Chapter Thirty-Nine #2
“Oh. Yeah, they are. But I don't know how to be a good alpha,” I confessed. “We all have to make it together. I don’t just have mates. I have a pack. All five of us have to succeed.”
Verity gave me a soft smile. “I know the feeling of not knowing how to be a good alpha. But I did it. We’d only been together a few months before I bonded with them and I wasn’t expecting it, since it happened during a surprise heat.”
I considered this for a moment. “True. But I’ve only known Fiona for a few days. Also, Carlos is really afraid that you’re never going to give him any cake pops ever again because we violated your edict to not be friends.”
She was one of those alphas who baked to show she cared and her shit was elaborate, and delicious.
Verity rubbed her forehead. “He can still have cake pops. It wasn’t an edict. It was more like exasperation at the thought of what could happen if you two got together. And yes, I was mad in the locker room, but at that point I only knew about the car, not you bonding.”
“What do you think caused the memory loss and her suddenly going in the heat?” Grace asked. “Was there something traumatic?”
“No. All I can think of was maybe it was the drugs.
We mixed drugs and they can already make memories hazy.
Maybe the drugs made her go into heat and then it made us have so much trouble remembering?
Her heat was short though. That's all I can think of. Yes, I know mixing drugs is stupid, and we were also drunk. But we were at a rave, in Europe, at Christmas.” I looked at Grace.
“Speaking of drugs. Will I be able to sell you my drug? It would be good to have some actual money to help support my pack and everything.”
Fiona dropping so much money on her dads’ cards like it was nothing made me nervous.
“You mixed drugs? Also, sell your drug?” Verity frowned.
“They’re tightening up the collegiate drug tests. I’m pretty sure my drug is going to be part of it. Grace was going to see if they could find a pharmaceutical use for it,” I replied.
I could really use some good news.
Grace’s look went pensive. “Was yours one of the drugs you took?”
“Yeah that and there’s shit I bought off this guy.
We were looking for something that wouldn’t show up on a PHL drug test. It didn’t work very well.
Or maybe it did and was super delayed? Anyhow, we ended up taking my stuff, too.
They said it was called Fruity and like Mainframe, which I’ve taken before,” I replied.
“I haven’t heard of Fruity, but there are a lot of different drugs in Europe. ”
Verity rubbed her temples. “You took the word of some stranger at a rave?”
“Well, when you put it that way it seems dumb.” I frowned.
Grace was on her phone. “Fruity isn’t anywhere near Mainframe and a lot closer to Eazy-E with a long lead time.”
“Oh shit,” I breathed. Easy-E was a street drug often slipped into drinks for use in more nefarious enterprises.
“There’s a really long lead time, so somebody doesn’t realize their drink was spiked. Then they get high from the party drug, blackout and have trouble remembering,” Grace read off her phone.
Verity nodded. “I’ve heard of it on campus. The long lead time makes it harder to pinpoint when you were drugged.”
“Shit.”
“Hale, dearest. Do you know some of the things people use your party drug for? I was doing anecdotal research, trying to figure out if there was a market for it.” Grace gave me a look.
“It’s a party drug. We use it to party.” I shrugged. What else would you do with it?
“True. However, some people figured out that if you mix it with Easy-E, it can make an omega go into heat and then blackout,” she told me.
Horror struck me. “That’s not what I intended it for. I had no idea people were even doing that.”
The food sat heavily in my belly and I wanted to vomit. How could they?
“Wait, do you think someone did that to us on purpose?” My chest shook.
“Personally, I think you dumbassed yourself on accident, considering the person who sold you this probably didn’t know you’d take something else–and your drug isn’t widely known. Hale, we have had this drug-mixing conversation before.” Verity sighed.
“We didn’t mean to, we thought it didn’t work.” I frowned. “Are people really doing that with my drug? But who would do that? Where are they doing that? Not on campus. Campus has zero tolerance for that.”
“Good. But you sell your drug other places and to other people, right?” Grace added.
“Yes.” Though I only wholesaled it to Clegg, who sold it with his moonshine. He had a much larger reach than I did.
“You can’t always control what other uses a drug has.
I’m glad you’re horrified. At the same time, Easy-E comes from oxytipoline.
