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Clearing his throat, he murmurs, “It was Predatocin, or more likely the half-assed street version, Heat Fleet. Y’all… her foster father was trying to induce an early heat.”
The room explodes into chaos.
I cup my hand over my mouth and fight the urge to be sick as tears form in my eyes. Rook punches the wall. Kaspian strips naked and goes out to swim, which he only does when he’s really stressed or anxious. Even Achilles has his head dropped into his hands, pulling at his hair roughly.
Turning towards us, breathing heavily and looking half feral, Rook growls. “I can’t be here right now. I’m going to go check on Blake. Yell if you need me.”
He stalks off, stomping up the stairs. I would be worried, but the guy is a marshmallow, and I have zero doubt Blake is going to plant herself firmly in his heart in no time at all. The urge to be sick is passing enough that I can look up and over at Kai, who looks absolutely devastated.
“Is she okay? Will she go into heat? What can we do to help? Does she need anything? Oh, god. If she goes into heat, she won’t want me anywhere near her! We haven’t even talked yet, let alone even began building a friendship again. What if—”
“Jesus, D, shut UP and let me talk for a damned second,” he barks out at me, urging his Alpha influence into his voice.
Stunned, I close my mouth and stare at him with wide eyes. I can count on one hand the number of times he’s used his Alpha bark on someone, and he hasneverused it on anyone in this pack.
He looks sheepish. “I’m sorry, man, but you were working up to an anxiety attack. Just take a deep breath and listen to me. Do you really think I didn’t consider every single one of those things and getverydetailed instructions from the nurse,andcall a doctor to verify? I explained everything to Blake when she woke up this morning and gave her the first dose of heat suppressants this morning. She’s going to be moody, have cramps like she did earlier, headaches, and be exhausted for the next week as she takes the suppressants. Followed by another week once she stops and they leave her system.”
I take several deep breaths and realize he’s right. There’s nobody I trust more with my Shortcake than my pack, and if she doesn’t want me with her, I’m happy she wants them.
Blowing out a breath I say, “Okay… so the best thing to do is just… pay attention, right? If she’s not going to be feeling well, we need to have the things she’ll need and want, which means I need to go to the store and stock up on supplies. Maybe y’all could give things to her, though? I’m worried she won’t take them knowing they’re from me.”
There’s sadness and a bit of exasperation in his expression when he looks at me. “Good god, D. You’re the most melodramatic little shit I’ve ever known. She’s going to come around, especially once you explain how she was lied to and how we never stopped looking for her. Give it time. She’s going to come around. I feel it in my gut. I mean, she’s our scent match. Do you really think she won’t recognize that when the drugs wear off?”
“I…I don’t know.She didn’t recognize it when we were younger. I’m not even sure she knows what it means to be scent matched. I mean, for god’s sake. I haven’t even had a chance to explain everything to her. She hates me right now.”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Are you really that dense? That girl still loves you so much, and it’s written all over her face when she looks at you. You see her anger and resentment, but I see a girl who needs love and desperately wants to feel like she has ahomeagain.”
I gape at him, mind racing with all the times I was on the verge of an anxiety attack or woke up crying and being near Blake fixed it all. How I still sleep with her favorite stuffed animal she gave me after a particularly bad nightmare just weeks before she went missing. How, since the day I met her, I’ve associated the scent of strawberries withhome.Hell, the only candles I’ve ever let the pack burn are strawberry shortcake scented.
Was she feeling it too, even after all these years? Does she associate my scent with home?
Smirking at me, he leans back in the chair, holding his hands out palm up before clapping them together in the prayer position. “Nowyou’re getting it. Thank the good lord.” He chuckles.
It’s my turn to roll my eyes at him, used to his theatrics. “Yeah, yeah. I’m a little slow on the uptake. Sue me. Do you think she knows?” I ask, simultaneously hoping she does and doesn’t, struggling with wanting her to know so we can try to move on from the past and work on making herourOmega.
He looks pensive for a minute as he thinks. “Honestly? I think she might suspect but doesn’t know for sure. And I’m fairly sure the meds are messing with that natural, primal feeling that screams ‘mate’ when your scent matches are near.”
I nod, feeling relieved rather than nervous, like I was expecting. “Good. Okay, well, where do we go from here? You seem like you have a plan.”
He raises his eyebrows incredulously. “Seriously?”
I roll my eyes once again. “I’m clueless here, Kai. Can you stop looking at me like I’m a moron and just help? I’m terrified I’m going to push her away.”
His eyes soften and he nods. “Here’s what we do…”
ChapterFive
RIP, PIZZA DELIVERY GUY
Blake
I’ve been in the bathtub for close to a half an hour, but I haven’t calmed down. After Kai brought me up here, he left me in the bathroom with more pain medicine for the cramps, a bright pink bath bomb he found under the sink, and an apology for not being honest about how he knew me. I forgave him pretty quickly for the last one, especially knowing I likely would never have come out of his room if he had told me who was waiting for me downstairs. I think it helped that I got a hit of his pumpkin pie scent during his “mandatory apology hug”.
How can one pack smellthisgood? Kai smells like warm pumpkin pie, Achilles smells like lemon bars that have been coated in powdered sugar, and I know I got a whiff of gingerbread and something fruity when I was downstairs with the other guys, too. Not to mention Hades’ caramel apple scent that felt like coming home. It doesn’t help that they’re all stupidly good looking. But really… am I that upset about it all? I’m not sure.
I was eleven when Phil took me, and I’m starting to wonder why I trusted him when he told me D abandoned me. It’s not like he could have found me in the abandoned warehouse Phil kept me chained in while he tried to get Dianne to let him move back home. I do believe they adopted him because three weeks later, when we moved into the cottage out back, I never saw Hades through the basement window. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to forgive him, though. I need to know what happened, and why he never came back.
With that thought on repeat in my brain and the pain meds in full effect, I drain the tub and get dressed. As I’m pulling my sweatshirt over my head, there’s a knock at the door. I open it, expecting to find Kai or even Achilles. Instead, it’s the one man I haven’t met yet, even in passing.
