10. Caleb
Caleb
The room reeks of sex and pheromones and it’s the first time I get a clear hit of Mathew’s scent. After an orgasm, they tend to be the strongest and his are still fairly weak, but they’re clearer than they’ve been yet.
I like his slightly sharp floral scent of wisteria a lot. Very different from Vera’s warm honey scent. But when they mix, that’s a heady combination and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to go for another round in no-time if I don’t clear my head first.
I carefully pull Vera up, putting her bathrobe around her shoulders. She looks so happy and her pheromones are all satisfaction and bliss. She’s one well-fucked and thoroughly adored Omega.
Then I eye Mathew and when he notices my dilemma, since he just wiped away his cum with his bathrobe, he reaches out to me and lets me pull him to his feet.
“I’ve got another one.” He walks over to one of the dressers on unsteady legs and pulls out another bathrobe, another exquisitely made one, wrapping it around him. Instantly turning him from a normal person into someone who looks like royalty.
“Let’s sit outside. It’s easier to talk when we’re not surrounded by pheromones.” I hobble onto the balcony and sit down on one of the large lounging chairs.
I clearly overdid it when holding Vera on my legs while fucking her and I feel the bandages soaking through with new blood.
“Are you okay? Did it open up again?” She sits down on the chair with me, her eyes going to my bandaged foot.
“I don’t think it’s too bad. It just hurts.” I tug on her arm and she slides next to me. Her head on my shoulder and her arm over my chest as she looks at Mathew, who pulls one of the normal chairs to my other side so he can look at both of us at the same time.
Then he sits down, his eyes fixed on us, but he’s trying to shield his emotions. “If you think you might need stitches, I’ll have someone come over to take a look, patch you up.” His voice is level, detached.
“Thanks.” I nod, feeling awkward at his intense gaze when he’s also seemingly trying to create distance between us. “Though, I don’t think it’s needed.”
Vera jabs me in my side, making me flinch, glaring at me. She’s giving me that ‘I know you’re trying to downplay the problem’ look.
“Fine.” I hold up the hand I don’t have wrapped around her. “We’ll take a look at it later and decide then.”
She smiles, leaning up and kissing my chin. “Good.”
I snort, pulling her against me more, burying my nose into her hair as I take in her sweet scent. She’s so adorable and headstrong at the same time. I love her so much, especially when she’s like this.
A slight sound makes me look at Mathew and he’s laughing at us. A pure happy laugh that makes him look so much younger and a lot less scary.
“How old are you?” I blurt out, before catching myself. “If you don’t mind telling. You don’t have to. It’s not like…” I think it’s best to stop talking now, it’s not like I’m making much sense.
His face falls, regret in his gaze. “I’m older than Vera but closer in age to her than to you. I’m not comfortable sharing more than that right now.”
“Why not?” Vera’s voice is clear but curious, and she leans over me more, her focus on him.
“Because I’m sure that you’re aware of how long I’ve been in this business and it would bring up questions I’d rather not answer right now.” He looks out over the fields and trees, his gaze far away. “I’ll tell you some day, but I think we’ve been through enough today without diving into that too.”
“Why?”
Vera squeaks as I poke her in her side, I don’t think this is the best time to interrogate the man…
“Because it includes a lot of things that only very few people know about me. And I’m not in any mood to explain them.” His eyes focus again and land on Vera. “Is it weird, having a bonded mate who’s so much older than you?”
She shrugs, nuzzling into my chest before looking up at him with a smile. “It’s not like we already knew each other or something like that. He wasn’t a teacher or some other adult I’d known from when I was young. He was just…” She lets out a soft sigh.
“He was the man who saved me and I was aware of his scent, of his body, of his protectiveness over me, well before I became aware of his age. I guess I was lucky that we met when I was an adult, it made things less weird.”
‘Less weird’ is definitely one way to put it. ‘Legal’ would be another one.
“Right…” Mathew’s eyes glaze over and he’s staring at something on the leg of my chair that I can’t see.
“Does it weird you out?” Vera’s voice is careful, quiet, and I keep my gaze on Mathew’s face, my heart hammering in my chest as I wait for the answer.
He closes his eyes, shaking his head slowly. “No. I guess it’s the same for me. I was aware of your scents way before I was aware of other details about you. I knew that you were mine before I even knew your names.”
I blink. “What?” Whoa, whoa, whoa! “What do you mean?” He already knows? Vera’s pheromones are as confused as I feel, unsure.
He keeps his head down, not meeting our eyes. “Hubert brought some of your clothes when he asked me to find you. You know, to make sure we’d get the people with the right scents. I’ve known since then.”
“And you still hunted us down?” Vera’s voice is harsh, angry, her pheromones flaring with her emotions.
