Page 8 of Hunted Pack (Her Vicious Pack #7)

Vera

‘Can I come into your room?’ I message Riley as I walk up the stairs, a tray with sandwiches and some bottles of water in my other hand. Having been a waitress comes in handy at times, for example, letting me text while bringing my sweet Alpha something to eat and drink.

‘Sure. Just try to be as quiet as you can.’ Her reply makes me smile. Well, yes. That was the plan. I wasn’t planning on making a lot of noise.

Even though the door to the kids’ room is closed, I can still hear voices, laughter, chatting, coming from there. It’s muffled, but not very quiet, so I totally understand why she’s hiding in her room.

After last night, with everything being so busy and running on very little sleep, hiding away in a quiet space sounds great to me too.

Riley got some information from Erika earlier this morning, but as soon as she’d told us what she knew, she grabbed her laptop, a tablet and went back to her room. That’s probably going to be her base of operations for the day.

Well, we did make sure to kit her closet and any comfortable areas in her room out specifically for this purpose, so…

I open the door to Riley’s room, dim warm light greeting me as I step inside, and close it behind me, a sound that’s barely audible.

She’s got thick and soft carpet on the floor, the door closes basically soundlessly and the windows are covered with two sets of curtains, one to keep out the light and one to simply dim it, which are the ones closed right now.

It makes it easy to see in the room without having to turn any lights on, but it’s still easier on the eyes than no curtains at all.

There’s a light breeze and I spot the quiet fans that are angled so that air moves through the room but if you sit at the desk, lie in the bed or curl up in the closet, you’re not actually in their streams. It’s enough to control the temperature in the room and to keep the air moving, without any physical sensations, apart from the quiet hum.

Since she’s not at her desk or on her bed, she’s probably hauled up in her closet, possibly the quietest place in the whole house, especially right now.

One of the doors of the closet is open, the other closed and I carefully look around the corner.

Even in the heat of summer, Riley’s sitting in the back corner of the closet, propped up against a bunch of pillows, two soft and fluffy blankets pulled up almost to her neck.

The only parts of her visible are her arms and head.

She beams up at me and puts her laptop to the side, on the little shelf so it won’t get lost in her ‘pile’.

“I’ve got some sandwiches and something to drink.” I keep my voice low. “Do you want me to give you the whole tray or just hand you individual things?”

She glances around, thinking. “Individual things, I think.” She meets my gaze, still looking exhausted, but definitely looking more at ease now. “Can I get a bottle of water first? I forgot to take one up with me.”

“Sure.” I put the tray on the floor and hand her one of the bottles, before I look around the room, spotting one of the big pillows and putting it against the open closet door so I can sit there.

I could use a bit of quiet with one of my Alphas before I go back into the fray. A few moments to recharge.

“How are things downstairs?” Riley takes a few sips of her water.

I let out a long breath. “Calming down. The ‘post mission’ stuff is done. Mathew is sending people to bed to sleep in shifts. We’ve not really gotten much out of the guys yet, but that’s only a matter of time.

” Getting everything and everyone settled was more important in the short term.

Plus, it’s only useful to start asking questions if you know what you want to ask, asking them just random things won’t get us anywhere.

“Good.” Then she gives me an awkward smile. “Is Caleb still angry?”

“He isn’t. He wasn’t angry before either.

You were putting yourself and other people in danger and he was trying to keep everything together.

He was trying to keep everyone safe.” I hold out one of the sandwiches to Riley.

“Do you know where Luca is? He wasn’t with Jorge and I’ve not seen him in a few hours. ”

He’s hopefully just asleep somewhere, but I would still like to know where, keep the pack together and all of that. Make sure he’s okay and not feeling like crap all alone in some dark corner.

Riley puts a finger to her lips as she puts the sandwich to the side, her eyes glittering in the low light. Then she lifts the blankets next to her slightly, revealing Luca, fast asleep, curled up on top of and around a bunch of our clothes.

I stare, barely able to believe what I’m seeing. I thought she just had a lot of pillows in her ‘pile’ but I had no idea that she had a whole person under there. Now it makes sense why she’s keeping her voice so quiet and why she’s staying so still, she’s trying to let him sleep.

She carefully lowers the blankets again, making sure not to disturb Luca too much.

“He was here when I came back. And he fell asleep while I was working.” She smiles sadly.

“No matter how much they messed with his head, he can’t deny his instincts, he can’t be away from his pack now we’ve found him. ”

I wipe at my eyes, overwhelmed with emotion, and probably from exhaustion. Luca looked so cute, so sweet, asleep against Riley. Like he finally felt safe enough to fully relax, possibly for the first time in years...

