Page 26

Jonas

“ A re you sure you’re okay up there? We have a 4x4. I’ll come get you if you need me,” I told my sister over my headset as we played Go-goKart.

Hana snorted. “We’re fine. We have plenty of food, water, and power. It’s a boarding school in a remote area. Things on campus are pretty normal. There’s just no trips into town.”

Be snowed in with hundreds of teenagers? No, thank you.

“What about you? Back to practice?” she asked as her blue go-kart raced across the screen, chasing after me.

“Most of the streets are dug out, and the deliveries are getting into the stores. But the training center flooded when their generator failed, so it’ll be another day or two before we can get back to practice,” I replied, trying to keep my lead over her.

Some of the team had also managed to get themselves snowed in and were trying to make their way back despite things like airport closures and train delays. How the fuck did Dimitri end up on the West Coast? He literally got off the plane in New York with the rest of us.

“This morning, we went to Verity’s place to see what else was salvageable,” I added. Which was practically nothing. We’d ended up going to Athlete’s World since that’s where Mercy liked to buy clothes, then visited a couple of boutiques, as well as Blankets and Beyond.

Then came home to a delicious array of takeout that AJ had brought back.

“Tomorrow we’re going to the university to get her greenhouse set up before classes start,” I added, as my go-kart darted past a patch of sand.

“Oh yes, your lady alpha that you moved in. I can’t wait to meet her.” She laughed as her go-kart snagged a power-up and shifted into turbo-speed.

“You’re going to love Verity–and her teenage sister, who wants to be a history teacher. Though there are beads everywhere. It’s like living with you and Charlie all over again,” I chuckled.

Charlie’s mom–my hockey coach–had held on to Hana and me tight after we’d run to her that night I’d hit my alpha mom in self-defense. They’d moved us in, helped us with legal issues, and been a family to us.

Hana’s go-kart sped past me. I threw a coconut to stop her.

She swerved and passed the finish line. “I won. Again. Anyway, this has been fun, but I have dance practice to run bright and early. Love you, Jo.”

“Love you, Han.” I signed off and left the den.

Dean’s room sat empty, Grif’s door closed. Through the bond it felt like they were sleeping. AJ’s door was shut. Verity wasn’t in her room. Earlier, she’d been working on lesson plans for the class she was teaching.

Going into the living room, I started to tuck in the house, as Dean called it. I put away some wayward pillows, emptied the dishwasher, programmed the coffee pot, swept up some tiny beads that seemed to multiply every time I blinked, and set the alarms.

The lights glowed upstairs. I crept up to see if someone left them on or if Mercy was playing a game. She was itching to get back to practice and hang out with her friends, though she’d gone to the rink with a bunch of them to help clean up.

Singing came from the sitting area. Verity sat there with a tablet.

“I miss you. Dad says Mumsy’s not mad. Can you come home now? I don’t like this house; I want the old one,” a little girl’s voice pleaded. “Why aren’t you here? I want you.”

My heart broke.

“I’m not in New York because anyone’s mad at me. I’m here taking care of Mercy and going to university. This summer I’ll visit. Promise. I love taking care of you, but you have Dad, Mumsy, and Harry,” Verity told her.

I kissed the top of Verity’s head, not knowing what else to do. She looked up at me and smiled.

“There’s a man in your house,” the little girl squeaked. It was the little blonde one. Hope.

“Oooh, which one?” another girl’s voice said. A light brown face appeared. “It’s the blue one. We like the blue one, Hopey.”

“I’m Jonas, hi.” I waved. “They’re staying with us.”

“Because of the snow,” the second one said. Tru, I think?

“If I get a job in New York, can I live with you?” Hope asked.

“If I’m still living in New York when you get a job, we’ll talk about it,” she assured.

Right, that was what our future held–siblings staying with us for school breaks or the summers. Possibly because they ran away. I didn’t mind that one bit.

“I’m going to get my job in Rockland so I can live with Grace,” Tru said. “The towels there are warm .”

One could only imagine the comforts the Thanukos household offered.

“Living with Grace is always a good choice.” Verity nodded. Hope didn’t look as convinced.

“Blue man, what science are you?” Tru asked, with the innocence of someone who’d grown up assuming everyone had one.

“My degree is in Statistics. I attended BosTec like your brother Dare.” But I hadn’t gone to BosTec to be a pro hockey player. I’d played hockey for anger management and financial aid purposes, then took the opportunity to go pro when it happened.

She sucked in a breath. “I knew I liked you. Math’s my favorite. I’m going to solve Garamoci’s Theory of Everything before I finish high school.”

