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Jorge’s growl intensifies and he wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me closely against him, his gun trained on Derrick. His pheromones nearly trigger my appeasing instincts but I’m too amped up.
This is good and bad. Good, Jorge has let go of Mathew’s arm. Bad, he still hasn’t broken out of his frenzy and now thinks Derrick is threateningme.
“Mathew?” I carefully call out to him. I need to know that he’s okay.
“Here.”
“Are you back?”
“Yeah. Somewhat.”
“Get from behind us. Show Jorge that you’re safe.” My pheromones alone aren’t doing it, not as long as Jorge’s instincts still think that Mathew is in danger.
I focus on sending out calming and confident pheromones, letting Jorge know I’m safe, that his mates are safe. That we might be in a dangerous situation but that we’re not in any immediate danger ourselves.
Mathew appears on the side away from the fight and I feel how Jorge’s attention shifts to him.
“We’re all safe. See?” I put my hand over Jorge’s, trying to soothe him. “We’re all safe.”
The growl in his chest softens and his grip on me lessens.
“We’re all safe.” I look up at him and he stares back down at me, his light blue eyes finally seeming to focus.
Then I catch a movement out of the corner of my eyes. Someone is behind Mathew, has grabbed him, because all his attention was on us.
“No!” I try to jump forward, but can’t because Jorge is still holding me.
Then the female Alpha’s brain explodes all over Mathew and I look up to find Riley keeping a close eye on us.
We have to get out of here. We can’t stay here any longer.
“Jorge?” I try to move in his arms and he lets me go. “Are you okay?”
He nods, out of breath, then holds up his arm where he was stabbed. “Hurt, but otherwise okay. What happened?”
“I’ll explain it later. Don’t get into a situation where Mathew is stuck behind you. Just,don’t.”
He nods again, looking at Mathew who slowly comes over to us. “Are you okay?”
Mathew pulls a face as he wipes brain, blood and strands of hair from his face. “I feel gross, but I’m not hurt.”
“Good.” Jorge looks around, back to himself and trying to get an overview of the situation.
There are still fights going on, but the heaviest fighting has now eased. Riley is helping some from the security team to get rid of the last of our attackers as Caleb is coming over to us.
“We have to get out. I have no idea if more of the Hearts’ people are coming, but I’d rather not find out.” He looks me up and down and when I glance down, I realise that my light purple dress is now dark red.
“It’s not mine. I promise.” I take his hand and hug his side.
“Good.” He wraps his arm under my ass and lifts me up against him, tucking me against his side protectively.
I quickly wrap my arms around his neck and take in his pheromones, trying to calm the roller coaster of emotions down. As soon as I’m in his embrace, the tension from the last minutes leaves me and I’m crying.
Fuck. That was scary. That was way too scary.
I’m fine with physical fighting. I have no problem with death. But having to step between Mathew and Jorge was draining. That fear was way stronger than I’ve ever felt.
Caleb lets out a calming rumble as he rubs my back in soothing motions.