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It goes against everything Leo has ever thought he’d been doing.

Heloves. That’s what he does. That’s who heis.

“Leo!” Gideon shouts, voice loud with alarm. “Can I get some help up here?”

Leo doesn’t hear the commotion, but Jay is crouching naked beside the front passenger seat with his hand on Leo’s neck in a millisecond.

“Leo, breathe. You’re okay.”

Jay pauses before asking Gideon, “What happened?”

The world tilts on its axis, and his lungs forget how to expand. He can’t hear Gideon’s words over the rushing in his ears and the tight pain in his chest.

Is he dying?

His mind is full of all the times that he should have been there for his mates—times he’s been too late, not enough—and rationality slips through his fingers.

Someone is whining, and it’s so loud that Leo wants to scream at them to stop, but there’s a lump stuck in his throat.

Time becomes distorted, and spots flash in his vision.

But suddenly, there are hands on his cheeks, and his entire vision is filled with Nix’s face.

“Leo, breathe.”His eyes are glowing blue, and suddenly, Leo can finally catch his breath.

If he focuses on the deeply melodic voice, he finds hecanbreathe in and out.

When Nix’s eyes are gray again, Leo slumps forward into Nix’s throat like his strings have been cut; he’s nearly smothered by the scents of Finn, Nix, Jay, and Grayson.

The scent of love made physical, and of family.

Strong arms are lifting him, and in the next second, he’s lying on his side facing the sleeping Finn.

Lying down behind him, Jay hums one of the first songs they ever wrote together.

“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Jay whispers, as he kisses his head, hand up under his T-shirt, rubbing over his belly.

The panic has receded a bit, but his hands still tremble, and his heart slowly returns to normal.

His muscles are so sore, and he feels like he’s run twenty miles.

How does Luca do this?

The van comes to a stop, and he hears Nix reading the code to Gideon from the instructions before they’re moving again.

Finn twitches at the scent of his distress, causing the alpha to roll towardhim in his sleep, reaching out a hand until the backs of his fingers graze Leo’s bare belly.

It’s a small, unconscious gesture from his mate that speaks of comfort and love.

“You okay now, Baby?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. It just hit me that maybe…maybeI haven’t been the mate I needed to be, ya know? Gideon said…”

It’s too hard to say aloud—as if hearing it again will make it true.

“My mom, she…she kept stuff from me. And Gideon, too. All these months…how did I not—I feel out of control.”

Jay presses his nose into the back of Leo’s neck.