Page 52 of Knot Your Pawn

Their beautiful nest…

Mathew and Vera have always been so happy with their nest, this one and the previous one, so to see them trying to rip it apart...

Fucking hell.

It broke my heart.

It’s clear that things with them are much worse than we thought they were.

The plan was to flood the bedroom and the nest with our pheromones and then all climb into the nest together and wait out this pheromone withdrawal ordeal.

But the moment we stepped into the bedroom, Mathew and Vera were having none of it.

First, Vera got all upset when Caleb didn’t move off the blanket she wanted quickly enough and once she got the blanket, she started opening doors, clearly looking for something and not finding it.

But, before we could figure out what was going on with her, I saw Mathew cut open a pillow from the nest with a knife, spilling the filling everywhere.

Caleb managed to get the knife away from him without seeming to distress Mathew even more, but that didn’t stop Mathew from ripping the rest of the pillowcase apart with his bare hands, before moving onto other items.

I’ve never seen an Omega so intent on destroying their nest.

Mathew and Vera love their nest.

And somehow, they were set on destroying the whole thing.

Luckily, once we got them into the bathroom and they retreated to the bathtub, the two Omegas quickly fell asleep. This gives us a couple of moments to rest, to think, to figure out what’s going on.

“I think it’s the lack of settled scents.” Luca’s voice is strained and he’s very pale right now. “Vera said that she was looking for ‘home’. I think the lack of any normal ‘house’ scents and lack of established pheromones that have collected in rooms over time are messing with their heads.”

He closes his eyes tightly, his breathing hard behind his mask. “I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.”

He quickly gets up and rushes out of the bathroom, making sure to leave the bathroom door open only long enough to slip through before he closes it behind him again.

I look at the other two Alphas, who seem to be thinking what Luca said over. “Do you think he’s right, that this doesn’t feel real to them? They can see all the usual things around them, but the lack of normal scents is making them feel that this is some fake world?”

When we left Mathew’s office to come upstairs, the explicit lack of scents while every other one of my senses told me that this was still the same place as ever was jarring.

It didn’t feel wrong, but was definitely strange.

But for Omegas who are already having pheromone withdrawal problems, that jarring sensation might have been much more unsettling, might have triggered some instincts that were already on high alert.

“To them, everything looking right but there being a distinct lack of scents might have been like a nightmare.” I let out a long breath, my heart heavy. “Fuck.”

If you look at their behaviour that way, it makes total sense. If they feel that all of this is a nightmare, then it makes sense that they wanted to destroy the nest.

What better way to fight yourself out of a nightmare than to get rid of it?

Than to destroy it?

Like they’re not dealing with enough as it is.

Like this pack isn’t dealing with enough shit as it is.

I hope that Mathew and Vera getting some sleep will help them, especially if they get enough of our pheromones while they do so. Even if the bath really isn’t the most comfortable place to sleep for anyone, they seem calm right now, which is much better than before.

“How can we help them see that this isn’t a nightmare?” Riley looks at our Omegas with pain in her gaze. “How can we help them see that there isn’t anything bad or dangerous going on here? That this is the real world?” She looks at me and then at Caleb, who shrugs, looking as lost as the rest of us.

“I wish I had an answer. But I think, right now, that the only way to help them is to help them recover from the pheromone withdrawal. Once that’s a bit better, this should no longer be as big of an issue.” Caleb stands up, stretching, which seems to wake up Vera, who lets out a soft whine.