought I was going to see my men again. I thought for sure I’d die in there.”
“Aw, Junie,” Ellie says, slinging an arm around my shoulder. “I know we can’t erase what happened to you, but we’ve got your back. I promise.”
“Who can I hex on your behalf?” Bitsy asks, rolling her scribe between her hands. “I’ll risk expulsion for the chance to hex your father’s dick tiny.”
“Ew, dad dick,” Alyssa puts in, her lip curling in disgust.
“Point taken,” Bitsy agrees. “I’ll have to find another good hex…”
Saints, have I missed my friends. The Omega Girl Gang is finally back together where we all belong.
“Aw fuck,” Bitsy groans. “My dad’s calling. This can’t be good.” She ducks down the hall to take the call, leaving us behind to nurse our coffees.
Ellie drums her fingers on the table and jiggles her foot where it rests on the cafe stool’s bar.
She and Simon spoke earlier about her own mating situation.
Ellie is staunchly against mating anyone she’s not in love with, but she may not have the luxury of love.
Even with Simon and Cassian’s protection, she has to be mated within the year.
She’s dodged becoming a ward of the state once with their protection, but that was before the Soldiers passed their oppressive new laws.
Saints, her mother must be in a state at the thought of losing her daughter.
Bitsy slumps back into the cafe, pocketing her phone.
“My father’s yanking me out of the academy,” she says, her voice shaking.
“He what?” Ellie demands.
“I’m out of here tomorrow morning,” Bitsy reveals, swallowing hard. “He’s going to start soliciting alphas for my mating contracts, as is his right.”
I’ve never seen Bitsy like this, so cowed. Her default modes are snarky and angry, but now… now she’s fearful and distraught in ways I can’t even imagine.
“You can’t mate some assholes!” Ellie exclaims.
Bitsy ducks her head and shrugs her shoulders. “What choice do I have? I’ve spent my years here dicking around while I could have been looking for mates. My time’s up.”
Ellie slides her chair back, the feet scraping on the stone floor. “Hell with this,” she mutters. “I thought you’d fight harder.”
Bitsy looks up sharply. “What’s there to fight, Ells? It’s the fucking law.”
“It’s a bullshit law.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that it’s our new reality. All I can do is hope for a miracle now. Or at least kind mates.” She presses her lips together, tears sparkling at the corners of her dark eyes. “Will you at least help me pack?”
Ellie nods stiffly. “I’m going to bitch at you the entire time.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, my bestest Bells.”
Bitsy is gone the next day, and Ellie is inconsolable.
She skips her classes, and when we finally find her in Bitsy’s cottage, it’s clear she’s been sobbing.
She won’t even let Simon into the cottage, though that doesn’t stop him from knocking every few minutes as we stare at the closed wooden door.
“She used to spend so much time here,” Alyssa says glumly. “Most omegas are possessive over their spaces, but Bitsy always welcomed Ellie into her cottage.”
Because Bitsy loves Ellie, and Ellie loves Bitsy.
And now the Soldiers have taken that away from them in the most brutal of ways.
Simon and I both sigh and sit on a stone bench within the residences, just in view of Bitsy’s cottage. I lean against him, and he wraps an arm around me, nuzzling against my cheek.
“I don’t know what to do, Junes,” he admits, his voice hoarse.
“All you can do is love her,” I tell him, knowing it’s the only thing I can do, too.
Except that isn’t true, is it?
I’ve vowed to fight the Soldiers and Baphomet’s Prince to my last breath. And it all starts with my father. I have to be brave—for all omegas.