“I had to. You were mine. I had to protect you. The only way to do that was at my side.” His head shoots up, glaring at her, at me.
“ Protect us? You were the one who put us in danger. We were doing just fine before you hunted us down.” She sits up, her body vibrating with fury and my emotions aren’t much kinder than hers.
That fucker sent his people after us, put us in danger, even though he knew we were his?
“Doing just fine?” Mathew jumps up, his eyes wide. “Do you know how much money that bastard was willing to spend on getting you back? How many hoops he had to jump through to even be able to hire me? You might have been fine before, but he was getting desperate. I don’t want to?—”
He cuts himself short and turns to the railing, grabbing hold of it, his knuckles white. “I don’t want to consider what could have happened if he’d hired anyone but me.” He grinds out each word, his body so rigid it looks ready to snap.
“I know I’m only an Omega. But these feelings…
This fury… I know it’s irrational… If I could, I’d go out and kill every person he’s tried to hire before he came to me.
Every person he gave your scents to. Every person who knows who you are.
Because each and every one of them is a danger to you, to my mates . ”
Fuck…
To hear him say those words, to call us his mates…
That shouldn’t feel this good…
The low angry growl in my chest makes him turn to me, his eyes full of emotion, full of anger and pain. “I’d gladly help you out with that. Nobody will ever touch you or her. Nobody.”
I’d rather be killed than have them ever get hurt. Never again. Never.
Vera nods, her hair bobbing around her head wildly, though the anger hasn’t left her and I suspect she might be angry with him for a while longer about the whole kidnapping situation. Which is understandable.
But if Mathew’s this upset about one pack coming after us, I need to be sure about something else, about Mathew’s past.
I take Vera’s hand, bringing it to my mouth and softly kissing it. “Can you refill the bottles of water from before? I think it’s important to stay hydrated, especially after all the ‘exercise’ we just had.”
She glances at me, slightly frowning, but then nods when she sees the look in my eyes. “Sure.” She turns to Mathew. “Would you like something to drink too?”
He eyes her and then me, meeting my troubled gaze, understanding what I’m doing.
“Yeah, sure.” He shrugs out of his robe and holds it out to her.
“There will be cooled bottles in the kitchen. It’s at the end of the hallway across from the stairs.
If you wear my robe, they probably won’t give you any trouble. ”
Vera blushes as she looks him over, her eyes lingering on his dick, his very hard dick, quickly licking her lips as she shrugs out of her robe and hands it to him. Then she puts on his robe and ties it around her waist.
“I think this colour suits me.” Her voice is slightly hoarse and I laugh, smiling.
“Anything suits you.” I grin and she rolls her eyes at me.
She comes over, giving me a soft kiss. “I’ll be right back.”
As she’s leaving, Mathew puts on Vera’s robe, hiding his delicious body from view, and leans back against the railing, his gaze suspicious.
“I thought you two shared everything? Why send her away?” He crosses his arms over his chest.
I let out a deep sigh, trying to control the fury that’s been trying to grow in my chest ever since I saw him naked for the first time. To give him some clue, I let a sliver of the emotion into my pheromones. Fury, but of a protective type, my need to protect him.
“How much danger are you in?”
He snorts, trying to smirk, but he’s not so sure. “In my line of work, I’m always in danger. I thought that was clear.”
“I saw the heart tattoo on the inside of your thigh.” I originally didn’t know for sure, I’d only caught a quick glimpse of it, but when he was finger fucking himself earlier, I got a much clearer look. To make things worse, it’s not just a heart, it’s a crowned heart.
“I know what it means. So, how much danger are you in?”
His uncertainty flips to anger in a flash as he stalks towards me, looming over me, his hands balled into fists. “Are you one of those bastards who…”
“ No. ” I stare at him, letting him know I’m sincere. “Before I met Vera, before we were constantly on the run, I helped some people escape from there .”
I take a quick breath. “I helped them get their feet back under them, tried to protect them until they got a new identity and hopefully a safer place to live. That’s the only thing I was involved with, helping them once they got out.”
He slowly nods and then sits down next to me on the chair, his gaze on his feet as emotions flash over his features. “Does she know?”
I shake my head, my heart aching for the pain he must be carrying inside. “She knows that I used to help runaways. But that’s all. It didn’t seem important to go into detail while we were on the run.”
He carefully takes my hand, running his fingers over the rough scar where my pinkie used to be. “Thank you.” His voice is rough. “Thank you for being a good person.” He quickly blinks, avoiding tears.
On impulse, I reach out and pull him against my chest as my heart breaks for him. He tenses for a moment before he relaxes into my embrace.
“I’ll kill anyone who dares to hurt you. As your Alpha, I promise you this,” I whisper into his hair, smiling as I catch a faint whiff of his pheromones.
I’ll kill anyone who dares to hurt my mates.