by N. J. Lysk
Yave reached out and gently placed his fingertips on top of her forearm. She went tense but stopped speaking. “The deal, as I was saying, will be extremely beneficial to your client. The one thing my client wants is a permanent separation. This will require your client to renounce custody of the children and never contact any of them again, but it will entitle her to all of the shared properties and assets Claudette originally possessed before their union.”
“This is absurd,” Serene almost spat. “Are you suggesting I give up my mate and children for some assets?” she asked, voice dripping with disdain. “Is this your idea of revenge, dear?” she added.
The omega’s scent crescendoed into something Uri couldn’t describe as anything but vomit. When he turned, he saw she was trembling slightly, holding her hands on her lap so tightly her knuckles had gone white, bent over like she was one second from curling up to protect her middle.
“Claudette,” Uri whispered, softly enough he didn’t think Simons and Yave could hear it over their rising argument over Mx Coleridge’s inability to follow instructions. “Why don’t you go outside?”
She exhaled loudly, turning her head just enough she could see him out of the corner of her eye. “So you alphas can decide my life for me?”
“She wants you here,” Uri explained, not addressing the accusation. “I can use that. And I cannot sign any deals for you any more than she can.”
Claudette hesitated for a long moment, then pushed back her chair and stood. “Excuse me, I need the lavatory.”
With that, she turned and walked out of the conference room.
For the first time, her alpha’s scent changed: burnt and metallic. Uriel had been right. Maybe it didn’t matter how much of a psychopath the woman was, she was still subject to her instincts to some degree. She might not have been capable of loving her omega, but she certainly wanted to keep her.
“Mx Yave,” Uri said. The lawyers had lowered their voices, and his request got his boss’s attention at once. He didn’t think either of them realised it was an alpha’s dominance getting them to react that way. Uri was certainly not going to enlighten them; he was uncomfortable enough using it even for a good cause. “Perhaps we can review those clauses you found in the bonding contract?”
“Bonding contract?” Simons repeated, turning to his client. “You did not submit your copy to us, did you, Mx Coleridge?”
“No,” she said tightly, her gaze sweeping the room aimlessly for her absent mate. “I did not think it was necessary. Claudette and I just need to go back to therapy. Maybe she could have a little holiday. I’ll take some time off work and look after the children so she can relax.”
Yave ignored this. “According to your bonding contract; all assets brought into the marriage—”
“Bond,” Mx Coleridge corrected with a smile that a was a little too sharp.
“Yes, quite,” Yave agreed. “In any case...” They looked down at the reader. “All assets would revert to their original owner in case the bond was ever dissolved, while any assets acquired during the course of the union would be equally divided between the partners.”
“I will not sign the dissolution,” Mx Coleridge said serenely. “So none of this is relevant.”
“Mx Coleridge,” Simons jumped in. “We are trying to reach an agreement—”
“There is no agreement in which I give up Claudette,” she interrupted with ease, eyes on Uri like she couldn’t even see the betas in the room.
“If that is your position, then, of course, we’ll have to go to court,” Yave calmly replied. “But let me point out that if we do, your bondmate will be presenting charges.”
“Charges?” She snorted. “For what? For taking my own children on holiday?”
“It hardly matters,” Yave told her. “Because when you lose, you will not just lose your mate and your children, you’ll lose the house she’s offering you now. Hades, if we get a sympathetic judge, you might do time. What would that do to your career, Mx Coleridge?”
“Do not count your eggs before they hatch, Mx Yave,” Simons said curtly. “Since your client has removed herself from this meeting, we’ll do the same.” He got to his feet and offered a hand, which Yave shook. “We’ll be in touch.”
Yave and Uriel stood up, Uriel reaching the door to open it for their guests. Serene was the first to cross the doorway, and when she looked at Uri, she’d dropped her shocked lover façade; what lay underneath wasn’t fear or even concern, instead her eyes were bright with pleasure—a promise that Uri had no doubt she could fulfil; he was going to regret getting between her and what she wanted, and she would enjoy making him regret it.