“How old are you?” Should it surprise me, though? I was pretty sure everyone in that family was exceptionally gifted.

“I just turned seven.” She grinned at me.

Yep, I sure didn’t know what a Diophantine equation was when I was seven.

“Want my notes?” I offered. “I tried to solve it for two years when I was at BosTec. The math department has a contest–if you solve it before you graduate, you get all your tuition back. So far, no one has ever done it.”

Because it was an unsolvable equation.

Tru’s look went stricken. “You gave up?”

“Never,” I lied, not wanting to discourage her. “I just got so busy with hockey, working, my degree, and dating Dean. Suddenly, I was graduating. Solving it after graduation doesn’t get you the prize.”

“Stats, I didn’t know that.” Verity leaned into me.

“I love stats and numbers, especially in regard to sports,” I told her. “Numbers are soothing. I sort of thought I’d end up doing stats for a team or something.”

“Did you know I can recite pi to a hundred places? I’m going to get to two hundred like Grace,” Tru beamed. “When I solve the equation, Spencer’s going to hire me. I’d love your notes. I promise to give you credit. Maybe Spencer will hire you, too, and we can work together.”

Verity ran her fingers through my hair. “Yes, and build spaceships.”

Tru nodded vigorously. I had no idea what the two things had to do with each other. Spencer was in biotech.

“I like spaceships.” Okay, I enjoyed reading fictional books about space travel and watching space movies. I was so happy Verity liked the same ones I did. Mercy also had suggested we learn a fictional language as a pack and I was all over that.

“Do you like unicorns?” Hope’s head leaned into her sister.

“I do. My sister loves them. Is that your favorite?” I’d seen that animated unicorn movie she loved a billion times. Verity liked it, too.

Hope nodded. “I’m going to make unicorns when I grow up.”

“AJ’s sister has a petting zoo. She’d love a unicorn.” Science was already breeding miniature tigers and giraffes, so why not unicorns? “Anyway, it was nice talking to you. I’m going to bed.” I gave her another kiss on the head.

“My eyes.” Mercy stood there in PJs and a large grin, holding a bag of chips.

I snorted, returned downstairs, and got ready for bed. Turning out the lights, I left the door cracked and fell asleep.

“Jonas?” a soft whisper nudged at the edge of my consciousness as I slept.

Without opening my eyes, I lifted the blanket so Dean could crawl in.

The door clicked shut, and a warm body crawled in, settling under the blankets with me. A head lay on my chest, and strong arms wrapped around me. While the body was taut and muscular, it wasn’t Dean’s body. The sea salt and driftwood wasn’t his.

I held her tight, making sure we were covered. She fretted and tossed in my arms like she couldn’t get comfortable.

“Do you need to come so you can sleep?” I whispered, my hands already under her panties. We had a long day of labor at the greenhouse tomorrow.

“Please.” Her voice grew breathy as my hand slid between her folds.

Oh, yes, I loved it when it was only her and me in bed.

Sleepily, I fingered her until she orgasmed, collapsing on me in a cloud of driftwood. I slipped inside her softness, tenderly fucking her, until we both came.

“That’s my girl, now sleep.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead as sleep took me.

I awoke with Verity’s head in the center of my chest, hair fanned out around me. Her finger traced the tattoos on my chest and arm.

“Hey, Sweet Girl. It’s early. Do you want to sleep more?” I whispered. I should get up and go for a run. With all of us cooped up here and no hockey practice, I had to get my ass out of the house every day and run off some steam so I didn’t explode.

“I really should go to the greenhouse,” she muttered sleepily.

“We’re all going to the greenhouse,” I assured, stroking her hair.

“I know. I just want to get a head start. Will you tell me what this means?” Her fingers caressed the fairy that was part of the tattooed sleeve on my arm.

“It’s a story Pop, my omega father, told us. I only know his English translation. They didn’t want him to teach us Korean, even though my dad literally met him while in Korea for work.” My controlling alpha mother didn’t want us to have a way to communicate that she didn’t understand.

“Well, that’s shitty. What did your dad do that took you away for years at a time?” Her finger traced the beanstalk.

“Canadian Foreign Service. This story…” I moved the finger back up to the fairy. “It’s the story of the Fairy and the Woodcutter. It’s basically a cautionary tale of patience and being happy with what you have. Pop told us stories when the alphas were fighting, to distract us.”

She nodded. “Mama did that, told us stories in French that her grandmother told her when she was a girl in Dijon. I did that a lot for the littles. Especially in the year between Mom going to jail and the pack breaking up. Though mine tended to be flower mythology stories.”

Which would be why the littles were pouting over her being gone all these months later. Who knew what home was like for them without Verity running interference?

