Page 10 of Ondine, Vol. 2 (Cash City Omegaverse)

Tina forgets me entirely, though she had some words ready, and instead answers Freddie. “It’s public record.”

His head tips to the side. “Yeah, but you have to make an inquiry, and a judge agrees to open specific records. It’s not like you can set up an alert if one of your sons makes changes.”

She gestures towards Judge Wong, her alpha and doesn’t even look guilty as she says, “Well, ever since I was blindsided by your brother’s pack a few years ago, I made sure I was kept well informed. Did you know he registered a beta to their pack?”

A beta? I didn’t realize they’d registered a beta. A beta isn’t always bitten or bonded in. Sometimes it’s just for tax purposes. Is Emmerson technically in the Meier Pack? It would make sense considering how much he’s around and how loyal he is to them. Well, good for him.

“Mom, that’s not normal behavior. Shadow can do what he wants. He’s an adult.”

“Well, I’m just trying to make sure you two have the best. That we use our connections and influence to ensure the best future for everyone we are responsible for.”

She walks over to the Senator, who’s standing nearby watching Freddie like a hawk.

She kisses him on the jaw before she sits down near Shadow’s dad.

No wonder Shadow and Freddie look so different.

The two men are very different. It’s all making sense why they even call each other half-brothers.

Freddie said these two alphas are hardly together, too.

I wonder if they are even bonded to each other.

Perhaps they are both just bonded to Tina, and she’s the bridge.

And it’s not just looks, they even act like colleagues. Pack dynamics can be as diverse as packs. It’s starting to occur to me that Shadow and Freddie might not have even been raised as brothers.

“Anyway, it’s doing a lot of good, me being part of the registration board.

Unofficially. Your father, the senator, put a stop to any previously feral alphas from being able to qualify for omega placement.

I created a hierarchy. It’s been effective in ensuring omegas go to quality alphas.

Anyone who went to the Man-ho school, for example, is automatically denied.

I want to be even more involved in the Institute.

I didn’t like that I had no idea Shadow and his pack of misfits applied. That won’t happen again.”

My mouth hangs open in shock.

Tina is a monster.

She’s barred anyone who ever attended the Man-ho school from Institute placement.

I knew that all those men in the basement of the Fine Bastian Club were denied at the Institute.

Man-ho promised to find them a scent match.

What I can’t fathom is that Tina Wong made that happen and then did nothing as her husband was being targeting for assassination.

Oh, that’s not true. She called her son and told him to come home and take care of it.

Freddie says, “Wait, I’ve been in the city for days.

Over a week. Not one one of you could provide me a reason why Lee Man-ho was targeting my father.

But you just told me the reason. You barred his former students from getting Institute placements.

Mom, for a lot of alphas that’s their only shot at getting to court an omega.

Oh my god, that’s why he kidnapped Ondine for the scent test. A scent match is his way around the Institute.

Did you know it’s something like 90% of eligible omegas are registered with the Institute?

You did this. You pissed him off. He’s willing to kill for this.

He must have hundreds of former students that are no longer eligible. ”

His voice is raising, and he’s getting angry. No shit he’s getting angry. All of this has affected us so completely.

“Don’t take his side, son.”

“I’m not trying to defend Man-ho. Mom, what if I didn’t run away.

I was just a kid, and I had no say in the matter.

I could have easily been one of his former students, and what then?

You take a feral boy and force him to be at that godforsaken school and then take away his biggest chance at a pack with an omega?

That’s cruel. That’s horrible. It’s wrong.

Why did you do that? Why did you deny the former students? ”

“Freddie, I have two alphas for sons, I need to give you the best chances.”

“But Shadow was denied! His pack was denied!”

“Well, that’s because I wanted to be the one he turned to! I would get him to leave the Meier pack and I’d find him an omega. I’ve been eyeing a girl from our church for years to set them up. She finally came of age this summer.”

Came of age. What the fucking archaic way to view omegas. It means she’s nineteen.

“Shadow is in love with Jake, mom! You’d take him away from his pack and the alpha he is in love with just to play god!”

“Don’t yell at your mother!” Shadow’s father says, like he has any power here.

“Don’t talk to me about Jake Meier. Shadow is confused.”

“He’s not confused. That’s an awful thing to say. Shadow has been this way his whole life.”

“That doesn’t mean anything anyway. An alpha needs an omega.”

“Not at the expense of his own heart.”

She scoffs.

“You don’t think because I like women I’m not like that, too? Just because Shadow couldn’t hide that part of himself and I’m better at it doesn’t mean anything.”

Oh, my god. Freddie is coming out to his parents.

I take for granted how open most people I spend time with are to sexual orientation.

