Episode 10 Into the Woods #2
We wait like there might be more, but apparently there isn’t because he steps back, leaving the door open behind him as he leads the way inside.
The combined scent of their pack hits my nose--pineapple and chili, sea salt, petrichor--not unpleasant but not mine.
Though buried under the Calloway pack is a faint scent that makes my alpha scratch at my ribs and my heart rate pick up. Florence.
Atticus leads us into the living room, where we’re greeted by three other bristling alphas and one very pissed off, very pregnant omega.
Haven is small, dark-haired and grey-eyed. Pretty, but nowhere near as pretty as Ren. In my mind no one could ever compare. She’s standing in front of her pack, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as she scans over all five of us and then shakes her head scoffing.
“Took you long enough to come to your senses.”
Agreed. I glance at the rest of my pack and see Grieves, Forsythe and Thayer are glaring right back at the other alphas. Piers and I exchange a look. Seems like it’s up to us to try to smooth things over enough that they won’t keep us from seeing our omega.
He moves up next to me, his solicitous smile already in place, and I curl my lips into something similar.
“You must be Haven. I’m-”
“Courtland,” she spits out. Those narrowed eyes of hers travel around the group. “I know who all of you are. Watched every second of you making my best friend fall in love with you, only for you to reject her.”
There is not an ounce of deference in her, in the way she talks to us, in the bold way her eyes meet each of ours. She doesn’t give a shit that Forsythe is a prince, that the rest of us are nobility, even Grieves has a title though he’s not comfortable using it.
But then she motions at herself. “As you say, I’m Haven. This is my pack—Jude, Creed, Atticus and Hale.”
“Thank you for letting us in,” Piers says, sounding fidgety and nervous. Not because of the alphas filling the air with dominance, but because of the need we’re all feeling. “We really appreciate it. We’re… anxious to see Florence.”
A little growl rolls out of the omega, accompanied by matching growls from the alphas around her.
Hale slides a big hand on the back of his omega’s neck squeezing gently and she just melts under his touch, all the fight going out of her, while Jude bends to press a kiss to her shoulder.
“Remember what the doctor said, button. You gotta not let yourself get worked up. Gotta try to stay calm for the baby.”
Haven closes her eyes and takes a deep inhale. “Sorry. It’s just seeing their stupid faces in real life is so fucking infuriating. They hurt Ren!”
“We know, baby girl,” Creed murmurs low and soft. “Just say the word and we’ll take them out back and bury them in the garden.”
The corner of Haven’s mouth ticks up like she’s imagining it. Letting her pack march us into the no doubt perfectly manicured yard and murdering us. She’s a blood thirsty little thing. Thank God Florence has her. Has them.
“Not the garden,” she says. “It’s the first place the police would look if the freaking prince of Bravonne went missing.”
“Ah, so you do know who I am,” Forsythe says, sounding prissy as hell. “I wondered, given the reception you’ve given us.”
I glare at him over my shoulder, at the same time Haven opens her eyes and glares too.
Our prime sighs and shakes his head, trying to dislodge his princely mantle.
The one that makes people scurry to do as he demands.
“I apologize. I understand your anger entirely. I know—we know—we’ve caused irreparable harm to Florence, and we’re only here to see how we can make it better. Make it right.”
“How do you imagine doing that?” Tic asks, not sounding the least bit moved.
“I don’t see how that is any of your business. How we move forward is between my pack and Florence.”
Not one of them seems impressed with his answer, but I don’t think they can fault him for it. The only person whose opinion on the matter we care about is Ren.
“Where is she?” Thayer asks, voice sounding wrecked. He spent the entire flight over reading every medical journal he could find about Rejected Mate Disorder, and with every line his expression grew a little more haunted. “Please. We just… we need to see her. Need to make sure she’s okay.”
The raw tone of his voice has Haven softening, her arms drifting to her sides as she runs her eyes over us again.
This time I know she sees how broken down we are, the dark circles, the hollow cheeks, the despondency and exhaustion that hangs on every one of us.
She sees that while we might not be experiencing RMD, we are experiencing heartbreak.
“God,” Haven says, shaking her head. “I want to tell you no just to spite you, just because I want you to fucking hurt the same way she is.” Forsythe opens his mouth like he’s going to argue with the tiny omega, but she holds up a hand and his lips snap closed.
“I want to, but I’m not going to. Because the only person that matters right now is Ren.
Her health. Her happiness. And as much as I want to kick your dicks clean off your bodies and watch you bleed out from the injury, I have a feeling that for Ren to be happy and healthy, she needs you. ”
Relief floods through me, making my knees weak. They’re going to let us see her. “Where is she?”
Haven jerks her chin toward the back of the house.
“In the pool house. I’ll show you the way.
” I start in the direction she’d indicated, not willing to wait, but she dodges in front of me, quick for a pregnant omega.
She glares up at me and it’s adorable, not holding as much aggression as she might want.
The alpha at her back though? His dominance is overwhelming, a match for Forsythe.
“But I swear to god if you pull any shady shit. If you say anything to hurt her, If you make her worse in any way, I will not hesitate to tie you to a stake and set your asses on fire.”
“You think you can manage that all on your own?” Grieves asks, folding his arms over his chest and flexing his muscles in a way that makes me roll my eyes.
“Oh, no. I wouldn’t be on my own. I’d have these four alphas of mine to help.
And Ren’s sister, her mom, her students at the yoga studio.
All omegas, mind, but we can be fucking vicious when protecting people we care about.
