4. Mathew
4
Mathew
My pheromones keep flooding out as Jorge’s scent mixes with Caleb and Vera’s and it’s really turning me on. I want to whine, I want to bare my throat to him and let him mark me. Let all of them mark me.
Let them claim me as theirs.
That thought finally breaks through the haze.
Those aren’t normal thoughts, they’re not even normal ‘being around your scent match’ type of thoughts. Those are the thoughts of an Omega in heat, which I can’t do.
This isn’t me. These feelings aren’t mine. Because I can’t go into heat.
“Let me go.” I put as much force behind my words as I can and the dejected look in Jorge’s eyes breaks my heart.
I make my way over to the door to the garden and slump down in the grass, trying to take deep breaths, clear my head and body of all the pheromones, trying to get my mind back under control.
I jolt as Jorge sits down next to me, his gaze troubled.
“Since when are your pheromones back?” His voice is careful as he looks out to the rest of the garden, at the flowers and the trees.
“They’re not back. They just come out sometimes. You’ll barely notice them in a couple of minutes.” I fill my lungs as much as possible and the feverish sensation disappears from my body.
“Since when?” He doesn’t let go easily. One of his most frustrating traits.
“About a week. They’ve been getting stronger since I told Caleb and Vera about the night I took over this organisation.”
Jorge’s warm cedar scent spikes as he turns to me, surprise all over his face. “You told them? All of it?”
He’s one of the few people who know what happened that night, so he knows that me opening up to Vera and Caleb about it is very unusual.
“I didn’t go into detail. But I told them. They’ve even seen the stain on the wood.”
“Ah, that explains part of the mess in the office.” He smiles and I seem to finally calm down. “What about the ugly couch?”
“Different blood stain. I’m having the carpet replaced with wood, much easier to clean. I just haven’t gotten around to finalising the plans for it yet.”
“And the old stain?”
“I’m having it all ripped out and replaced. There wouldn’t be anything left anymore.” I need to finally let go of my past. I need to really move forward, and that means finally letting go of that night.
“Who’s the new stain from?” His voice is calm, like we’re talking about the weather, not who I killed this time.
“The fucker who hired me to capture Vera and Caleb. Big mistake on his part.” I pluck at some of the grass. “I would have just let him go too. If he hadn’t told me to ‘get rid of’ them because he didn’t agree with my fees.”
“And they willingly stayed with you after that?” Jorge sounds surprised, his pheromones spiking with suspicion.
“Not exactly.” I sit up, turning my back to him. “But that doesn’t matter right now.”
“Mathew…” There’s a growl in his voice, anger, upset.
“The fucker’s pack has put a bounty on our heads, all three of us. That’s why there’s more security right now. That’s why we’re all a bit busy.”
I get up, turning to go back into the house, but Jorge grabs my ankle, holding on tight.
“What did you make them do?” His growl deepens and I really shouldn’t be feeling this flicker of hope in my chest that he’s already this protective of them…
“Nothing that can’t wait until things have calmed down.” I glare at him. “Let me go.”
He glares back at me, but then slowly lets me go.
The door to the office opens and Vera bounces inside, wearing one of the bright and flowy yellow summer dresses that I had made for her. It suits her perfectly, accentuating her full boobs and her luscious hips.
Though, as she twirls in the middle of the office, showing off to me, I notice she’s not wearing a bra or underwear.
That girl…
I smile, reaching out to her and she twirls right into my arms. “You look lovely.”
“Thank you.” She grins, giving me a quick kiss, her warm honey scent like a comforting cloud around me. “Is your ‘friend’ still here?” Her pheromones ooze with desire and I’m rock-hard against her. She’s very horny today.
“Yes, he’s outside.” I tighten my arms around her waist and then lift her up as I spin us both around. The dress billows out around us and her bright laugh makes my heart lighter.
Yes. We’ll resolve the ‘owning’ thing once everything calms down.
For now, this is good enough. To see Vera relax and have fun and for Caleb to settle down. For both of them to feel safe for the first time in years. That’s more important than anything else right now.
As I put her down, I slide my hands under her skirt and grab her bare ass, making her squeak. “You like him, don’t you?”
She rubs her nose against my shirt, grinning. “He makes you happy, even if you deny it. Your pheromones tell the truth.”
“That’s about me. What about you?”
She pulls back slightly, her gaze more serious. “You trust him. For now, that’s all I need to know. Scent match or not, if you didn’t trust him, I would have cut him up. Your safety is much more important than a scent match.”
My heart beats fast as I slowly nod, overwhelmed by her faith in me —a fucking hit man— and her protectiveness. How did I deserve her?
I nod towards the garden, where Jorge is still in the grass. “Go on outside. I’ll have them bring out lunch.”