“What’s this one?” Her fingers moved to the two cranes on my chest.

“Pop and my little brother.” If only I’d been able to save them.

I had saved Hana and myself. Our alpha mother could get bad sometimes when Pops was alive. Without him to soothe her rages, she was intolerable after his death.

“You have a little brother?” Verity asked.

I shook my head. “Had.”

“Oh, Jonas.” Her scent became salty as she stroked my hair.

“She’s in jail. Hana and I are safe. We told the pack to fuck off–including our older brothers, who got out and never looked back, knowing full well what that meant for the rest of us. They didn’t protect us.” Or help us when we were living with my coach. Or reach out when we were at university.

No, none of them had anything to say until I went pro.

Oh, I had plenty to say to them then.

“Hana and I chose our own last name because we didn’t want to be associated with them. Roughly, Seong means to succeed. It’s our way of telling everyone where to go. Pop would have loved you. Taught you to make Korean pastries. He died right before my sixteenth birthday. Brain tumor.” I winced, because without him to soothe the alphas things got intolerable, fast.

She wrapped her arms around me. “You were so young.”

“I was old enough that if my old coach hadn’t had a lot of interesting friends, I could’ve been tried for assault after my alpha emerged and I attacked our mom to keep her from hitting us. I was angry for a very long time. Part of me didn’t think I deserved Dean. Because how did I know I’d be a good alpha with shit examples?” I laid my soul bare for her so she’d understand.

“You’re worth him.” She kissed my temple.

“As are you. So, I see you, Sweetheart. I understand why you took alpha blockers out of fear of turning into your parents. My mom actually had been mandated, several times, to take them, but never did.” Because of the stigma. And that cost lives.

“Do you ever have contact with your pop’s family?” Verity continued to hold on to me.

“A little. They’re nice people. Hana knows them well. She even spent some time studying in Korea. One day we should all go there.” I snuggled into her, taking all the comfort she’d give me.

“We should. Thank you for sharing that with me,” she told me.

“Your turn. What’s the story of this little fairy?” My hand caressed her shoulder where the perky little fairy sat on a mushroom.

“I like fairies. I awakened as an alpha at an away game back when I was an undergrad. Our team had no other alphas, and no one knew what to do. I was freaking out. So, they brought me to the club. I danced it out, got hammered, and apparently, we ended up all getting tattoos,” she laughed. “None of us recall much of that night other than it was a fuckton of fun and we were lucky our conference didn’t enforce a pre-game party ban.”

They did what? With anyone other than Verity, that could have been a bloodbath. Newly awakened alphas could be a lot. I could have easily knocked my mother permanently unconscious.

“I love your little tattoo. And the flower?” I was so curious.

“Freddie didn’t like the fairy tattoo because it’s basic. When we broke up, I wanted another. So, I got one there for myself.” She gave me a kiss, then rolled out of bed to use the bathroom, in only a shirt.

I got up and stretched. I should go for a run, but I’d love to have a little alone time with her.

She came back out. “Do you want to come with me to the greenhouse? Or do you want to come with the others?”

I’d like to come in you while in your greenhouse, Sweet Girl.

“I’ll go with you. Why don’t I make breakfast and see who wakes up? Maybe we’ll even stop at a bakery I like. They’ve reopened and I want to give them some business.” Yes, I wanted to see what noises she made as she tried fish-shaped waffles filled with delicious things.

“Sounds perfect.” She disappeared.

I used the bathroom, then went into the kitchen and started the rice and the coffee. While it cooked, I got dressed. When I returned to the kitchen, I made her a chai latte. AJ had brought home a few fresh things, including milk last night, but not any fresh vegetables. Instead, I sauteed some frozen ones. We had eggs since AJ had bought a ton of them.

Opening the curtains to let in the light, I frowned at the handprints on the glass doors leading out to the balcony. Had they been there yesterday? I didn’t remember, since other people cooked and we’d been gone most of the day.

Ugh. I got the window wipes out of the cupboard and cleaned them off.

Putting the wipes away, I returned to cooking and fried some eggs. As Verity came out, I put some rice in a bowl, along with the vegetables. Placing a fried egg on top, I drizzled it with some chili oil and added sesame seeds and dried green onions.

“Your breakfast.” I put it next to her mug.

“Thank you.” She beamed, put her phone on the counter, and began to eat. Verity was wearing those jeans that hugged her ass and a Maimers hoodie, her hair in a bun.

Getting my food, I sat next to her at the breakfast bar.

“I loved you coming into my bed last night.” I leaned in and kissed her.

Mercy thundered down the stairs in sweats. “Ooh, breakfast?”

