Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Alyssa finally gets to throw me the mating party of my dreams, and it’s nothing like the mating party I would have had if I’d mated the alphas my father chose for me.
It’s not a grand society event where I show off my new bites by baring my neck to rich, important alphas.
It’s a much simpler affair. We celebrate with Pack Leclerc, Jeanie and Melissa and Ellie, and while it’s a smaller party, I’m filled with more joy than I ever thought possible.
The Leclerc estate has been decorated in banners and baubles, and it feels like too much for me and my pack, but I know Bethany wouldn’t have it any other way.
Pack Leclerc bears the scars of their confinement as hostages with pride, but no small amount of fear either.
Cass’s fathers stay close to Bethany, all within arm’s reach so Bethany never has to want for a reassuring touch from her mates.
It’s exactly how I felt after my own confinement.
I couldn’t be close enough to my mates then, couldn’t get enough of their scents and their touches.
Cassian stays close to his mother and fathers, but the sharp tension in our bond is gone now, replaced by the greatest relief.
While the pack may be frightened and vulnerable, they’re determined to celebrate with us.
After all, we have so much to celebrate today.
We’ve all lived to fight another day. While we may be rattled, we’ve just enjoyed a triumph against Baphomet’s Prince and the Soldiers of Saint Aldous.
And we have each other. I have a family in the truest, most beautiful sense of the word, all thanks to Cassian and his parents.
I’ve never felt more welcome than I do in their home and their lives.
They’ve embraced me like a daughter, and it’s all thanks to my first mating bite.
Now, three more bites and what feels like a lifetime later, I’ve cut all of my father’s puppet strings.
I’m finally free of him for good. Still, despite the festivities, I spare a thought for him.
Will he stay in prison, or will the Soldiers manage to free him using their connections in the Fairhaven PD?
Simon has gathered enough evidence to bury him in a trial if it comes to that.
“You’re thinking hard about something,” the beta in question says, coming up behind me and setting a hand on my shoulder. I lean back into his touch and then take his hand and kiss it.
“Just… everything.”
“It’s a lot, kit-kat, but we’re here to celebrate. Not what we just accomplished but us.”
I squeeze his hand and leap up from the sofa where I was cuddled up with Luca. “Celebrations call for snacks!”
I make for the kitchen, but Alyssa bats me away and chides me when I try to help her plate up hors d'oeuvres for all of us to share. She sidles up to me, refills my champagne glass and presses it into my hands, guiding me back to the living room.
Luca looks up, arching an eyebrow.
“I was kicked off snack duty.”
“That quickly?”
“Apparently, I’m not supposed to help at a party that’s in our honor.”
Luca pulls me down to his side, my first lover, my second mate. “Good, because I want you here with me.”
Marcus comes and takes my other side, taking my hand in his, brushing a kiss over the back of it, marking me with his scent.
“Oh!” Alyssa says, coming out of the kitchen, her phone in hand. She races to the front door, and I follow her out to the foyer. She throws the door open, revealing Bitsy and her honor guard, Connor. She embraces the other omega, throwing her arms around Bitsy and hugging her tightly.
“It’s so good to see you, Bits. We’ve all missed you so much.”
Bitsy smiles, but it’s a small, fragile thing. She hoists a bottle of champagne in the air. “I heard there was a party I needed to crash.”
I hug her tightly. “It’s not crashing if you’re invited. I’m glad you’re here, Bitsy. Come in and let’s pop that bottle of champagne.”
The Omega Girl Gang congregates in the kitchen, snatching snacks off Alyssa’s plates of hors d'oeuvres. Alyssa doesn’t even bother to stop us, snatching a crostini covered in bruschetta for herself.
“Tell us everything, Bits. We’ve all been so worried about you,” Alyssa says.
“Where’s… where’s Ellie?” Bitsy asks, fiddling with her bracelets.
“I’m here,” Ellie says from the doorway to the kitchen.
The two omegas exchange a heavy look and a brittle hug.
Alyssa must notice the tension, because she takes that moment to fill a glass of champagne for Bitsy.
“Is it terrible?” Ellie asks, her voice hoarse.
“It could be worse,” Bitsy deflects, turning away from her best friend. “I always knew I’d have to do my duty for Pack Jordan. I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. I thought I had more time.”
“How are your fathers being about it?” Alyssa asks, pressing a plate of snacks into Bitsy’s hands.
