30. Archer
Archer
I ’m thanking every god out there who could possibly be listening right now.
After learning about what she’s been through, seeing the actual location where her torture took place, and not being allowed to see her, the past week has been absolute torture.
It’s affected all of us.
Luna had this way about her when she was with us at the pack house that started to mend together our broken parts.
Madden was getting more confident that he actually deserved to be a part of our pack with an omega.
Chase actually had something he cared about, something he believed in.
Kane found a source of peace that helped him finally fucking sleep again.
And me?
I saw my future with Luna in our home. A future where our house was warm with bright smiles and laughter. A future where all my pack brothers were happy. Where I was happy.
And then Luna was ripped away.
Even though I know our pack won’t stop fighting to get her back, knowing that we can lose her has left me paralyzed. I have to constantly be doing something to distract myself from the emptiness I feel inside my chest, but there’s only so much I can do when it comes to getting Luna back.
I take a breath. All I can do right now is focus on the present.
Luna is in my arms. I’m holding her. I can feel the weight of her, as slight as it is, on my lap. Her peppermint perfume surrounds me.
The peppermint perfume that’s souring at Charlotte’s comments about her hormones and upcoming heat.
“What’s wrong?” I murmur into her ear.
She stiffens even more at my question, like she didn’t expect me to ask. Like she didn’t expect me to notice.
“I—I’m worried about it hurting.”
“Your heat?”
She nods quickly, her chin falling to her chest and hiding her face from me as a curtain of her blonde hair comes between us.
My hands flex against her waist. Of course she feels that way.
I saw where she had her heats. The dark, damp, cold cellar she was kept in would be torturous for an omega to experience her heat in, even with alphas.
But she went through her heat without any of the necessary comforts omegas need or any alphas to soothe her. It’s genuinely a wonder she’s survived.
Hormone imbalance in combination with stress can be deadly for omegas. They can go into comas and never fucking wake up, according to Charlotte.
It’s one of the only reasons why we were able to convince my father to let us visit her. We insisted it would help her, especially considering the stress of her removal from our pack house and the police station.
“The medication you have there will help it hurt less,” Charlotte says. “Honestly, your heat shouldn’t hurt at all with the medication, if you’re given a proper environment and support from alphas.”
“S—support from alphas?” Luna says, her eyes growing wide.
“Yeah, that’s the whole reason why we have the selection process we do. Traditionally, packs court an omega and apply to be chosen to help her through her heats.”
“So—So I’ll get to choose?” She asks, glancing at my pack brothers.
“Yes,” I answer, rubbing my thumb in small circles along her thigh.
“Can—can you guys be the ones to help me?”
“We’ll support you in any way you’ll have us,” Kane says, his gaze not dropping from hers.
“O—okay. You guys are the only ones I’d want to go through my heat with, then.” A blush rises in her cheeks and her perfume sweetens, as if she’s imagining what that would look like.
“We have your nest ready for you,” Chase says softly, a sad smile on his face.
“I’m sorry I didn’t have it ready soon enough for you to actually see it, but it’s there.
All the best and softest fabrics money can buy.
Plus, I even had Madden help me install these star lights in the ceiling, so it’s like you’re looking up at a starry night sky. ”
“You—You did all that for me?”
“Of course,” Chase answers. “One of the pros of getting forced to do this process is that we get to court you. Prove our worth to you and all that jazz.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“We want to,” Madden says softly. “We want to prove we can be the best pack for you, regardless of who else is interested in you.”
“But—But I’m not interested in any other pack.”
“Have you ever met any other pack?” I murmur softly.
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Then wait before you make any judgments.”
I see my pack brothers stiffen in their chairs at my words, but I shake my head at them. I’m not done talking.
“We don’t want you choosing us just because we’re the first pack that found you after the hell you had to go through. We want you to choose our pack because our pack has proven itself to you.”
She bites the inside of her cheek. “Do—do you not want me? Is that why you want me to meet a bunch of other alpha packs?”
“Fuck no! We want you, Moonlight,” Chase yells. If it weren’t for Kane’s hand across his chest, he’d probably have jumped up from his seat on the sofa.
“Because—because I’m your scent match?” She asks softly, not meeting any of our gazes.