“Help yourself, there’s still two eggs in the pan, and coffee in the pot,” I told her, figuring she’d smell food and want some. She was a growing young athlete and ate accordingly.

Mercy grabbed some food. Her eyebrows arched at her sister’s presence. “Ver is going running with us?”

“We’re going to the greenhouse early. You can always run there. We might stop at a bakery so you can have a post run reward.” I grinned.

Mercy had become my running buddy. It was fun to go running through the snow with her. I would’ve thought that with her being from the South, she wouldn’t be up for it, but she was.

“That sounds fun. Do we get coffee, too?” She shoved eggs and rice into her mouth.

“I have dining dollars and meal swipes I need to use before the new semester starts. So, coffee for everyone, and lunch is from whatever in the student union is open and taking meal swipes,” Verity replied.

Verity’s phone rang. She frowned and answered it.

“Saph, is everything okay? Are they delaying our access to the greenhouse again?” Exasperation ran through her voice. She rubbed her temples. “My siblings are where? Okay. I’m on my way. Make sure they stay there. They didn’t tell me they were coming today.”

Oh shit.

Verity ended the call and downed her latte.

“Tru couldn’t wait for me to email the notes, booked herself a flight, and is at your greenhouse because she doesn’t know where we live? I guess we’ll get her, feed her, and call your parents to see what to do next?” My brow furrowed as I downed my coffee.

She shook her head. “It’s actually Hale and Dare with boxes of flower bulbs. These are earlier versions of what I was working on, but a much better specimen than anything I might buy.”

Verity came over and kissed me. “It’s adorable how you rolled with the prospect of one of the littles showing up. Because it already happened, only she showed up at Grace’s because she was pissed about moving to London and missing math camp.”

“How do small children fly internationally without their parents?” I asked, finishing my breakfast. Though, I understood being pissed at having to move and miss important things, given I’d been force-moved many times.

Often right in the middle of hockey season.

“They fly private and know how to access their passport. She got online and figured out how to schedule herself on my sister’s pack’s private plane, then called herself a children’s car service both to the airport and to their house when she got to Rockland. We literally woke up to her eating cookies in the living room because she knew the door codes.” She snorted. “No one had thought to call Spencer because the flight crew knew who she was and figured we were flying her out for math camp.”

“It was wild. Mumsy was pissed. Dad, while not condoning running away, was proud of how clever she was. So was Grace.” Mercy took a gulp of coffee.

Oh, we were in for it, weren’t we? I’d get my research to her today.

“They’re safe, right?” My heart still ached for my little brother. It had been an accident, and I’d been too small to do anything, but it still hurt my heart.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Grace is prepared to move them the moment she thinks they’re not. I’m more worried about Chance. Having Baba and Mama’s full attention isn’t nearly as fun as he thought it would be. Though he joined his school fútbol team, so that’s helping him make friends.”

“We’ll keep an eye on him, too,” I agreed.

“Thanks. I’m so excited that Hale brought my car. I missed driving.” She put her empty mug and bowl in the sink, her shoulders doing a little happy dance.

“Do you really think he did, Ver?” Mercy’s eyebrows rose as she ate and texted at the same time.

“Of course he would. It’s my car. I wasn’t expecting them for a few more days. Wasn’t Dare going to stay with Hale until BosTec starts?” Verity rinsed the dishes.

I’d have to see about a parking space for her. AJ was talking about getting a car, too.

“I’m going to get my things and text everyone where we’re going so they don’t worry,” Verity told me as she put the dishes in the dishwasher. “Mercy, are you coming with? I can’t wait to visit that bakery.”

Oh, I hoped she loved it as much as I did.

“I’ll run to campus because I need to work on my stamina. I’ll grab the coffees at the student union and bring them to the greenhouse?” Mercy grabbed my bowl and hers and took them to the sink.

“Perfect. If they give you any trouble using my dining dollars, call me.” Verity left the kitchen.

“I’m pretty sure Hale didn’t bring her car. He’s not going to give it back. Even though she told me not to, I should just buy her one, right?” Mercy rinsed the dishes and added them to the dishwasher.

I knew what she wanted to get her, and I shook my head. “Don’t give Deloitte Automotive your money. They’re fuckers that don’t treat their workers right.”

They also owned a hockey team. Filled with fuckers.

“She needs something cute and fast, though. If not a convertible, something like in those car racing movies we were watching.” She gave the pan a scrub and added that to the dishwasher.

“Yes, she does.” I could see it now. Verity had enough taken away from her and she deserved nice things. Yes, if Hale didn’t bring back her car, I had the perfect one in mind.