“Surprisingly supportive. I’m encouraged to join in on meetings with the alphas, allowed to get to know them a bit. I think my family will make the best choices they can for me, but it still sucks ass.”
“I still think we should get you, Ellie and Melissa out of the country to a sovereign sanctuary state,” I say quietly. I know Pack Leclerc could pull it off.
Bitsy waves me off with a fragile smile. “Enough about me. This is meant to be a celebration for you and your pack, Junie.”
Following Bitsy’s lead, we head to the family room.
Bitsy and Ellie take a sofa together, but Ellie sits as far from her best friend as she can.
Oh, Ellie. If only Bitsy knew what she’s been going through in her absence, though perhaps she does.
Ellie hasn’t paid any heed to her own deadline for making a mating match, instead pouring all her worry into Bitsy, who can barely look at her.
Alyssa circulates through the room, passing out snacks to lighten the mood. I’m sandwiched between Ian and Marcus, and cuddle up with my final mate, breathing in his pine-and-winter-wind scent.
“Love you,” he murmurs, his love filling my heart with sunshine. When I look over at his mother, her face shines with pride, tears beading at the corners of her eyes. She shoots me a huge smile, and I take her son’s hand, lacing my fingers with his.
“Oh! We should do toasts!” Alyssa says, sensing the tension that still drifts through the room.
The new laws, the past few months, they’ve taken a heavy toll on all of us here.
I don’t mind a subdued celebration—we’re finally all back together after all.
Still, the future is uncertain. Can Gerard regain control of the Council of Nine and overturn some of the draconian laws put in place by Baphomet’s Prince?
Saints, if he could, it feels like that’d solve just about everything.
Still, I know war is coming. It may not be the all-out chaos in the streets I saw in my visions, but Baphomet’s Prince won’t stand down, not when his twisted heart is full of hatred for omegas. Not when he has so many supporters.
“I’ll toast!” Bethany says, and the mood in the family room lightens immediately.
“To Juniper, the daughter I never had. You’ve brightened all our lives with your kindness, your bravery and your brilliance.
I’ll forever be grateful for Cassian bringing you into our lives, along with your wonderful pack.
You’ve all become family to us in such a short time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
To all of you!” She raises her glass, and we all follow suit.
I clink glasses with Ian and Marcus, then with Simon, who lounges against the back of the sofa. “To us,” I murmur. “To all of us.”
My pack truly is wonderful. We’ve been through so much together, and I know we’ll encounter more challenges in the future, but with them at my side, I believe I can face down any evil that comes our way.
After the party, we all crash out in my nest at the Leclerc estate. I’m sandwiched between Cassian and Simon, and cycle through my bonds with my men. Each of them is so filled with love that it nearly brings tears to my eyes. Saints, my pack. My perfect pack.
Together with the resistance and thirty-eight very brave omegas, we’ve done what once seemed impossible. We freed everyone and took down my father. The relief in my breast is palpable. Still, I quietly weep for the omegas who were lost to my father’s brutal experiments and machinations.
“Aw, love,” Cassian murmurs, kissing my tears away.
I sniffle as he bundles me closer to him. He tucks my head beneath his chin, and I press my face into his neck, dragging his scent into my lungs. My mates are so good to me, anticipating my every need and comforting me when I need it most.
“You’ve got that little wrinkle in your forehead.
Thinking too hard again,” Simon says, stealing me away from Cassian and trying to kiss that little wrinkle away.
Ian, Luca and Marcus clamber over Cassian and Simon to do the same.
Luca covers my face in kisses until my bleak mood is forgotten, and I laugh.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” he says, dipping lower to kiss my jaw, then a line down my neck.
I let out a low whine, turned on by so little.
But it’s always been that way with my men; their smallest touches get me hot every time.
Luca snatches my lips in a kiss, and the rub of his piercing against my tongue makes me moan.
He comes over me, pressing a thigh between mine.
I tangle with him, our bodies moving together in a dizzying tease.
My perfume floods the air, and my mates groan at the scent.
“We’re celebrating?” Ian asks, a devious grin on his face.
“Definitely,” Simon says, stealing me away from Luca. He draws me into a teasing kiss, the fall of his lips on mine stirring my desire even further. He’s always been able to turn me needy and boneless with his kisses, tempting and teasing until I need to be touched.