I don’t think any of us really know what to say to that. Throughout this whole process, we haven’t quite given that a lot of thought. It hit us hard when we first met her, and it definitely hit me hard when I first scented her, but when we realized she couldn’t tell, it sort of slipped our minds.
We just knew she was right for us. No need to put a label on it that obviously confused Luna and complicated something that was so simple.
“Can you tell?” Charlotte asks, filling the silence in the room.
Luna swallows hard. “I—I don’t know.”
“It’s probably because your hormones are all messed up, and that’s okay, that doesn’t mean that the bond you guys have isn’t there. It just makes things a little more complicated.”
“If I weren’t broken, would I still be forced through the selection process?” Her whisper is so soft, I think the others have to strain to hear her. But I hear her. I feel her tears drip down onto my arm as she practically curls into herself.
My heart feels like it’s being torn from my chest.
“You’re not broken,” I say, my voice thick with the effort it takes to keep from yelling those words. Because she isn’t. She’s perfect. “You fucking complete us, Luna. You bring together all of our broken pieces. That’s why we want you.”
“Even if you’re never able to tell,” Madden adds. “It doesn’t matter. Even if you weren’t our scent match, I don’t think it would’ve mattered. ”
Her gaze still stays aimed at the floor. “None of you are answering my question, so I’m assuming the answer is yes, if I were able to tell that you guys are my scent match, no one would be pushing me through the selection process and forcing me to meet other packs.”
“Traditionally, yes, that would be the case,” Kane answers.
“But in this case? We can’t be certain.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he lowers himself to Luna’s level.
“We’re fairly certain there’s an alpha somewhere high up in the circles we have here on the Northside that’s pushing for you to go through the selection process. ”
“An important alpha?”
“We’re pretty sure it’s the alpha that wanted to buy you.”
Her perfume explodes out from her with her panic. It’s thick and cloying and burns my eyes.
“Alpha Niall?” She whispers. “He’s here? He’s looking for me?”
“We’re not certain,” Kane continues. “There’s no alpha here that goes by the name Niall, but it’s the only explanation we can think of for all of the hoops we’re being forced to jump through. We think he has a different name he uses here.”
“My father is the director,” I say. “If this were a normal case, he’d have the power to allow you to stay with us because no one else would’ve cared.”
“Because I’m from the Southside?”
“Yes, that’s what it boils down to. But there’s someone important, either on the board of directors or on the council that’s told other packs about you to drum up interest. You have a lot of other packs who are curious about you. So the alpha that wanted to buy you could be someone high up.”
“Can—can you guys still protect me? You—you guys are important too, right?
“Yes,” Madden says. “We’ll protect you. We promise.”
“We want to ask you for your help, though,” Kane says softly. “ You can say no. Don’t feel pressured to help us if that’s not what you’re comfortable with.”
“What do you need my help with?”
“You have to debut into our society in order to start meeting other alpha packs. There’s an important ball two weeks from now.
There will be lots of members of the council and the board at the event.
If it’s someone like that, you’ll be able to tell us.
We can start narrowing down who this mysterious Alpha Niall is so we can keep you safe. ”
“Will—will you guys be at the party too?”
“Yes. And there will be security there to keep you safe. The most uncomfortable part of the night for you will likely be interacting with other alphas.”
“I just need to tell you if I recognize anyone, right?”
“Yes.”
She nods. “I—I can do that.”
Charlotte’s phone rings and I curse under my breath. “Fuck. That’s our sign to go.”
“Yeah, sorry boys,” Charlotte says, shrugging apologetically. “I’ve gotta get Luna here into the medical center so I can remove the tracker.”
Luna’s eyes go wide.
“What? A tracker?”
She clings to me, despite my attempts to stand.
“What are you talking about, Charlotte?” She asks again, her voice going a bit shaky.
Charlotte winces. “Shit, I guess we forgot to mention it to you.”
“It’s something your parents mentioned to us,” I murmur, trying to soothe her panic with a purr that vibrates from my chest. “We think its best if Charlotte checks you out now.”
“Oh, o—okay, alright,” she says, standing from my lap and offering me a shaky smile.
“It should be completely painless, sweetie, you don’t have anything to worry about,” Charlotte says, extending her hand to Luna’s.
“We’ll see you in two weeks,” Kane says, standing and brushing some of Luna’s hair behind her ear.
She nods, a grim look of determination on her face. “Two weeks.”