“He’s not in the rooms with his family, he’s in the hallway.” Jorge’s voice is careful. “He’s sitting in the hallway right outside the kids’ room, because he can’t be away from you. When I checked on him, he asked me to bring you his shirt.”
Jorge holds me in his arms, keeping me close, his pain at seeing our distress making my tears even worse.
I wish I could drag Luca over here and hide him in my nest.
Hide him in the nest until everything is over.
Until his pain is gone and everything is good again.
I wish I could take his broken pieces and heal him, make him whole again.
But right now, I only bring him more pain.
Being around me hurts him, and I don’t want that.
So, no matter how much it goes against my own feelings, my own instincts, I need to let him keep his distance as much as he needs.
Jorge stands up and puts me on my feet, wrapping Luca’s shirt around my shoulders. He lets out a soothing rumble that vibrates through his chest, instinctively making me lean against him more.
I want my whole pack together, everyone in the nest at the same time. But I have a feeling that that might take a while.
Until then, I’ll have to stay strong and be patient.
I can do the first, I’m not so good at the second...
But I’ll have to try. For Luca, for the pack, for our future together.
I’ll have to try.
5
Luca
I feel like I’m being torn apart on the inside, split into two. I’m so happy that my family is safe and that they’re here and that I can see them and hold them and talk to them.
For years, I lived with the fear that even though the Hearts told me that they were still alive and that they would stay safe, as long as I did everything they wanted me to, that those were all lies. For years, I didn’t know if my family, if everyone I loved, was alive or dead. I didn’t know if they were out there, living happy lives, or if they were…
I swallow hard.
No. No going there anymore!
They’re here. They’re safe!
I can finally breathe again, stop carrying the pain of the unknown.
But also… My pack. The pack of contradictions and impossibilities.
A pack with a dangerous but cute female Omega, a dangerous and strong male Omega, a controlled and protective male Alpha, a female Alpha who seems to understand me without me having to tell her anything and a male Alpha who looks out of place with the others, though fits in with them perfectly at the same time.
From the moment I reacted to Mathew’s pheromones all those years ago, I already knew that if I ever found my fated mate or mates, that things would not be easy. Life for people who get away from the Suits is never going to be easy, never without danger.
What I didn’t expect was how dangerous and complicated things would become.
I never expected that I wouldn’t be able to be around some of my mates, not for some ‘expected’ or ‘common’ reason, but because of things that the Hearts did to me. I never expected that the Hearts would purposefully harm me in ways that would not just hurt me in the short-term but that would keep hurting me, years if not decades later.
And not just me. That would hurt my pack, including Mathew, for a long time even if I ever did manage to get away from the Hearts.
There are so many people caught up, so many people hurt, just so the Hearts can get ‘back at’ Mathew for leaving them over a decade ago…