I forgot that for alphas in certain communities it’s taboo as hell for male alphas to be with each other.

Clans. Some of the biggest clans are very prejudiced against alpha-alpha relations.

And Shadow, Jake, and Sebastian have all shown me how bisexual they really are. And until the other day, I didn’t know Freddie was that way too.

Quite honestly, I’ve loved how they’ve been with each other. I can’t imagine a better situation than to be in a pack with bisexual alphas. As long as they are ok with me being really into betas.

God, this conversation has taken a turn.

“That’s not true. Don’t say that.” Tina’s face reddens with anger.

Tina thinks because she can dictate the dynamic of her own pack that she can do the same for her sons. She’s so sick.

I take a step forward.

“Tina, I encourage you to stay out of my nest. Freddie is mine,” I say before she continues to tell my mate who he is allowed to love or fuck or be with. “If I had a problem with who he fucks, you still wouldn’t be involved.”

Tina does not like that I used a cuss word. That’s what she seems most shocked about. Classic. My fingers are still interlaced with Freddie’s and he gives my hand a little squeeze then leans over to kiss me. Thank you, he mouths.

He turns to his mom. “You have to make this right or dad may actually die. Don’t prevent Man-ho’s students from having a fair shot at Institute placement. The fact you influenced something like that to begin with is out of control.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You’d rather a target on your alpha’s head?”

Tina mixes herself another drink. I think she’s had three since we’ve been here. I can’t imagine this small woman has a high tolerance.

“If you were to stop him like you should have done already none of this would matter.”

Absolute silence fills the room.

Did she really just say that?

Freddie looks like he just wants to talk to me about this, but he decides to just say it to everyone, “She called me at the monastery and convinced me I needed to defend our family and my father. That I needed to come to the city and kill Man-ho for trying to murder my father. And I gladly did it, because of my own blind hatred for the man. But you just needed a hit man,” he looks at her directly as she chews on an olive, “A mercenary. I’m nothing but a weapon to you. ”

“Don’t give me that look, Freddie. You found your scent match since being home. It’s almost as though you should thank me for calling you here. Maybe you would have found her earlier if you didn’t run away.”

“I found her a year ago, mom.”

He cringes at having let that slip.

“What? A year! A year! Why didn’t you take her then?”

Take her. Like I’m an object.

He doesn’t reply. He’s already told me about this. I was too young, he thought. And he needed time to prepare himself. He also hoped that I would be better off without him.

I honestly don’t blame him. Things happened as they should.

He eventually says, mostly to me, and not her, “I needed time to learn how to care for someone other than myself.”

“That’s crazy. Of course you can take care of her. With the right pack. Let’s get you the right pack. At least one of my sons will be a pack lead. I knew it would be you. A Wong pack. I have a beta you can bond with as well. She’s very pretty and knows how to run a household.”

I’ll be fucking damned if my pack is dictated at all by Tina Wong. I suppress baring my teeth at her. You know what? Fuck it.

I bare my teeth at her.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I say, “but I intend for the Meier Pack to talk to me about courting.”

For some reason it’s the Senator who speaks up now. I’d nearly forgotten the alphas were in the room, so eclipsed by their omega. He says to Freddie, “You want to be in a pack with your brother?”

At first I don’t know what he’s asking. It’s not uncommon for brothers to be pack mates.

Then I realize he means Shadow specifically.

And then I see it. How the three of these people hate their children.

That’s the only way I can describe it. Freddie was going to be sent away and raised by a local unrelated man (a man they will eventually betray).

When Freddie found the monastery they never came for him.

He’s been there for 20 years. The only thing they wanted from him was his name.

But they didn’t even want that from him, they were going to get it from Shadow.

And Shadow was a bigger disappointment. He works for Jake Meier as a bodyguard. There’s no way these people wanted that for him.

They are still trying to recoup their losses. At this point all that’s left is their name and fodder. And I’m validated in this thought because before Freddie can answer his dad, Tina says, “Well at least if that happens there will finally be a Wong pack.”

“I’d never challenge Jake Meier. We’d be the Meier Pack,” Freddie announces and then looks to me for confirmation. I nod.

He unlaces our fingers and kisses my cheek. He’s done. He walks over to one of the other couches and bends down, finding the sleeping kitten underneath. He stands up holding her in his arms, clipping her leash to the vest, then turns to his parents.

“We need to talk more about this Man-ho issue. And you need to stay out of my relationships. But most importantly, I need to return to being alone with my omega. Goodbye, mom. Goodbye.”

Tina wants to talk more about “this Jake Meier thing” but we step away anyway, leaving the penthouse.