46. Storm
Chapter 46
Storm
Sunny:
Come meet me at the campus coffee shop, ASAP. It’s important.
Storm:
My omega just gave birth. How important is it?
Sunny:
Exonerating Kennedy levels of important?
Storm:
Which coffee shop? There’s like seven on campus.
Sunny:
The one near the student administration building. I’m not sure what it’s called, but there’s a ton of blue signs and seating outside.
Storm:
I know the one. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.
I stared down at my phone. Of all the times for Sunny to message me and demand to see me, only days after Kennedy had given birth seemed a bit extreme. Then again, if anyone appreciated how difficult the first days were postpartum, it was Sunny.
Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I padded out of Charlie's bedroom, where Charlotte was fast asleep, and down to the living room, where Micha was watching TV.
“Sunny just texted me, insisting I get my ass to the student center at the university right now—it sounds important. Is it okay if I vanish for an hour?”
Micha muted the TV, turning to me with a frown. “That sounds ominous. What has that little spitfire been up to?”
Storm shrugged. “I don’t know, but I hope she’s been using her powers for good. The only sliver of information she gave me was that it would help with Kennedy’s university situation.”
“It better be good if she’s dragging you away from our omega when she had a baby just a few days ago. We can hold down the fort. Kennedy and Samuel have been relaxing all day, and Charlotte is absolutely exhausted from Charlie taking her to the indoor playground this morning.”
I nodded. “Thank you. Will you let the others know where I am if they ask? I’ve got my phone on loud. I would go say goodbye to Kennedy, but I don't want to disturb her if she's asleep.”
“Yeah, never disturb a new mom’s sleep. Eli made the mistake of waking her last night to see if she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich, because she hadn't eaten, and she threw a pillow at his face. Pretty sure if there’d been something more solid in the nest, she would have thrown that at him instead.” He grinned. “I fucking love her.”
“Me too,” I said softly. Kennedy was a live wire and so goddamned sweet, the idea of her throwing things was probably more adorable than terrifying.
I knew the exact coffee shop where my sister wanted to meet, so I headed straight there. I didn't have to look too hard for Sunny because she was sitting at one of the outside tables, two take-out cups of coffee in hand as she sat with a blonde girl wearing a puffer jacket.
The second girl was oddly familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen her before.
“This better be good,” I said as I approached the girls.
“Stormy! Take a seat.” Sunny beamed, thrusting a cup into my hands. I took a sip and grimaced. It was full of sugar and syrup, just the way Sunny liked it. “This is Bethany!” She gestured to her friend, who nodded.
I didn't have time to figure out what Sunny wanted or why she had bothered to bring a friend with her, so I was blunt.
“Nice to meet you. Sorry to cut right to the chase, but Kennedy's waiting for me at home. What is going on, Sunny?”
My sister rolled her eyes, a huge grin on her face. “Beth is a friend of Kennedy’s,” she supplied. “I reached out to her when I realized we have a common enemy that needs squashing.”
A lightbulb went off in my head as I shook my head lightly. “Shit! I’m sorry . You’re the Bethany she’s always texting?”
“I am!” She nodded. “I was actually there the first day she met you, Charlie ,” she said pointedly, raising her brows, making it clear she knew just how much of a shithead I was.
“I’m trying to redeem myself, though I’m not doing great at it.”
Bethany shrugged. “You’re doing okay. Kennedy loves you, that’s what matters.”
Sunny nodded. “So, Bethany has a friend who will be joining us in a moment. They’re going to be helping us.”
“I-I would hardly call him a friend,” she stammered, a blush rising in her face. “I only offered him some free skating lessons for his daughter if he helped out.”
Sunny snorted. “That was after he went all alpha on you for saying you needed legal help! He was all are you safe and do you need help. It was honestly kind of hot.”
I was struggling to keep up with their conversation. I didn’t know if it was due to stress or lack of sleep, but I wasn’t able to keep up with Sunny’s usual enthusiastic conversation. “I’m lost…” I trailed off.
Sunny glanced back at me, a knowing grin on her face. “We've managed to obtain enough evidence for Kennedy to be completely exonerated and take that bitch Lorna down.”