AFTER A DAY LIKE THAT, there was nowhere for Uri to go but home. Esti was out, but Ruth opened her arms and let him hold her as soon as she saw him. He held on, knowing he was welcomed, and she didn’t waver on the strength of her own embrace.
Finally, he inhaled her familiar scent and loosened his hold. She kept hold of his hand as he stepped back. “Work?” she checked.
He nodded, suddenly feeling like his knees were about to give. “Come on,” she asked, tugging at his hand to lead him to the kitchen. “You chose a good day to visit, I’m making varenikes.”
He plopped down on his chair in the kitchen, then turned it to face the counter where Ruth was rushing to remove the onions from the fire before they burned. She put the kettle on without asking, then returned to the table and took her chair on his right, taking hold of his hand again. “You look awful,” she said with all her usual tact.
“Thanks, eemah,” Uri replied, but he was smiling a little. This was the place where awful could be faced and defeated.
Ruth rolled her eyes at him like she didn’t know she was almost sixty. “Out with it.”
“It’s this case...” He looked away and caught the kettle flashing. “Lemme make tea first.”
She let him go and got up as well, taking the time to mix some of the onions into the mashed potato mixture that would go inside the dumplings.
Uri carefully poured the water into each of their mugs, then mixed the bag once in his mum’s cup and removed it before the tea could do more than colour. Everyone in the family teased Ruth that she didn’t drink tea but stained water. He passed it over, and she pushed it to the back of the counter as she rolled out the dough.
“Toda,” she told him. Thanks. It was how she’d introduced David and him to Hebrew, but she’d waited a bit too long for them to get more than a few phrases. They’d both been six when their mums had found them—originally intending to get just one child and then unable to give up either of them once their paths had crossed—and it’d taken them a while to get used to the idea that they had a new family and that family was there to stay.
He was a little sorry he’d missed the chance, but mostly he was grateful he’d got as much as he did, that he was saying words his people had been repeating for thousands of years in hopes there was someone out there listening.
Sometimes that was all you got, the vague hope that there was someone listening.
And sometimes you got someone who was listening, who’d always listen. He wasn’t sure if there was a God listening, but he would be grateful for his mothers until the day he died.
“It’s an omega who wants to divorce her alpha. But not just divorce, she wants to go through a repudiation.”
Ruth paused, turning to look at him. “A repudiation?” she repeated, putting down the rolling pin. “I’ve never...” She seemed unable to find the words.
“She’s right,” Uri told her. “She— Her alpha is... awful,” he finished, feeling like he’d failed at explaining. “She...” He exhaled, taking a sip of his drink. It was still too hot, but he didn’t care. “Her name’s—” He cut himself off, aware he would be breaching confidentially. “C,” he decided. “And she’s terrified of her alpha. And when I met the alpha today I got why: she really doesn’t care if she hurts her. No,” he corrected, “I think she enjoys hurting her.”
; “But surely she can feel whatever her omega feels?”
Uri opened his mouth, then closed it again, shaking his head. “Yes, she should, but...” He met his mum’s eyes. “When C walked into the room her scent went awful, but her alpha? She didn’t blink; her scent was still the same.”
Ruth sighed, taking her cup and downing a gulp of tea like it was something much stronger. “You think she’s somehow neurodivergent; she can’t feel empathy.”
“I don’t know, maybe she can’t feel pain. But whatever it is, she’s toying with my client, and she’s not going to stop.”
Ruth was nursing her cup like she expected to find an answer in its depths, still leaning against the countertop but clearly having given up on the dough. “Do you have a way to stop her?”
“Yeah, I mean, we think so...” He exhaled, trying to remind himself of Yave’s calm explanation. “C’s the one with the money. The house was hers and if they divorce it’ll revert to her. I’m thinking that might be why this alpha went for her in the first place... so maybe...”