” Haven tips her chin up meeting each of our gazes.
“I love that girl like a sister. She is the best person I have ever known and I will murder you if you hurt her again.”
The Calloway pack make growling noises that tell us they back up their omega’s sentiments, and I have the feeling that if it were up to them we’d already be in the ground.
My packmates prickle in response and the air grows thick with so much alpha dominance that it starts to make me uncomfortable. It's a wonder that Haven’s still standing.
I roll my eyes. “Now is not the bloody time for posturing.” I snap at my pack. “Ren needs us. Whatever we bloody well need to promise, we will,” I tell Haven. “Just let us see her, please.”
There’s a long drawn out pause where Haven tilts her head considering me, and then she beams a smile at me so big and bright, I almost stumble back a step. Almost, but that would take me further from Florence so I keep my feet planted.
“I knew you were my favorite,” the other omega says, spinning on her heel. “The whole time I was watching the show, I kept thinking, ‘he seems like a playboy and a flirt, but he’s the first one to really see Florence.’”
Her words hit me square in the chest and suddenly it’s hard for me to breathe. Like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me.
“That’s not true,” Piers protests, following in my wake as Haven guides us through her house. “I saw her… and she saw me. It just wasn’t aired on the show.”
Haven makes a sad little humming noise as one of the alphas, Jude I think, rushes forward to open the door to the back patio for her.
“Yeah, Ren told me about that. About how your pack doesn’t claim you as theirs.
” The hard edge is back in her voice and I don’t have to ask her opinion on that matter.
“The situation is complicated,” Forsythe grits out, frustration and guilt warring in his tone, vibrating through his body.
“Right, it’s soooo complicated loving someone and not having the balls to show it to the world. Sounds like there’s just so much to consider.”
Worried that Forsythe might snap something that the little omega he can’t come back from, I hurry to fill the space. “How has she been?”
Haven pauses next to the pool, turning to face us, and her alphas flank her.
“Since she got back? Awful. But she was getting better. With the right medications and time, the effects of RMD can be mitigated. Not cured entirely, but they can get better. And then this bullshit happened, and now the whole world knows she’s your mate and you still deemed her not good enough and she…
” she glances up at the biggest alpha in her pack, looking for comfort or help, I’m not sure but he gives her both, tucking her much smaller body into his chest, and looking up at us.
“She fainted at the interview and she’s been in and out of consciousness ever since.
” My eyes fly to the building on the far side of the pool, everything in me begging to go to her, to find her, protect her.
Make her fucking better. “She’s been running a fever too.
We had her doctor come and she told us the best we can do is just keep Ren hydrated and medicated and hope it breaks. ”
“Fuck,” Thayer growls already stepping around them and rushing across the pool deck. The rest of us are right on his heels, bursting into the little house that smells fucking heavenly, even with the tinge of heartbreak and sickness in the air.
If there was any doubt at all of Florence being ours, it’s gone. Vanished in the haze of sweet hibiscus and citrus.
Her house is small. Really small. Consisting of only a living room and a dine-in kitchen and two doors. One most likely leads to the bathroom and the other to Ren’s bedroom.
Thayer steps through one, the interior is dark and I can’t see much, but the smell. God the fucking smell. If I thought the main room smelled like heaven, the bedroom smells like fucking ambrosia. The best thing in the entire world, and that’s with the unpleasant tang of Ren’s sickness.
What will it be like when she’s healthy? I think somewhat dazedly as we all crowd around the bed and the tiny form in the middle of it. I can barely make her out in the dim light, but I can see that she’s restless, legs and arms moving like she can’t get comfortable.
My heart’s in my throat as Forsythe reaches out one trembling hand and traces the line of her nose, brushes his fingers over her forehead, cups her cheek. With a soft sigh she turns her face into his palm, and her restless movements settle.
“She’s burning up,” he mutters, his worry plain in his voice. “We need to bring her temperature down.”
“Yeah, we’ve been trying,” Haven says from the doorway. “Nothing seems to help. But I think if you’re near, if you touch her… The doctor said that would help. So maybe just cuddle her?”
I’m kicking off my shoes before she’s even finished. My shirt joins them on the floor, and I’m considering shucking my pants, when Piers slides under the blankets and pulls her into his body, her back to his front.
I don’t waste time sliding into the other side, before anyone else can, pressing close to her feverish body and wrapping her up in my arms. She lets out another sigh and rubs her face against my chest with a little mewling sound that goes straight to my heart.
“We’ll take it in shifts,” Forsythe says, not taking his eyes off our omega. “Give each of us a chance to hold her, yeah? To help her feel better.”
Grieves perches on the edge of the bed by my hips, reaching over me to grab her hand. Thayer does the same on Piers’ side, finding a small patch of her skin to caress.
“Okay,” Haven says softly. “It looks like you all have this well in hand. Let us know if you need anything. We’ll just be at the big house. If her condition worsens…”
“We’ll let you know,” our prime tells her, moving to the foot of the bed and taking up a post there, his hand sliding onto Pixie’s ankle through the blanket. “But I think she’s going to be okay now.”
I think so too. Already her breathing is easier, deeper, and her skin doesn’t feel quite so hot. My lips press into the top of her head and stay there, my nose buried in her hair, breathing her in as her scent settles.
The door to the bedroom closes followed by the one that leads outside. We don’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. Not right now. Not with our mate’s scent thick in the air. Not when she’s finally resting in the way her body needs.
We’re here now, Pixie, I think to her. We’re here and we’re not letting you go.