Page 23 of Ondine: Vol. 2
I open my mouth to answer, but nothing quite comes out. I know the Wongs are in a clan. And there are a few Wong packs in the clan, too. And Sebastian’s parents were also in a clan. It just didn’t occur to me that someone would ask about it. It’s a status thing, isn’t it? She’s about to insult me again. I just know it.
“Ondine, sweetie, I know you’re being demure but this is no time to be silent. Oh, and this is great! You are no longer contracted with Yin. Now that I know they want an omega, and they lost this one, they will come to me to help get another omega. I need to make some phone calls. Finally, I’ll get him away from Jake Meier.”
Oh fuck no, absolutely not.
The words jump out of me without any preamble, “If you bring an omega anywhere near Shadow, I’ll make it everyone’s problem, Tina.”
Freddie has been confused for the last little bit and it makes sense when he cuts in to ask, “How do you know I haven’t registered yet?”
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 didnothing 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.”