“And if not, you’ll take her to court,” Ruth declared with confidence.
“Yeah,” Uriel said, but he didn’t have her confidence. Anything could happen in court, especially if they got assigned a jury, which in a case such as this was likely. He thought alphas and omegas would be able to tell that there was something wrong with Coleridge, but hadn’t Claudette bonded to her in the first place? She must have been able to fake it way better than she had at the meeting, and, of course, most alphas and omegas thought divorces were a tragedy and even betas knew enough to be repulsed by repudiation...
“Good,” his mum concluded. “Then there’s nothing you can do right now. Time to put away the suit and get ready to cut some more onions.”
He grimaced, but he took his cuppa to his old room to find some sweats anyway.
Chapter Eleven: Thomas
Thomas turned off his reader with a sigh; he hoped Carry and Keenan were smart enough not to read their own press. They had to know the chances of the press missing out on a juicy bit of gossip like that celebratory hug were less than zero.
It was stupid, and more than a little unfair, but it was also Thomas’s day off.
Going out without their parents was a rare treat for Thomas and his siblings. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Thomas and Colleen to look after the younger girls, of course, but they did suspect their two older children had acquired interests they’d not approve of out in the wider world.
More than suspect, really, since as the incident with Colleen’s phone proved, they had little regard for their kids’ privacy.
They were absolutely right, naturally.
The rarity of the occasion also meant Valentina was a little too excited for a child who had still not been bought any sweet treats—something the children were only allowed in special occasions.
“Val!” Eira said with a sigh, tugging at her hand. At nine, Val was normally perfectly capable of independent movement, but Thomas couldn’t blame Eira for keeping hold of her today. “Calm down, will you? If you stop at every shop, we won’t have time to buy snacks before the film begins.”
Colleen stepped closer and tugged at Val’s ear. “Behave and we’ll do some shopping after the film,” she promised with a wink.
Grace shot Colleen an annoyed look at that, then met Thomas’s eyes in a clear bid for help. He shrugged, then signed an offer for ice-cream. You couldn’t stop Colleen from shopping, or more likely, shop-browsing, but he and Grace could take off and enjoy a different type of treat. Eira had always joined them, but being a teenager had awakened her interest in fashion somewhat because she’d taken advantage of Colleen’s expertise the last time they’d been over.
Thomas wondered if when Grace grew up, he’d end up sitting in a corner on his own.
The film was good, he could tell the moment the young actress playing the king was introduced and became more convinced with each passing moment. Once the sword fighting came on, even Val, who’d been more invested in her disturbing combination of salty popcorn and sweet chocolate buttons, had leaned forward.
He came out of the theatre with that strange otherworldly feeling really good fiction produced—like he’d been in another world and suddenly stumbled into his own. It seemed strange it was not 5395 and an alpha woman was an everyday occurrence no one would blink at, let alone call unnatural.
“Malin Buska’s actually an alpha,” Colleen offered. It was just the kind of thing Colleen tended to know.
“The actress?” Eira checked.
“Yeah, it’s mostly betas in cinema, of course, even playing alphas and omegas. Less drama or something,” Colleen added with disdain. Her liberal views extended to the whole world, regardless of how very dramatic their alpha and omega parents were every single day of their lives.
“I want to be an alpha,” Valentina announced.
Grace snorted. “You can’t choose, silly.”
Thomas was about to try to diffuse the situation when Colleen clapped her hands and pointed at the toilet. “Anyone need to go?”
They’d all had rather a lot of snacks and drinks, so they headed inside together. Thomas came out first and he was still washing his hands when Eira joined him at the sinks.
“So... are you going shopping?”
She paused to give him an unimpressed look. “No, why would I?”
“You went last time,” he pointed out, passing over a paper towel. “Don’t shoot me for asking.”
“I had to buy a present for Simone,” Eira explained. “She likes jewellery, so...”
