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“Luca! I need to know you’re okay!” Mia called back, sounding close to tears herself.
“He’s not okay,” I said, even though it felt like stating the obvious. “If he was okay, he wouldn’t’ve been screaming.”
“Leave me alone!” Luca cried, the words wavering dangerously. “Go away and leave me thefuckalone! I don’t want you here,any of you!”
He choked again, and the sound descended into rough sobbing.
I turned to Zalen and Byron. “You and you. Leave,” I said.
Zalen’s expression turned tight and unhappy. Byron’s turned outraged.
“I need to be sure he’s physically okay,” Zalen said.
“Yeah,” I told him. “I’m gonna do that. But you and him need to leave.” I flicked a glance at Byron, whose fists were clenched at his sides. “Mia, you need to stay.”
“The door’s locked,” Byron said between clenched teeth. “What are you going to do, break it down?”
“Nah,” I told him. “Luca and me, we’ve got an understanding about this kind of shit. He’s not the only one that can pick a crappy bedroom door lock.”
Predictably, Zalen had his emotions under better control.
“Why do you want us to leave?” he asked.
“’Cause he needs someone who understands what happened to him,” I said. “Well, that and an omega who can cuddle him without reminding him too much of it.”
Byron’s lips pulled back in a snarl. It was a dominance move—at least, it would be for anyone who didn’t know he was a coward. I ignored it.
“Whathappened,” he hissed, hopefully quiet enough not to be heard through the wall, “was that he was stuck as the sex toy of a bunch ofsadists.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
I saw the moment that understanding dawned. Byron’s face went slack; Zalen’s went carefully neutral. I’d never told them about my past before. I’d never toldanyone, until Mia and Luca.
“You’ll take care of both of them?” Zalen asked, his tone low and even.
And this kind of thing was why Zalen was our leader even though I was physically stronger. Just one simple question. No prying. No second-guessing.
“Course I will,” I said. “Mia, you got a hairpin on you or something?”
She looked at me for a moment, wide-eyed. Then she seemed to blink herself back to full awareness. “No, it’s the middle of the night. I didn’t stop to do my hair. I can get you a wire clothes hanger, though?”
“That’ll work,” I told her.
She nodded and hared off, properly awake now. Alone with the others, I eyed Byron, gauging if he was going to cause trouble. He shook his head in disgust.
“Christ. Why is the world such a dumpster fire?” he muttered. “Go on. But if I find out you scared him worse, I swear I’ll—”
“Byron,” Zalen said quietly.
Byron cut himself off with a noise of frustration.
“Luca needs you, too, asshole,” I told Byron, because I knew what they got up to in Byron’s bedroom sometimes, and it was true. Lucadidneed that. “Just not right now.”
Byron stared at me for a long moment, surprising me with how well he was able to hold eye contact without flinching. Then he broke away, turning on his heel. He stalked off, muttering something too low to hear.
Zalen let out a slow breath. “If you need anything, let me know. Or send Mia to tell me. I’ll be awake, obviously.”
I nodded, and it didn’t escape me that he was apparently okay with me being alone in Luca’s room with him, even when Luca was this upset.