“Vera?” I reach out to her, which makes her pheromones flare and sets off everyone else’s too. “Vera, talk to me.” I don’t use my Alpha powers, I purely use my own voice, relying on the bond we’ve had for years, trusting that I can get through to her. “What’s going wrong?”
Riley is holding our broken Beta and troubled Omega, trying to create a pheromone bubble around Luca, while Luca and Vera’s fingers tightly entwined.
Vera’s voice is muffled against Luca’s back. “My pack is in danger.” A sob punctuates her words. “I need to protect my pack, but I can’t because that puts my pack in more danger.” Another sob. “And then. And then.”
Her breath comes out harsh as she reaches her other hand out to me and I take it. “And now we’ve put his family in even more danger than before. And it’s all my fault. And I can’t do anything about it.”
Vera’s worries are easy to understand and I wish that I could hold her close and tell her over and over that she’s not at fault, but she’s in no position to hear that right now. I’ll need to break the worry and protective loop they’ve got going on before she’ll be able to really hear any reassuring words.
I look at Riley, but her whole focus is on the two people in her arms, protecting them, guarding them. If I can get Vera and Luca to calm down, she should calm down too.
Then I turn to Jorge, who seems to be reeling from what he’s just been told, his pheromones all over the place, but mostly stuck in ‘scared’ and ‘pained’. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought him in here, but once he noticed their pheromones, that choice was pretty much out of my hands.
Luca’s pheromones are as clear as day, conflicted. Desperate to be with Vera, desperate for their connection, but also terrified of her pheromones, and mine.
Fury and destruction flares in me when my brain helpfully reminds me why he can’t be near her, why he can’t be near me, why our pheromones, which should comfort him only bring him more pain. My head starts to cloud again, blood red fury taking over my mind.
Fuck! Fuck!
No!
I can’t get lost in that right now, no matter how tempting it is with the other pheromones storming through the room.
I try to remember the way Vera and Luca looked when I came home, sitting on the balcony, talking, looking mostly happy. That’s what I need to work towards. That’s what I need to make happen. Calm and happy.
“We’ll get them.” It’s Riley’s voice that breaks through, both the fog in my head and the looping pheromones. “We’ll get rid of every person in the Hearts.”
Yes, we’ll get them. We’ll take the people who caused this situation down. We’ll take them down and make them regret ever laying their eyes on any of our pack members.
And to do that, we need to stay in control now and protect everyone.
My fury doesn’t go away, it merely slides into the background, creating determination and drive.
If we want to take the Hearts down, we need to be at our best and we all need to be together for that, our whole pack needs to be together.
I move closer to Vera, trying to wrap my pheromones around her without Luca getting too many of them. “We’ll protect Luca’s family. We’ll make sure they’re safe, that they’ll never have to worry about any of this ever again.”
“How?” Her voice is quiet, her grip on me still tight, not ready to believe.
“Mathew doesn’t have a whole organisation for nothing, and neither does Erika.” I ignore Jorge’s growl. “We’ll figure out a way. You know that we can. You know that we won’t stop until they’re safe.”
Riley’s pheromones change, just a little, more focused, determined, still very dangerous. “And until then, they’ll be safe here. Protected by everyone. We won’t let them out of our sights until we know that nobody will ever put them in danger ever again.”
She moves, touching Luca’s cheek tenderly before hugging both of them close again. “And I’ll ask if Sam can come with them. He helped me when they rescued me from the Diamonds. He’s got experience with adults who’ve been held by the Suits.”
Of course. I hadn’t even thought about that. His problems won’t be solved in just a few days, but we can make a start. If he gets the right help, we might be able to deal with the worst of it and take a bit of stress off everyone, especially off Luca.
Riley’s words and change in pheromones seems to ease some of the tension in the room. By far not enough of it, but it’s a start.
“We’re safe here.” I kiss the top of Vera’s head. “We’re all safe here, in the house. As long as we’re all together, we’ll be safe. All of us, including Luca.”
Vera slowly nods, her pheromones softening as she glances at me.
Everyone is on edge, nobody feels safe, and since everyone is also at the end of their energy, exhausted, wrung out, emotions and pheromones are running high. Making everything so much worse, making every curve up into a peak and every curve down into a crater.
It’s dangerous, but then, dangerous is basically the norm here, so I’m sure we’ll make it work.
Somehow.