“Ah, well, guess I’m getting schooled on cleaner engines again,” he said good-naturedly.
“We’re focusing on chemistry at the moment,” Grace corrected him as she came out of her stall. “But I think you’ll find it interesting; we’re trying to predict if we’ll present.”
“Oh.” Thomas swallowed hard. He could just imagine his parents’ reaction if none of their five children presented either alpha or omega. Beta girls could for the most part have biological children, but Thomas didn’t think that would be enough. “Is it likely?”
He followed them out of the toilet to leave space for other people. “Well—” Grace started, but Eira shushed her.
“Let’s wait until we get to the ice-cream parlour. If Colleen hears about this we’ll have a debate for an hour,” Eira said.
It was probably true, too. Thomas adored Colleen, but she did have trouble with data that didn’t acknowledge its profound social bias. Just then, Val came running out, bursting with energy. “Ice-cream?” she reminded Thomas with wide eyes. He’d promised and besides, there was no way to resist that look.
“You’re getting a small cone,” Colleen warned, and counteracted Valentina’s wounded look with a raised eyebrow. “We can’t go into the shops with food.”
ONCE THEY WERE ALL served, Colleen got Val to sit down long enough for them all to talk over the movie a little more, but she wasn’t completely immune to the puppy eyes either and, in truth, she enjoyed shopping too much to waste the opportunity.
“Finally!” Grace said as soon as they were out of earshot.
Thomas gave her a look.
“Sorry, I just... I really wanna tell you about this, and since Eira won’t let me talk about it in front of Colleen...”
“I don’t think...” Eira said. “Well, I think she wouldn’t want to hear this.”
So it wasn’t about Colleen ranting about equality and bias, then. “Why not?”
“Because our calculations say she’d have presented alpha,” Eira revealed.
“Really?” Thomas was shocked. “Are you sure about this?”
“No, of course not, Thomas, I’m fifteen,” Eira said, annoyed, which was funny because she’d get equally annoyed if her data was questioned on that basis, but Thomas let it go, he was far more interested in what she’d discovered. “I... We’ve been reading through case studies. If the first male child of an alpha/omega couple i
s a beta, the likelihood of the second male child being an alpha goes from about 30% to 60%.”
“Fuck,” he said softly. “Whatever you do, you can’t let them know about this.”
At this, Eira’s annoyance shifted into actual anger. She put down her spoon into her cup and looked away. “Sorry!” he added. “I know you know that, I just—”
“We know,” Grace interceded. “You took care of her. You helped her when they didn’t want her to have the hormones in case she’d present.”
He gave a tight nod, unable to speak. If Eira and Grace were right, it meant he’d done the right thing. That the screaming fights and relentless demands that had practically destroyed his relationship with both his parents... It’d been worth it. The treatments for gender dysphoria didn’t work well with alpha hormones, which was why it was essential to identify it as early as possible and put the child on blockers. Thomas was willing to bet it’d been the first thing they’d asked when Colleen had got her diagnosis.
He hadn’t known, of course, he’d been only thirteen. He’d only known she’d come home from the psychologist crying when she’d left excited to get some answers.
“Thomas?” Eira asked, putting a hand on his wrist. “You okay?”
He blinked, trying to dispel the excessive moisture in his eyes. “Yes. Just—”
“It’s too late, anyway,” his sister told him softly. “Even if Colleen went off her hormones now, she wouldn’t present.”
He gave her a tight nod and pushed some ice-cream into his mouth, wincing when he realised he’d mixed the lemon and chocolate.
“The good news is,” Grace said in her best academic’s tone, “that Val might get her wish. If older children don’t present, there’s more than a 50% chance the youngest will.”
“She could be an omega,” Thomas pointed out.
“Val?” Eira asked with an incredulous laugh.
“You should meet Carry,” Thomas replied. “He’d give you some new ideas about what omegas are like.”
Eira groaned. “Not you too!” she complained.