I blinked for a moment, staring at my twin sister, trying to compute what she had just said. The desire to make sure that Kennedy's name was cleared had been weighing on me for the last few days. I had been clueless about how to help her, but that didn’t stop the alpha in me from going insane, demanding that the situation needed to be fixed.
“What do you mean?” I asked, almost too scared to believe her words.
“The university was refusing to give you guys the library footage, right? Well, I think I know why. Turns out, Lorna's mother works for the university. As soon as we realized that, we knew this whole situation was going to be that much harder to solve, so Beth and I had a little conversation and put a plan together.”
“Please explain. Now.”
How did I not know that Lorna’s mother worked for the university? Nepotism would be an obvious reason for her not getting into trouble.
“Well, I am known for being the sister of the famous Storm Sanderson,” she declared. “And two days ago, I just happened to be at the university rink, going to that charming little coffee shop next door, and you'll never guess who I ran into.”
I sighed. “What did you do? If you assaulted her, that's not going to help Kennedy's case.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I did not assault her. Don't get me wrong—I really wanted to, but I do have some self-restraint, brother.”
“Could have fooled me,” I huffed.
“I struck up a conversation, and I may have told Lorna I wasn’t happy with my brother’s choice of partner—it was complete bullshit, of course, but she had no idea.”
“You were pretty convincing,” Beth agreed, lifting her coffee cup to her lips and taking a slow sip.
“Anyway, Beth here was at the rink, because she’s a skater, and just so happened to be sitting nearby and recording.”
“Sunny called me beforehand, so I made sure I was close but not conspicuous.”
Sunny laughed. “Lorna really isn't that intelligent. She seemed so eager to tell me about how she got rid of the disgusting omega who was bringing my brother down. Honestly, Storm, I felt dirty just listening to her and agreeing with her, and I owe Kennedy so many cupcakes for that!” She pouted.
“So, wait, let me get this straight. You were friendly with Lorna? When was this?”
“Oh! Two days ago. That's why I couldn't come see Kennedy while she was giving birth, because I was too busy trying to secure the evidence to clear her name. We have audio recordings of Lorna admitting to planting drugs in Kennedy’s bag because she didn’t like that you chose her.”
“Do you think that’ll be enough to make the university check the footage?” I asked. “Given Lorna’s mother, will that be enough?” I wanted to believe that this was the golden ticket we needed, that it would do the trick and solve all our problems. But given the series of events thus far, I wasn't sure.
“That's where Bethany's friend comes in.” Sunny smirked. “You see, Bethany teaches the daughter of a very good lawyer.”
Bethany nodded. “When I told him about the situation, he was rightfully pissed. So, he booked a meeting with the head of student advisors, and you and he will be going there together.”
“In about twenty minutes,” Sunny said, checking her phone time. “He’ll be here any minute.”
Gideon Nobel was a dominating man. Standing tall in an immaculate suit, with his hair perfectly styled, he looked like the very picture of professionalism.
He shook my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Storm. Bethany’s told me a bit about your situation, and I’m happy to help. How is your omega?”
“Stressed. The university filed a report, and that triggered a visit from child protective services. As you can imagine, that’s not good for an omega a day or two before giving birth.”
“Did the delivery go okay?”
“Thankfully, she’s recovering with the rest of our pack now.”
He nodded. “Good. Okay, I’ve been filled in on all the details, so let’s go, our meeting is soon.”
Gideon and I were the only two going to the meeting. It was a good thing, considering the girls probably would have gotten violent—in that cute way omegas did—and that wouldn’t have helped anyone.
The head of student affairs was surprisingly young. I don't know why, but I had imagined an older person holding such a high position at the university. The guy sitting behind the desk could have only been about thirty years old, at most.
“Storm Sanderson?” he asked with a frown, peering at me through his horn-rimmed glasses. “I thought my meeting was with Sunny.” His lips pursed, and his body had been tense since the moment we entered the office, like he knew exactly what we were there regarding. It also helped that Gideon gave don’t fuck with me energy. “If this is regarding the case of Kennedy Brown, I can't discuss that at this time,” he said tightly.
Gideon cleared his throat. “Oh, I completely appreciate that. Only, I thought you would like to know that I have evidence that the drugs were planted on Kennedy. I have an audio recording of Lorna Jones admitting that she did it because she is infatuated with Storm Sanderson.”
