1
Vera
My head and heart are all over the place as I lean in the doorway to the garage, watching Mathew and Riley hug our new scent match, watch them hold him, comfort him. While I’m all the way over here…
Luca, our Beta scent match, is around the same age as Mathew, Jorge and me, just past his mid-20s. His height is almost exactly in the middle between Mathew and Jorge —who are the same height— and me —the shortest of our pack.
He’s got soft brown hair, in that shade that’s not dark or light, more of a true medium, that likely gets beautiful highlights in summer. He’s got a slim built, but I don’t know if that’s natural or because of how he’s been treated.
His caramel pheromones are filled with bitter notes, reflecting the pain he’s been under while the Hearts had him. Reflecting all the shit that they’ve put him through.
Everything about him makes me want to protect him. Makes me want to protect my precious mate. I want to hold him, keep him close, cherish him.
But every time he catches a sliver of my pheromones, he has a panic attack.
I don’t know what has happened exactly, but I have some idea, based on his reaction. Torture, of some kind. Something that has made him fearful of his own scent matches.
There are few things more evil than torturing someone so much that they can’t be around their fated mates, but that’s why some people do it… Because it’s so effective…
I swallow hard, trying not to get even more upset. Trying to stay calm.
Mathew disentangles himself from the other two, coming over to me, his face pale, his skin clammy. Oh, that’s not good. I know what that look means, I’ve seen it plenty of times in the last weeks.
“Bathroom?” I start walking ahead of him, checking if the downstairs bathroom is available.
His fingers grip onto the back of my dress as he follows me. Like he’d get lost without me, even though he’s been living here for a decade. But I know it’s more out of comfort than anything else, simply needing to be near me, letting my pheromones soothe him.
Luckily, the downstairs bathrooms are empty and I hold the braid I put in his hair only a few hours ago, as he retches over the sink. Nothing comes out, though that’s not strange, I don’t think he’s had anything to eat since last night’s dinner.
After a couple of minutes, he slowly lowers himself to the floor, pulling me down with him, his face slowly regaining colour.
I sit next to him and he puts his head on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my waist, pushing his nose closely against my neck. I reach up and slowly undo his braid, rubbing my fingers over the back of his head, massaging him, and he lets out a sound that’s almost like purring.
For a guy who’s as scary as Mathew, he’s like putty when he’s around his mates. Especially when he curls up with us, when he needs to be held and comforted, have his Omega instincts met. I have no idea how he survived for so long without his mates around all the time.
Although, that might be why he’s extra needy now.
Tonight has been quite the night.
Mathew and Riley went on a mission to ‘retrieve’ —steal— some seeds from a biotechnological research complex and apparently that didn’t entirely go according to plan. Though, what I understood from slivers of conversation from the guys on the teams that went with them, there were very few casualties, fewer than expected, so that was a positive.
But when Mathew was in the lab, things went a little differently than expected as they found a ‘security guard’ at work when the lab was supposed to be empty. Double strange was that he seemed to be doing experiments when he was wearing a security guard outfit, though one that didn’t fit him, not his own.
So, they took the seed samples they were there to grab, the ‘security guard’ and all of his stuff, back with them. The fake security guard is currently in a room in the training complex, waiting until we’ve got time to deal with him.
The two guys that Caleb, Jorge and I took back with us are in the rooms next to his. Each guy in his own room, for security and safety. It’s often hard to anticipate what they might do when they realise that they’re not getting out of there, not alive anyway.
Jorge and I were supposed to go on a simple movie date, take our minds off the mission that Mathew and Riley were on and get some time alone together. With a pack, it’s hard to get one-on-one time, so this had been a pretty good idea.
That was, until I caught wind of Luca’s pheromones and —not wanting to leave a new pack member out there in the world, especially not one whose pheromones smelled like they were in big trouble— I started following him.
I found him, together with three guards, accompanying a group of young kids through dark and dirty alleys, well past the kids’ bed time. That was the second reason I couldn’t let it go.
It looked wrong and I’m not that good with injustice, at least not when it’s against kids or people I love.
One thing led to another and everything ended with one of the guards dead, two of them currently in the training complex, waiting for questioning, and the kids getting ready to go to sleep in an upstairs room.
And, of course, Luca.
