Chapter 114 Nico
NICO
That evening I called Tiago and shared the training mirage Sinthy had come up with. “Do you think the other alphas would want similar training?”
“If what you’re saying is true, I’d damn sure say so,” Tiago said.
“Okay. She said she needs to tweak the spell a bit, but she can do it. Apparently, it’ll get easier for her each time she does it. I really think this will help.”
“That sounds like a plan. I’ll discuss it with my son, and then I’ll get reach out to the other alphas. I think they’ll be on board.”
When I hung up, I was in a great mood. But my mood quickly soured when Maddy walked in, a look of frustration on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Maddy flopped into a chair and groaned. “It’s Abi. She’s refusing to go anywhere with Sebastian.”
“Are you kidding me?” I could feel the familiar irritation building again. “I thought this was all settled. Donatello could call any minute saying he’s ready.”
“I know. She told me she really wanted to grin and bear it, but she can’t. It’s too much for her.”
“Damn it. What other choice does she have? I guess I could try and sneak her out and get her to the airport.”
“Nico, it was probably too dangerous for Sebastian, but I know it’s too dangerous for you. The airport is thirty miles away. That’s a lot of ground to cover. I’ll be honest. I don’t know that it would have been safe in the first place. I want to talk to Sinthy about it.”
I waved my hands in dismissal. “No. We can’t ask more of her. She’s already burning herself out with everything. Plus, if she teleports away, the wards will fall.”
“Maybe she can think of something else. Look what she did today. Surely she can do something to get Abi to the airport safely. After everything we’ve seen her do, that should be an easy ask,” Maddy said. She sounded more hopeful than assured.
“We’ll talk to her,” I said pointedly. “But if Sinthy has any hesitation at all, we call it off. I’m not letting that poor girl kill herself because Abi can’t get her shit together. Deal?”
“Deal. I don’t want Sinthy hurting herself, either.”
When we peeked into Sinthy’s room, she was eating a massive king-sized candy bar. She shrugged when we saw it. “Need carbs. Big spells are super draining. What’s up?”
I sighed and took a seat. “Speaking of big spells— ”
She brightened. “The other alphas want me to do the whole virtual reality thing?”
I was glad she looked excited about helping. “Umm, I think so. Tiago is going to get in touch with them all. That’s… shit… that’s not exactly what I came to you for today.”
Sinthy looked from me to Maddy and raised an eyebrow. “Something I should know?”
“It’s Abi. We need to find a way to get her to the airport. Donatello is going to hide her because she doesn’t want to be here anymore, and that was the safest thing I could think of.”
Sinthy rolled her eyes. “That guy. So slick and smooth. Nice dude, but not my type. How can I help?”
“We’re trying to figure out how to get her there without having to go through miles of anti-shifters. Do you have any thoughts? Like… I don’t know—can you make her face look different or something?”
Sinthy took another bite of her candy bar and shrugged. “I can just teleport her.”
I frowned. “No, that won’t work. You said if you left the pack lands, your wards would fall.”
She gave Nico an incredulous smile. “Well, duh, but I don’t have to go with her to teleport her.”
I looked at Maddy, and she stared back in wide-eyed surprise. When I looked back at Sinthy’s face, it was obvious she was confused as to why we were confused.
“Wait, did you guys think I had to be present at the arrival and departure points? I don’t. I can send her. It’s even more exhausting that way, but it’s easy enough.”
“Well… damn. I guess we should have asked earlier. Can…” My words trailed off as a thought occurred to me.
Sinthy, reading my mind, shook her head. “Nope. I know what you’re thinking. Won’t work.”
“What was I— ”
“You want me to teleport Viola here.”
It was like I’d been smacked. The woman was eerie. That was exactly what I’d been thinking. If she could send Abi to the airport, why couldn’t she bring Viola here?
“Umm, why wouldn’t it work?”
Sinthy sighed and set her candy aside. “Teleportation is something that can be used as a weapon. It’s sort of like hypnosis.
You have to want to do it. It would be super easy to bring her here and deal with things once and for all.
But nothing in life is that easy. Like I can’t teleport us to her until I know where she is. ”
“Well, I guess it was a good thought, at least,” I said. “Sinthy, I really don’t want you doing this if it’ll be too much for you. You’ve done so much already.”
“It’s fine, Nico. Seriously. Let me know when, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Maddy and I both sighed with relief. Maddy gave Sinthy a hug. “Thank you for helping my friend.”
I left to give Donatello a call. He answered quickly.