“That’s not possible.”
“The audio recording is very in depth, I assure you.”
“And who are you?” he snapped.
Gideon smiled, pulling a business card out of his pocket and handing it to him. “Oh, I am so sorry I failed to introduce myself. I’m Gideon Nobel. I’m a partner at Nobel and Knight, and I’m working as Pack Daniels’s legal representation,” he explained, handing over the card.
The advisor’s face paled, then reddened at the realization that a lawyer was involved in this mess. “Well, we will take the recording and consider it, but a decision has already been made regarding Kennedy Brown,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.
Gideon frowned, but it wasn’t serious. The look on his face was unbothered. I imagined, as a partner in a law firm, he dealt with much more serious cases than this. He almost looked like he was having fun. “Huh. So, let me make sure I'm getting this straight. Not only does Avalon University want to prosecute a young omega mother of two for doing something she didn't do… but they also failed to protect one of their elite athletes from a psychotic stalker, who would do such insane actions, all because the perpetrator is the daughter of a faculty member…” Gideon trailed off with an almost evil grin on his face.
He had the fucker cornered, and he knew it.
“We can’t just reverse a decision!” he insisted.
Gideon snorted. “Yes, you can. I suggest you dig up that footage immediately, or I will assure you that, by tomorrow, the world will know about this. I don’t think anyone looks favorably on a university that persecutes single mother omegas and allows rampant stalking of its athletes. Also, nepotism is such a hot topic at the moment, I’m sure the press would be all over this story.”
His eyes widened, and he spluttered some more before taking a deep breath, swearing quietly. “You can’t just come in and demand…”
“Yes, I can,” Gideon said, his voice quietly powerful. “I'm merely here as courtesy today to let you know that, if this is not corrected immediately, we are prepared to file several lawsuits against the university for damages against Kennedy Brown and her pack. The university has clearly failed its duty of care to her and also to Storm.”
“I can't say I'm a fan of having a stalker.” I shrugged playfully.
Gideon shook his head, shooting me a wry look. “It’s not pleasant, is it? I think you'd be owed considerable compensation from the university if it is found that they encouraged a student to stalk and behave inappropriately.”
“We—”
Gideon snapped. “I knew I was forgetting something. These are papers letting you know exactly what lawsuits we plan to file after this meeting.” He smirked, pulling a file from his case and handing them to the now deathly pale student advisor.
“Fine!” he snapped. “Kennedy Brown will face no consequences for her actions,” he growled.
Gideon raised a brow. “Well, that’s not good enough. Of course, she's not going to face any consequences, because she didn't do anything.”
“What else do you want me to do?” he growled.
A slow, sinister smile spread across Gideon’s face. “You will be removing Mrs. Jones from your faculty, and Lorna Jones will be expelled, immediately?—”
“We cannot just expel a student at the drop of a hat!”
I couldn't help it. I burst into laughter. Even Gideon looked like he was trying to bite back a smile. “Isn't that literally what you did to Kennedy?” I asked pointedly.
The advisor’s face was going bright red.
“Oh, and just so you know, I have already handed in copies of these papers to the board of the university. I'm sure they'll be fascinated to see how you deal with the situation.”
With those words, the adviser deflated. He was well and truly trapped now. He couldn't do anything now that the board knew. If he took one step incorrectly while they were watching, he would be fired so fast, his head would spin.
“Given that Avalon University has a zero-tolerance drug policy, I think it's necessary that Lorna be expelled, given that she planted drugs in another student's bag,” I said pointedly.
“Fine!” the advisor shouted. “Kennedy will sit for her finals next month, and Lorna will be expelled and her mother fired. Are you happy?” he snarled.
Gideon tilted his head to the side. “Almost. Kennedy Brown just gave birth two days ago, so she may not be ready to take her finals in a month, after you messed up her schedule. I think it's only fair that you offer her private examinations at a time that is comfortable for her.”
This guy was so damn smart. I hadn't even considered that he had the advisor by the balls, and we could ask him for anything. It was terrifying and amazing.
The adviser deflated, shrinking back in his seat with a look of utter defeat. “Fine. Now get the hell out of my office!”