Page 12 of Ondine, Vol. 2 (Cash City Omegaverse)

Yours

Ondine

F reddie and I go to a cafe for an early dinner, but we both forget to order food. I order two different types of herbal tea. I’m happy to get to wear this dress out a little more. It did not impress Tina, but she didn’t insult it, so I’m calling it a win.

“I have to fix this,” Freddie tells me over his coffee.

“Fix what?”

“Man-ho. After what my mom said, I am going to leave him as her problem. She antagonized him. She will have to face the consequences. I’m not her personal assassin.”

“So what do you have to fix?”

“The school. I was too young to have any power to do anything but to save myself. And then for many years, I was not in a good place to see beyond myself. But I think I know what I need to do now.”

He smiles at me.

“I’m not going to kill Man-ho, but I am going to try to help the kids still under his control.”

“I want to help,” I say before I can think about it.

He nods. “Yes, but not today. I have a plan, sort of. It’s forming. But I can’t bring an omega with me. I think I need to do this, and now.”

I nod.

“Will you stay at Sky Nest? I’ll keep you on my phone the whole time. We will be separated, but not apart. I want you safe while I am gone.”

I can feel everything, so I know how important this is to him.

And I also know how important it is that he helps those kids.

Freddie has the money and the means to make a difference.

Instead of using that privilege to seek revenge on Man-ho, he’s going to save those kids. The omega in me chose well.

“Of course.”

Freddie takes me back to the hotel. He talks to Meier Protection agents and the hotel security about our situation in the lobby.

He tells them about Boone, that there was an unbonded alpha that got into our room with a room service cart.

I walk over to the hotel bar instead of listening to him shake them down. I order a seltzer with lime.

After he’s done talking to them, Freddie comes over to me, frustrated. “Ondine, I don’t know if I trust the security here. They aren’t giving Meier Protections the access they need. And no one is owning up to the security breach when that slimy lawyer showed up.”

“Have we outstayed our welcome?”

He sits down on the stool next to mine. Then he looks at me with a heaviness, but I don’t know why. “Did you get the email from Jake?”

I shake my head. He pulls it up on his phone and hands it to me.

“It’s a formal offer to court you.”

It may be a formal offer, but it’s more of a personal letter to me from Jake. Freddie looks hopeful. He must have read it over. With a nervous glint on my belly, I read the email:

My dear Ondine,

Being apart from you now is killing me. Is it killing you? If you aren’t thinking of me at all, then there’s no need to read any further. Save me the humiliation. I’m about to lay my dreams at your feet, as Shadow once told me—tread softly.

I’ve always wanted a big pack. It had been my dream for as long as I can remember. I was the only child of my alpha parents. We were close, but I always wanted more. We have that in common, an alpha mom.

I met Shadow first. Or rather, he made himself known to me first. I fell in love with him immediately. There was no question I wanted him with me all my life. Sebastian was the same way. He is good, and I needed that goodness in my life.

When I met you, I hadn’t been thinking of growing my pack. I’d only been focused on helping Shadow, who had become depressed over the years. Solving this problem consumed me, and it clouded my vision.

I should have known earlier how much I wanted you to stay. Maybe if I would have focused on courting you than throwing you at Shadow, I wouldn’t be apart from you now.

The reason I’m writing to you is to tell you that I want to court you.

We all do. Please give me the opportunity to show you how good we can be to you.

I want you and Freddie (and whatever you are calling that stripey cat these days) to come stay at the pack house on the peninsula.

Your nest is being prepared now. Please come stay here while we court you.

I want to make it clear what we offer you: First and foremost, protection. Second, refuge. Third, support. Finally, I offer my love.

I hope that is enough.

What I want in return is your bond. I want to bond you.

I want to be the bridge between our packs.

You can arrange any other bonding between your men as you desire.

I also ask, with earnest sincerity, that inter-pack relationships will be permitted, specifically between myself and Shadow.

This is a requirement, and I hope we can discuss it further if there may be questions.

I also have a surprise for you.

I await your response.

Yours,

Alpha J. Meier

Freddie watches me read the email with Killer in his lap. She’s purring as he scratches her neck. For some reason that’s where my thoughts go, to the cat, and how she’ll probably enjoy living at the Meier house.

I have to admit the warmth that is lighting up my entire body. I wanted this letter more than I even knew. I can picture us all there.

“What do you think?” I ask and he shakes his head. “No, Ondine. What do you think? You’re in charge here.”

I drink some of my seltzer and take a minute. I miss Sebastian so much. I miss Jake. And I miss Shadow. I want to know what he’s been doing this whole time.

“Why is Jake asking if he can be with Shadow?” I wonder out loud.

“You don’t know? Most omegas that we know don’t want their alphas to be together.

My dad and Shadow’s dad are more like business partners.

Never even bonded with each other. Sebastian comes from a very conservative clan that discourages alpha-alpha relationships at all.

It’s why Jake broke up with Shadow all that time ago.

He didn’t want to make it more difficult in the future if there was a problem with the omega. ”

Oh.

“But I don’t care,” I say. “Actually, that’s not true, I care a lot. Freddie, did I not tell you how I felt about you and Sebastian?”

Freddie turns his face to the side and looks a little embarrassed. “I was fucking you while I told you about it, so you were turned on.”

