Page 7 of Hunted Pack (Her Vicious Pack #7)

Jorge

Luca stops talking and looks to the door to the room in surprise. When I follow his gaze, I find Riley staring at us, eyes filled with tears as her pheromones fluctuate through the room, her love and tenderness clear.

She looks a lot better than she did a couple of hours ago, though I’m sure she’s not recovered yet.

She was really down and at the end of her energy when I helped her to her room.

I’ve not seen her that worn out before, but knowing how long it normally takes for her to recover, she’s going to need much more time than this.

I motion for her to come over, not wanting to raise my voice much above a whisper, trying to let the kids sleep as long as possible.

She quietly crosses the room and sits down next to me. She looks at the sleeping kids and then at the girl in my arms, before looking at the boy on the balcony. “How are they doing?”

Since Luca has more experience with kids and knows them better than me, I wait for him to answer.

“They’re doing okay. The fact that they can get some sleep in, and feel safe enough to do so.

And that they don’t constantly wake up with nightmares is a good sign.

It hopefully means they’ll be able to leave this horrible stretch of time behind them at some point.

” He glances at us and then outside, not comfortable with meeting our gazes.

He had been getting better at it over the last half hour while I was talking to him, but he seems to have become shy again with Riley here. At least he’s getting there and that’s what counts.

What I understood from Luca, these kids haven’t been with the Hearts for very long and they definitely haven’t been ‘put to work’ in too bad situations.

He said that the Hearts treat the kids that have been ‘put to work’ —in whatever capacity, not just sexual, even simply being messengers— differently.

These kids were probably being moved around, to hide them from anyone looking for them, before they got any jobs.

While some of them will have parents, or families, who want them back, not all of them will be that lucky.

That’s how the Hearts got hold of Mathew, he was a street kid, no parents, nobody to look after him, nobody to worry about him.

The other group they tend to target are kids in the system, a system so overworked and under-funded that some of them slip through the cracks, especially when those cracks have been purposefully kept open by organisations like the Hearts…

I hope that the last days, or weeks, or however long they’ve been with the Hearts, will be nothing more than a nearly-forgotten nightmare for these kids, a bad dream that they barely remember. That they’ll feel loved and cared for from now on, that they’ll have brighter days ahead.

Riley’s phone buzzes and when she reads the message, her pheromones flare in anger before she calms them down again. “Are the others awake?” Her voice is low but tight.

“They should be in Mathew’s office or the library.

” I’ve been avoiding them, since they’re doing things that I prefer not to know too much about.

I know that things like getting information out of people is part of their job, but that doesn’t mean I want to be there when they do it or when they discuss what they found.

I know it’s hypocritical, avoiding having to face their darker sides while still working with them or while still making use of the information that they find.

But I don’t know how else to deal with it all.

I have other specialities, things that they also don’t always want or need to know the details of. Sometimes, not knowing is easier.

Sometimes, not knowing is how we stay alive.

“Did Vera or Mathew get any sleep?” Riley glances to the nest room, which is clearly empty, and our pack bedroom behind it.

“Vera got a couple of minutes in the nest. I don’t think Mathew slept at all. Unless they managed to slip in a nap at some point. But I doubt it.” I know Mathew well enough for that and as long as Vera manages to keep moving, she’s not sleeping either.

“You?” She looks at me and then at Luca.

“I might have gotten an hour or two, and then one of the kids woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep.” Comforting the girl so that she didn’t feel so scared and alone was much more important than getting more sleep myself.

“Same.” Luca pulls up his shoulders. “I’m also still too wound up. It’s hard to relax enough to sleep.”

Riley rubs her hand over her arm, her pheromones filling with nerves, as she glances at Luca and then away. “If you want to sleep somewhere that has some pheromones from your pack but not too many. You can sleep in my bedroom or the ‘nest’ in my closet.”

She swallows hard. “There are some pheromones from the others, but they’re mostly mine. I know that they…” Her voice wanders off.

My big bad Alpha, trying to help, trying to be helpful to someone she cares for, but not really knowing how to. It probably doesn’t help that she’s still exhausted, that probably makes her nervousness worse and the words harder to find.

Luca’s pheromones flare in surprise and slight confusion. But then he quickly nods. “Thanks. I might take you up on that offer.”

“Okay.” Riley stands up, her cheeks slightly pink, holding up her phone like it explains her behaviour. “I’ve got some information that the others need to know about. I’ll talk to you later.”

She quietly leaves the room again.

“She’s very protective, isn’t she?” Luca stares after Riley, softly smiling.

“She is. She might be a bit awkward about it at times, but she’s very protective, and thoughtful.

” In many different ways. From things like this, trying to make people’s lives easier and predicting what they’ll want or need ahead of time, to more direct ways, like killing people without a second thought just because they’re a danger to those she cares about.

He nods, looking at his hands as his pheromones fill with sadness.

I don’t know what’s going through his head, but after a couple of moments, he looks up, blinking away tears as he gives me a tight smile.

“I think I might take her up on that offer for a place to sleep. See if I can get a nap in before the rest of the kids wake up.”

“Sounds good.” If he wants to talk about whatever’s on his mind, he’ll do that in his own time and once he feels safe to do so, but he’s clearly not ready for it yet. “If you go past the stairs, her bedroom is on the right. It’s hard to miss, once you open the door, it’s full of crafts.”

That makes him smile more. “Thanks. You can message me or send someone to get me once the kids wake up. I don’t want you to have to deal with all of them on your own.”

“I’ll be fine. You go take a nap.” Because he needs it much more than me.

Luca walks over to the sleeping kids, pulling the blankets over them more, before he gives me a nod and makes his way down the hallway.

I hope he gets some sleep. I really do.

Because I feel like we’ll be doing a lot of ‘sleeping whenever we can’ for a while, better to start now.

The kids are all having breakfast on the balcony, chatting happily as they look out over the fields. I’m very glad that the front of the house looks out over the fields and trees and not any of the other parts of the grounds that Mathew owns.

The training complex and other buildings are on the other side, which means that the kids don’t have to see any of the people in gear or anything they’re getting up to.

Which is also the reason we’re keeping them up here and aren’t letting them go downstairs, less chance of them seeing or hearing something they’re not supposed to.

Luca’s family have joined us, partially to help look after the kids, but mostly because they don’t have much else to do and at least they’ve got other adults to talk to here.

Caleb and I explained some of what was going on last night, on our way back here, but we didn’t want to scare them too much or make them worry. So, we’re trying to keep them away from the more dangerous things as much as possible, which they seemed to understand.

Finding out that your child or sibling was being kept hostage by some criminal organisation and meeting kids who were in a similar situation, probably makes you willing to wait for any more detailed answers until things have settled down. I hope so anyway.

Luca’s family still seems quite confused, but also pretty patient when it comes to waiting for answers.

Hearing that their lives were in real danger also made them more willing to listen to what we were saying and not question things too much.

Now, let’s hope that we can figure out a new safe location for them, somewhere that they can live without worrying about being targeted again. Or, at least, without Luca having to worry about them being targeted again…