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“Here’s the thing,” I went on. “If you try to take blockers too late in pre-heat, all they’ll do is make the whole thing a hundredtimes more miserable for you. Gabriel says you’ve been using blockers for a long time, right?”

“I don’t have natural heats,” Emma gritted out. “Ever.”

She sounded scared and angry. Fresh tears welled in her bloodshot eyes.

There was probably something in her background that had caused her to make that decision on a totally rational basis, but stubborn denial about the situation wasn’t going to serve her now.

“I hate to be the one who has to say this out loud, sweetheart,” I told her, as kindly as I could. “But it looks like you’re about to. And I also apologize for this next question, because I know it makes me look like an arsehole. I’d be more of an arsehole if I didn’t ask it, though. Elijah, in your judgement, is Emma still able to make rational decisions about what she wants?”

Elijah looked ill, but he nodded. “She is, yeah.” In reaction to Emma’s look of outrage, he muttered, “Sorry, dove. I know why he’s asking, though.”

I filed the endearment away for future reference, because this would be a lot easier if there was at least one person present that Emma had reason to trust.

“Good,” I said. “Here’s the thing. If I’m right, and we’re too late for blockers, you still have a few choices to make. First, you can lock yourself in one of the cabins here on the sloop with Elijah on guard duty at the door, and tough it out. Second, if you and Elijah have the kind of relationship that wouldn’t make it too awkward afterward, you can both lock yourselves in with a bag full of sex toys, and he can try to help you through it.”

Emma’s already large eyes bugged further, while ruddy patches darkened Elijah’s tanned cheeks.

“Third,” I went on inexorably, “you’ll have access to at least two, and possibly three alphas who understand the meaning of‘no strings attached,’ if you want us. Because this heat is going to be rough after so long on blockers, and giving your body what it truly needs is the only way it’s going to be anything other than awful for you.”

I could only imagine what Gabriel’s pasty face looked like, since he was off-camera. It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t push the issue if Emma Hope wanted to suffer rather than spend a few days with alphas she didn’t know. But I’d damned well offer her a better option in hopes that she’d take it, because I knew what years of blocker use could do to an omega’s biology.

No one deserved that kind of shit.

“You don’t need to answer now,” I went on, before either of the omegas managed to overcome their shock. “Talk about it privately and tell Elijah what you decide, Emma. We’ll take his word as yours if it comes down to it. Anyway, Onyx and I are bringing prophylactics as well as the blockers, so you’ll be covered whatever you decide.”

“I don’t even know you,” Emma rasped, anddear god, did I feel for the girl.

What a fucked-up corner to be backed into.

“I get that,” I said, as gently as I could. “But you know Gabriel a little, by now. Him and me and Onyx—we’re as good as pack. And the most important thing is that whatever you decide, that’s what we’ll do. Dunno how much my word is worth to you in a situation like this one—but you have my word on it. Just let us know what option you want to go with.”

On screen, the two omegas exchanged a long, shell-shocked look.

EIGHTEEN

Elijah

THIS WAS NOT the kind of responsibility that anyone should have for another person,ever... and I was coming apart at the seams.

Emma and I were locked in Gabriel’s cabin while he conferred with the yacht’s captain about the rendezvous at sea. My nerves were thrumming, partly because it turned out transferring people from one ship to another at sea wasfreaking dangerous, even when one of them wasn’t half-delirious with oncoming heat... and partly because if Tommy and Cade Huntwell wanted to do something about us leaving, they’d have to make their move soon.