“I was turned on. The only thing is, I didn’t like that I wasn’t there for it.”

He sucks in a breath. “You were jealous.”

“I was jealous I wasn’t there.”

“Then tell Jake as long as you’re there, he can do what he wants with Shadow.”

“No.”

“No?”

“With them it’s different. I want to know about it, but they can have a private relationship. I don’t have a problem with that.” I put my hand over my mouth, a little shy about admitting this. “I’m just really possessive over Sebastian. Alarmingly so. He’s mine. No one else’s. As you are.”

He gives me a devilish grin. “Oh really?”

“When he touched Boone I thought my head was going to pop off.”

“I know. I was there. It was gorgeous. You’re gorgeous.” He leans over and kisses me quickly on the lips.

“That was pathetic.”

He grabs me by the back of my neck and pulls me into him. Killer meows and hops off of him onto the floor. He has the end of the leash in his hand.

Freddie kisses me like he loves me. I moan into his mouth.

“Will you go to the peninsula with the Meier Protection guys? I’ll meet you there when I’m done?”

I nod.

“Don’t worry about me. You let those fuckers crawl on their knees for you.”

He pulls me off of the barstool and hugs me tight. His tongue finds our bond mark and he licks it gently. A current of tingles erupts in me.

Shadow

The beta is still bullying me. And we’ve been in the nest store for hours. What more do we need to do? He wants to see the light bulbs again. He says they aren’t the right luminosity. I roll my eyes and make sure he sees.

“Ondine traded hers out five times before we found the right one. I’m not going to get it wrong. She’ll know I wasn’t paying attention…” he says that last line quietly. This guy is down bad.

It’s the only thing keeping my mouth shut. This idea that he’s right. This is how you treat an omega you are absolutely insane over.

The nest store is in the little town center near the house. It’s small so I didn’t realize all they do, but it’s full service.

I lay on one of the nest displays and read through Jake’s texts he sent Sabbies and I. Boone asked to be pack. Jake asked if we oppose him rejecting Boone. He’s got this level of passivity to the texts I’m assuming is for Sebastian’s benefit.

We both agree—no Boone.

Sebastian and him have been friends for a while now. They fish and go shooting. They go see the latest action movies together. I wonder how he really feels about it. He was pretty upset this morning when he came to Sky Nest, but that’s all I know.

We are CCd on the email to Ondine asking to court her. Jake said we can reply with our own, so I’ve been drafting some things. Nothing is good enough yet.

Jake calls me and I sit up, pulling a silk pillow into my lap.

“She’s coming,” he says before I can say hello.

“Is that a euphemism?”

“Shut the fuck up. Freddie is about to send her in a car with three of our agents. She’s coming to the house. I think she liked my email.”

“That’s good. Why isn’t Freddie coming with her?”

“I don’t know. I have half a mind to send Sebastian with him. I’m worried he’s going after Man-ho.”

“Then send me.”

“Sebastian is in the city. You’re with the beta on the peninsula. I understand that for a man with your skills designing a room seems beneath you, but this is also important for Ondine.”

His words weren’t said to hurt, but they kind of do.

“I know it’s important for Ondine…Jake, I’m not completely useless when it comes to her.”

But Arnold seems to think I am. I look over at a rack of pamphlets. I scan the titles: The Alpha’s Guide to Understanding Your Omega’s Heats, So It’s Your First Heat…Now What?, and The Vital Role of a Beta During an Omega’s Heat.

I take one of each, and move to a nearby chair.

“Send Sebastian. I’ll work with the beta here. By the way, the bill is going to be at least $15k. And that’s just this shopping trip.”

“Good. I’ll gladly pay.”

He’s still sitting on the phone, which means he hasn’t said what he called me to say. I wasn’t going to bring it up just yet, but he must want me to.

“I noticed in your email, that line about inter-pack…” I can’t even say it out loud.

“Was that presumptuous?”

My throat is suddenly very tight. Jake told Ondine he and I should be able to pursue a private relationship.

And she’s now on her way to the house. Is she ok with the terms?

These last five years I’ve given up on the idea of us being intimate.

I’ve seen him treat others just like me.

A couple weeks together, and then nothing.

The only times he deviated from that was when he marked me, and then with Ondine.

Had he wanted more with me the whole time? Don’t get too excited, Shadow , I tell myself. I need to wait until Ondine returns. I don’t know when he decided that he should ask for this, all I know is he did.

“Why?” Is all I can manage to say.

“Because that’s what I want.”

I gasp for air, not realizing I’d been holding my breath, and for some reason I find I’m on the verge of tears. My hand flies to my face to keep it together.

“Oh, Shadow…” Jake whispers to me.

I wipe my face down a few times and try to catch my breath.

“I wasn’t waiting for you. For this. I swear I was fine.”

“You weren’t fine.”

I have to hold my mouth shut again, afraid I will start crying.

“It’s going to be ok. You finish up the nest and I have more things I need you to do. Ok?”

I nod my head even though we are talking over the phone. He says goodbye and we hang up.

I can’t believe that happened. I can’t believe this is happening. I look at the pamphlets in my hands. Then I start reading. Very quickly I get down a rabbit hole of videos of lectures and research articles.