Page 167 of One Winter Knight
“Well, when you put it that way it seems dumb.” I frowned.
Grace was on her phone. “Fruity isn’t anywhere near Mainframe and a lot closer to Eazy-E with a long lead time.”
“Oh shit,” I breathed. Easy-E was a street drug often slipped into drinks for use in more nefarious enterprises.
“There’s a really long lead time, so somebody doesn’t realize their drink was spiked. Then they get high from the party drug, blackout and have trouble remembering,” Grace read off her phone.
Verity nodded. “I’ve heard of it on campus. The long lead time makes it harder to pinpoint when you were drugged.”
“Shit.”
“Hale, dearest. Do you know some of the things people use your party drug for? I was doing anecdotal research, trying to figure out if there was a market for it.” Grace gave me a look.
“It’s a party drug. We use it to party.” I shrugged. What else would you do with it?
“True. However, some people figured out that if you mix it withEasy-E, it can make an omega go into heat and then blackout,” she told me.
Horror struck me. “That’s not what I intended it for. I had no idea people were even doing that.”
The food sat heavily in my belly and I wanted to vomit. How could they?
“Wait, do you think someone did that to us on purpose?” My chest shook.
“Personally, I think you dumbassed yourself on accident, considering the person who sold you this probably didn’t know you’d take something else–and your drug isn’t widely known. Hale, we have had this drug-mixing conversation before.” Verity sighed.
“We didn’t mean to, we thought it didn’t work.” I frowned. “Are people really doing that with my drug? But who would do that? Where are they doing that? Not on campus. Campus has zero tolerance for that.”
“Good. But you sell your drug other places and to other people, right?” Grace added.
“Yes.” Though I only wholesaled it to Clegg, who sold it with his moonshine. He had a much larger reach than I did.
“You can’t always control what other uses a drug has. I’m glad you’re horrified. At the same time, Easy-E comes from oxytipoline. If your drug mixed with that can induce heat, there might be a legitimate reason for that, especially if it has fewer side effects than some of the other heat-inducing drugs that are used for medical purposes. Though the memory loss would be a major side effect,” Grace added.
“I regret not remembering bonding with them,” I confessed. “I still don’t know what I’m going to do. Out of everybody, I’m the least adult. They have careers. I haven’t graduated.”
“You only have one semester left of undergrad. Though honestly, if you don’t really want to get your PhD and are only doing it to make the parents happy, I will support you,” Verity told me. “Ialways thought you’d make a good high school chemistry teacher. You know, like Dad, but without the silly suspenders.”
“Absolutely with the silly suspenders,” I replied, pretending to be aghast at her suggestion.
Dad was everybody’s favorite chemistry professor, and known for his suspenders and bowties.
“University’s closed until after New Year’s, but my mentor said that he might have a friend in New York, who could possibly take over my senior seminar research in a lab here and he’d sign off. But he had to check. That would be helpful. I’ve also reached out to those professors of my other classes to see if there’s any way I might be able to do them online or independent study.” I took another muffin.
Verity beamed. “There you go! AJ is really good at things like finances and investments. You should probably meet with him and talk about stuff. I can make you a budget template. Since you’re an alpha, a lot of that responsibility falls to you. Even if other people are going to handle it for the pack, they’re all good things to know, so that you can understand what is going on.”
“If I’m commuting back-and-forth, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my job in Research Circle,” I replied. Which was too bad because I liked working at the Titty Tank.
“Maybe Compass BioTek can pay you for your senior project? Can you send me the proposal you gave your mentor? If it’s not proprietary to him of course,” Grace said, getting up to refill her coffee.
“Oh, I didn’t even think of that. It’s my research.” I got out my phone and forwarded that to her. “Sent. I mean, I’m willing to sell my soul to Compass Biotek. I was kinda hoping to do more work with you anyway. I had fun over this summer.”
As long as I didn’t stay with them.
“Perfect.” She nodded.
“Have you heard from Rock Tech? What about other PhDprograms?” Verity asked.
My head hung with shame. But there was no point in lying. “I was waitlisted for Rock Tech. I haven’t gotten into any place. Not one. I’ve hidden how bad my grades got last year.”
