“Mathew.” I drop my voice, using my Alpha powers.
I’ve had enough of tonight; everyone is exhausted and running on anxiety and adrenaline. I would prefer if we didn’t make things worse by making choices we can’t undo.
He stills in my arms, his hands against my chest, his eyes closed, waiting for my next command. I hate how he starts to tremble against me when I do this, but I didn’t see another way. I have to get through to him.
“Not tonight.” I take a deep breath, softening my voice.
“Tonight, we have to make sure our pack, the people around us and the people from your organisation are all safe and sound. We can’t keep rushing ahead. If we become sloppy, we’ll start making mistakes and that could cost us our lives.”
And more than that, if Mathew dies, the Hearts will have an easier time doing their creepy and vile shit. His organisation is keeping them somewhat in line, if that stops, things will get much, much worse.
He slowly nods, leaning his head on my shoulder. “They hurt Luca. They used me. They used you and Vera. All to hurt him.” He growls, but it’s a sound of pain and frustration, no longer one of anger.
I have no idea what exactly happened to Luca, but I had a suspicion that it had something to do with Vera and me, with how he reacted to our pheromones earlier. That could explain some of the strange things we found about the pack Vera was supposed to marry into, or not. But that’s for later, not right this moment.
“We’ll get them for that. But all in good time. Tonight is not that time.”
Someone bangs on the door, startling us both.
“Why is the door closed?” Jorge’s voice sounds tight, stressed, as he bangs on the door again. “Mathew? Is Riley with you?”
Riley?
I glance at Mathew, who looks up at me in surprise before shaking his head. “We don’t know where she is. Why?”
We’ve had enough to deal with tonight without one of our pack members going missing…
“She was supposed to grab something from the kitchen for the kids, but she’s not there. Open this freaking door already!” Jorge seems to almost want to break through the door with his fists.
Mathew glances at the monitors on his desk, before turning them off with a single movement, the way he’s holding his body changing, becoming alert. “Fuck. I’m pretty sure I know where she is. Let’s hope she doesn’t do something she’s going to regret.”
He quickly crosses over to the door, giving me a pointed look as he pulls the chair out of the way, and then rips it open.
This startles Jorge, who stumbles back, just in time to get out of Mathew’s way, as my Omega runs down the hallway. Luckily, Jorge recovers quickly and runs after him, while I follow the two.
As Mathew pulls the door to the outside out of some poor guy’s hand, I realise where he’s going. He’s going to the training complex!
Where the guys we grabbed tonight are being kept.
Oh, no.
I agree with Mathew, let’s hope she hasn’t done anything she’s going to regret yet.
I tap around on my phone, connecting my earpiece just to Riley. “What are you doing?”
It’s quiet for a while, before Riley’s voice comes over the earpiece. “Collecting information.” She sounds very calm, which I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. She’s used to using dubious methods to get information out of people, and if it’s to protect her pack, I’m sure she’ll do whatever she needs to, just like what was going through Mathew’s mind earlier.
“Location?” We’ve nearly crossed the distance between the house and the complex.
“In the back.” She’s still calm, which is making me more nervous now.
Mathew reaches the door to the training complex first and doesn’t seem to need any directions as he immediately rushes down the hallway, to the back. In the back you’ve got two places to go, on the one side, there’s the shooting range, and on the other side is a hallway that leads to rooms that are used for ‘various things’.
In one of the first days we were here, I’d explored the complex to see what was what, and I’d noticed that the walls of these rooms were unusually thick and that they were easy to clean…
It didn’t take me much to imagine what the ‘various things’ were that the rooms were being used for.
My chest tightens.