If your drug mixed with that can induce heat, there might be a legitimate reason for that, especially if it has fewer side effects than some of the other heat-inducing drugs that are used for medical purposes.
Though the memory loss would be a major side effect,” Grace added.
“I regret not remembering bonding with them,” I confessed. “I still don’t know what I’m going to do. Out of everybody, I’m the least adult. They have careers. I haven’t graduated.”
“You only have one semester left of undergrad. Though honestly, if you don’t really want to get your PhD and are only doing it to make the parents happy, I will support you,” Verity told me.
“I always thought you’d make a good high school chemistry teacher.
You know, like Dad, but without the silly suspenders. ”
“Absolutely with the silly suspenders,” I replied, pretending to be aghast at her suggestion.
Dad was everybody’s favorite chemistry professor, and known for his suspenders and bowties.
“University’s closed until after New Year’s, but my mentor said that he might have a friend in New York, who could possibly take over my senior seminar research in a lab here and he’d sign off.
But he had to check. That would be helpful.
I’ve also reached out to those professors of my other classes to see if there’s any way I might be able to do them online or independent study. ” I took another muffin.
Verity beamed. “There you go! AJ is really good at things like finances and investments. You should probably meet with him and talk about stuff. I can make you a budget template. Since you’re an alpha, a lot of that responsibility falls to you.
Even if other people are going to handle it for the pack, they’re all good things to know, so that you can understand what is going on. ”
“If I’m commuting back-and-forth, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my job in Research Circle,” I replied. Which was too bad because I liked working at the Titty Tank.
“Maybe Compass BioTek can pay you for your senior project? Can you send me the proposal you gave your mentor? If it’s not proprietary to him of course,” Grace said, getting up to refill her coffee.
“Oh, I didn’t even think of that. It’s my research.” I got out my phone and forwarded that to her. “Sent. I mean, I’m willing to sell my soul to Compass Biotek. I was kinda hoping to do more work with you anyway. I had fun over this summer.”
As long as I didn’t stay with them.
“Perfect.” She nodded.
“Have you heard from Rock Tech? What about other PhD programs?” Verity asked.
My head hung with shame. But there was no point in lying. “I was waitlisted for Rock Tech. I haven’t gotten into any place. Not one. I’ve hidden how bad my grades got last year.”
“Last year you were trying to figure out how to live on your own and dealing with your entire support structure dissolving,” Grace said softly. “It’s understandable that you had a few rocky semesters.”
“Yeah, but programs aren’t taking that into consideration.
I still have some programs I’m waiting on.
I’m also working on a spreadsheet of all the programs in the area that I can still apply for.
NYC State applications don’t close until tomorrow night and they use the common application, so I already sent that one in.
It’s not the most glamorous program, but it’s a decent one.
Your school is still open, but I don’t think I can get in there,” I admitted.
“You can still try,” Verity urged. “They like innovation and they’re so much more relaxed than Briar and Marquess.”
“If worse comes to worst, I guess I’d take a year or two off and try to get an entry-level job in my field here? I haven’t started looking to see if there even is anything.” I ended up grabbing a slice of bacon just to have something to do.
“Those all seem like really good options. I’m proud of you for already doing all of that and it’s okay to not get into programs. I didn’t get into a lot of programs, either,” Verity replied.
“You were probably planning on just staying at Briar or Marquess, which might be hard to make work, but if that’s where you really want to go maybe you can figure it out. ”
I shook my head. “It’s not the same without you and Dad.”
Dad taught at Briar. Mom taught next door at Marquess. They were sibling schools. Back in the day, Marquess had been for alphas, Briar for betas. Now everyone could go to either, including omegas.
“One thing to think about is what happens if Carlos gets traded,” Verity added. “How will him being far from you affect him? I don’t know how it works for kappas. Also, you have to consider your omega and how being away from you–and Carlos–affects her as well.”
“Oh, right. And I have to think of Fiona being away from Saoirse, who’s a delta. They’re also bonded. They’ve been girlfriends for a while. Wow, those are all really good things to consider.” I ran my hand through my hair. “We have an appointment with the Omega Center on the second.”
“Good.” Grace nodded.
I sighed. “What do I even contribute?”