Page 124 of One Winter Knight
Verity was the obvious choice, because she was an alpha with a pack, responsible, and good at making things work out. I loved my big sister, but I wasn’t sure I could deal with the judgment this second.
Creed was an alpha, but my big brother wasn’t the fixer of the family. He also didn’t have a pack–or even date.
My younger brother Dare was also an alpha. He dated everybody. But again, I wasn’t sure that he was a fixer.
Of my alpha siblings, that left Mercy. Even at eighteen, she was way more responsible than me.
I called her, hoping she would answer. It was late in New York–if that’s even where she was. She could be on the road, I had no idea.
“What the fuck is wrong?” Mercy answered, not sounding sleepy. I heard voices.
“Are you at the Arctic Toilet after a game?” It was a club the Maimers often went to.
“I’m at Kaiko’s playing video games,” she told me. “Am I wiring money because you’re stuck in a European jail?”
“Funny how that’s where your mind goes.”
“If you’re not in jail, what’s wrong? Did you add to the population, subtract from the population, or crash another car?” she demanded.
“Oh, it’s so much worse than that. I need a no-judgment zone,” I warned.
“Always. Is this something we need an actual adult for?” she asked.
“You are my chosen adult. Um, I woke up bonded to two people,” I blurted.
“Honored you think I’m an actual grown up, but you’re shitting my dick, right?”
“Noooo.” I shook my head.
There was quiet. “You’re still at Winter-Fest? Are these people you met there or people you came with?”
Quickly, I explained to her everything that we had managed to put together. She only interrupted to ask very specific questions.
“I totally fucked up in a way I didn’t think I could. What do I even do? I mean I know what I need to do. But shit.” I rested my head in my hands, feeling so guilty.
I’m trash. National disaster trash.
“You bonded with Carlos and his omega girlfriend? I didn’t even know he had a girlfriend,” she said. Mercy knew Carlos pretty well. The Maimers and the Knights shared a training facility.
“I never said Carlos. I only said I bonded a kappa,” I retorted.
“He’s on your fucking socials as being with you in Switzerland, but it’s fine. I didn’t know you were friends. I like Carlos. That sounds like a fun pack. Is BroKen part of it too?” she asked.
“I can’t be part of this pack, Mercy. I can’t take care of myself, let alone other people.” Tears pricked my eyes. “Not to mention the parents told us over and over to not be alphaholes and not fuck up. What did I do? I just fucked up. Bad. My only choice is to un-bond them. But that still makes me feel awful because it’s not a fun process.”
We’d watched Dad go through that with Mom.
“Just because you’re a disaster, doesn’t mean you won’t make a good alpha. You’re capable of being an adult when you want to. But I also understand that this situation is really overwhelming. While I don’t see this impacting Carlos, does this omega have a family? Are they going to object?” she asked.
I thought for a moment. “She’s super rich and from what I hear, her parents want her to be with expensive alphahole finance bros or something. Carlos isn’t even acceptable in their eyes.”
“Well, there you go. If you don’t think you can make a go of it, but she does, the easiest thing would be for her parents to makeyou guys go to the Omega Center and file for un-bonding. Then you’re not the bad guy for suggesting it,” Mercy offered.
Yeah, that would be the tidy solution. It still would hurt them and I hated that.
“At least they’re not total strangers. Everyone will support you if you want to make it work,” Mercy said. “There are PhD programs in New York, and jobs. Verity doesn’t really mean it when she says you and Carlos can’t be friends. She’ll still love and support you–so will Grace. Honestly I really think we should call Grace and Evan and get their advice.”
Evan was an advocate with the Omega Center and probably knew how to deal with this, but I just couldn’t bring myself to call anyone else.