“Nico? I was actually getting ready to call you. The island is prepared. When can you get Abi to me?”
“Apparently, faster than I thought. When’s a good time?”
“I can have a jet ready in two hours. It’ll be at the private airstrip beside Tampa International. I trust the pilot with my life.”
“Okay, let me get everyone ready. We can probably be there by then. I’ll text you a confirmation time.”
“All right.” Without another word, Donatello disconnected.
An hour of chaos followed as I got everyone on the same page, helped Abi pack, and tried to find a basic floorplan for the airport so Sinthy didn’t accidentally teleport us into the middle of a wall.
“I think I know where to put you guys,” Sinthy said after inspecting a visitors’ map we found online.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. “It’ll be great, wait and see.”
Sebastian sat in the corner of the kitchen, nursing a soda and a bag of chips and shooting sullen looks at us every now and then. Abi was completely ignoring him. His anxiety was palpable. Regardless of what they’d been through or done to each other, Sebastian was worried about her.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes, even though he had to know I was staring right at him.
Abi and Maddy were double-checking the small suitcase Abi had packed, but all I could do was worry about my friend.
It would be nice if they figured all this shit out soon.
If things did end up turning out okay for all of us, that was the first thing I would put my foot down about.
Dealing with the two of them was almost as stressful as dealing with Viola.
Maddy wiped a hand across her forehead. “Dear lord, isn’t anyone else hot?”
Living in Florida, I always made sure the air-conditioning was working and turned on. Shifters ran a little hotter than humans to begin with, so my house was almost always set below sixty-eight degrees. It was comfortable.
“No,” I said. “I think it’s fine.”
“Are you serious?” she asked.
Gabriella stepped into the kitchen and eyeballed Maddy as she kept asking Abi and Sinthy if they were hot. Maddy’s cheeks did look a little flushed. Was she getting sick? There was a tug on my sleeve, and I turned to Gabriella.
Without taking her eyes off Maddy, she whispered, “Can I talk to you really quick?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
Finally locking her eyes on mine, she added, “In private?”
I led her upstairs to my office before closing the door. “Well? What’s up?”
She chewed at her lip for a few minutes before answering. “Have you noticed anything… off about Maddy lately?”
“Not really.” My brows knit together as I tried to think where she was going with this.
“I’m pretty sure she’s about to go into heat.”
I froze, remembering the run Maddy and I had gone on. Her scent had been different. Stronger. She’d been uncomfortably hot downstairs as well.
“Fuck,” I muttered as it all came together in my head.
“Exactly,” Gabriella said. “Not a great time for it. I know they make heat suppressants for shifters. I still have my medical license, so I can get them. We’d only have to get off the grounds.”
“Sinthy can help with that. We can teleport out and grab whatever we need.” I raised my eyebrow. “How much time do we have? Best guess?”
Gabriella shrugged. “Based on what I witnessed downstairs, her body is flushing. Hot flashes mean it’s coming soon. Maybe a day or two.”
“Shit,” I hissed.
When female shifters went into heat, it wasn’t terrible.
Usually. The problem was that most women’s first heat was intense.
She’d have a hard time concentrating and doing anything.
We did need those suppressants. However, I wasn’t sure how happy Maddy would be about taking them.
After all, she’d taken shifting suppressants since she was a child, and that was part of how this whole problem started.
It was a different medicine, so I hoped she’d understand. I needed her fully focused.
“Make whatever calls you must. Get the meds prescribed, and I’ll figure out how to get someone to a pharmacy.”
Back downstairs, I found the others basically ready. Maddy looked like her usual self. Did she even notice a change happening? Could she even understand she was going into heat? I needed to discuss it with her, but that would need to wait until Abi was safely off.
“I’m going to see her off,” Maddy stated as I came back into the room.
“Is that the best idea?” I asked.
“I don’t care if it’s a good idea or not. I’m going. It won’t be dangerous. Sinthy will bring us back quickly. I’m going.”
Her tone brooked no argument. Her mind was made up. I couldn’t wait for life to become boring again—whenever that might be. I turned to look at Sinthy.
“If Maddy’s going, then so am I. Can you send all three of us?”
Sinthy blew out a breath, puffing her cheeks as she did. “I’ll need to eat a whole pizza and go to bed early, but yeah. Shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Well, let’s do this. Before anything else comes up,” I said.
Sebastian tossed his drink and snack into the trash can and stomped upstairs. He didn’t spare us a second glance.