“Okay.” Her hands linger on my abs for a few moments, before she turns around and disappears into the garden in a flutter of skirts and voluminous long hair.
Nobody who saw her would think that this cute creature could be deadly. But she is.
“Mathew.” Caleb is standing in the doorway to the hall, looking at me seriously. “Can we talk?”
“Sure, come on?—”
“Out here, please.” He jerks his head to the hallway and disappears.
Okay…
I follow him into the hallway and he’s standing near the stairs, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes sombre.
“What’s wrong?” I walk over to him. His pheromones are on edge, nervous, making me nervous too.
“Does this place have a room for a nest?”
“A nest?” I blink, surprised by his question.
“Vera’s going into heat soon. I don’t know how soon, but it’s coming. She’s going to need a nest. Unless you’re going to order her suppressants?”
Oh, fuck. I’d totally forgotten about that, since I don’t go into heat…
“This place doesn’t have a nest. I don’t need one and the fucker who had it built clearly didn’t think any Omegas would be living here for any stretch of time.”
Not that I was surprised by that, not from a creep like him…
Then I remember the second part of what he said. “Does she normally take suppressants?”
Caleb slowly shakes his head. “Not usually. Sometimes, when we’re on the move or when we’re temporarily staying in a hotel or something. But she doesn’t usually, she prefers to ride it out.”
I realise something. “Shouldn’t she be involved in this conversation?” Keeping her out of this seems like a bad idea.
That makes him smile, he doesn’t even look bothered. “I just wanted to know her options before I speak to her. I’m not going to tell her what to do, that never works out well. But I wanted to check a few things with you before I discuss it with her.”
“There’s no nest room. Other than that, she’s free to choose what she wants. If she wants suppressants, I can order them and have them delivered within a few hours.”
“Good.” He nods, glancing to the open door to the office, where we can hear Vera and Jorge laugh in the garden. “He seems like a good guy.”
I snort. “That depends on your definition of ‘good’. I’m pretty sure that there are various warrants out for him because of his ‘creative accounting’ and possibly other ‘creative’ ways of dealing with problems.”
He bumps his shoulder into mine, grinning. “I meant that he genuinely cares about you and that he seems smitten with Vera. I don’t think any of us could be considered ‘good’ when it comes to being on the right side of the law. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be ‘good’ in how we treat those we care about.”
My chest tightens as I nod, looking away as my face heats up, remembering the look in Jorge’s eyes the moment he saw Vera for the first time. I’ve never seen him look like that at anyone but me, he already adores her.
“True.” My voice is rough and I clear my throat. “Should I get a move on with getting the office redone so I can put my bed there while she’s in heat?”
The thought of being apart from her while she’s in heat is doing weird things to my head and my pheromones, but Caleb and Vera are pair bonded, adding an extra Omega into that mix could be a bad idea.
No matter my feelings on the subject, this isn’t about me, this is about Vera.
Caleb slides his arms around me, pulling me into his broad chest, holding me tightly as he sends out calming pheromones. “You’re going to have to ask her that. But I think she wants you with her, if her offer to mark you is anything to go by.”
That makes me smile, remembering how she offered to mark me to let me know I’ll always be hers. I want to always be hers so much.
“I want to be with her when she’s in heat,” I mumble into Caleb’s chest.
The thought scares me, because the last time I went into heat wasn’t a very good experience.
But with Vera… I want everything. I want to be with her every moment of every day, whatever she’s going through. I want to be with her.
Caleb lets out a soft laugh. “I know that a bond between two Omegas is created differently than between an Omega and an Alpha or Beta. But I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about. I’ve got a feeling she’s claimed you as hers full and well by now.”
I look up at him and he looks so happy, his gaze soft and filled with love. It makes my chest easier and I nod, my cheeks heating up fast. “I think you’re right. She’s pretty good at letting people know what she wants and doesn’t want.”
That makes Caleb laugh more as he keeps his arm around my shoulders and we walk to the office. “It only took her a few hours to make me hers the day I met her. And then we had to wait three weeks before she went into heat so I could mark her. Those were the longest fucking weeks of my life.”
I laugh. Yes, that sounds like her.
I look out to the garden and my heart feels even lighter as I watch Vera and Jorge.
Vera is sitting in the grass, her dress all spread around her —which I can’t imagine can be very comfortable without undies— and she’s animatedly talking about something, her arms moving wildly, making her boobs bounce and her long hair fly all around her.
Jorge is on his back in the grass, his head turned her way, his arms comfortably draped over himself as he’s listening to her every word, like she’s got him under a spell.
No matter how much I’ve been trying to keep Jorge away for years, I’ve always known that it would fail at some point.
And that point seems to be now, with Caleb and Vera in my life, with them at my side.
We’re a pack, all of us.
We’re Vera’s pack.