Luca lets out a soft sound and moves around under the blankets, making me break out in a smile. He’s so cute. I can’t keep my eyes off where he’s hiding, not wanting to leave him alone. I don’t care if I can see him or even touch him, being near him is good enough.

“If you would like to take a nap, grab some more pillows and make yourself a little nest there.” Riley lets her warm rose pheromones flood around us, comforting, soothing.

“But... What if my pheromones disturb him?” I don’t want to disturb Luca when he’s finally resting.

“He’s under the blankets with me, he’s mainly getting my pheromones, he won’t get much of yours if you’re not under here with us.” She says it in a calm way that makes it feel like she’s making a lot of sense.

“I guess I could do that.” I guess I can take a nap, or maybe even just get comfortable here until I get back to work.

I grab a couple more pillows from Riley’s bed and make a bigger ‘nest’ right outside her closet.

It’s just big enough for me to curl up on, I can’t stretch out, but I don’t care, I’ll take anything right now.

I don’t grab a blanket, the heat of the day is bad enough, I don’t need to boil myself alive.

Settling down in the pillows, I look at Riley, who’s eating a sandwich and reading something on her tablet, already back to work.

Taking deep breaths, trying to let go of some of the tension in my body, I’m about to close my eyes when I spot movement at the edge of the blankets, Luca’s hand crawling out from under it, moving in my direction.

I stare at his hand and then at Riley, who looks surprised too, before softly smiling.

“Vera?” Luca’s voice is muffled, but hearing him say my name makes my heart race all the same.

“I’m here.” I push my pillows closer and then put my hand over Luca’s. “I’m right here.”

He weaves his fingers through mine, rubbing his thumb over my hand, before his grip relaxes. I think he’s back to sleep already.

My heart hammers in my chest, tears in my eyes, as I stare at Riley, not able to fully believe what’s going on. Luca is holding my hand!

I try to get comfortable in the pillows without moving my hand too much, not wanting to break this little connection between us.

This is...

Luca, who can’t be near me without having a panic attack from my pheromones, is holding my hand.

We’re touching!

The small gesture, the small proof of trust, breaks something inside me and my tears won’t stop anymore.

All the tension and stress leaves me as the tears and the sobs keep coming, as I quietly break down, no longer able to keep it all inside.

My phone buzzes, waking me up, and I look at the lit screen in front of me. It’s Nathan.

I blink, trying to stretch, when I notice that Luca is still holding onto my hand. Oh, right. That happened. A bright feeling flutters in my chest as I softly squeeze Luca’s hand, happy he hasn’t let go yet.

Then I look up more and notice that Riley is asleep, curled up on her side, her face finally relaxed.

I have no idea how long I’ve been asleep for, but while my eyes feel puffy, my head feels much clearer and my heart feels lighter. The miracles of a good cry and a good nap.

With my empty hand, I push myself up and move my phone to read Nathan’s message. ‘Don’t be too alarmed. Jace found new bounties, posted less than an hour ago.’

I sit up more, breaking my connection with Luca, and the motion seems to wake up Riley too. Either that, or possibly my spike in pheromones.

Nathan is typing out more, but I don’t want to wait on him. I can’t. My heart is already hammering enough and I don’t want my mind to come up with a million reasons why he’d be telling me this.

Before he finishes typing, I call him instead, already standing up and crossing Riley’s room to the hallway. I don’t want to have this conversation around Luca.

The moment the call connects, I need to know. “Who are they for?”

“Your whole pack.” Nathan’s voice is tense. “Mum is on the phone with Caleb right now. She’s got more information about it. I just know the broad strokes.” He takes a quick breath. “I wanted to let you know so you...”

The door behind me opens and Riley wraps her arm around my waist, pulling me against her as she puts the call on speaker. “I just saw your messages. Is Jace sending everything to Timothy?” Riley’s pheromones are strong, in control, focused.

“Yes. Of course.” Nathan stumbles over his words and I realise that he’s scared. He’s scared for us. That’s why he messaged us, so we would know about it before Caleb or any of the others would dump everything on us. He wanted to give us a head’s up.

“Good.” Riley nuzzles my neck, her pheromones softening slightly, though still focused, she’s gone into work-mode. “Anything else you can tell us? Any other new names?”

“A few that we didn’t recognise. Everything is being sent to Timothy and his team right now.

” Nathan seems to calm down from Riley taking control over the conversation.

“I did notice that there were a couple of people with the same last name, a range of ages, looks to be a whole family. We’ve not found them anywhere in our system before.

Their listings went up at the same time as the others, so we presume they’re connected. ”

There’s movement in the doorway to Riley’s room, Luca staring at us, his eyes wide, confused.

“Here I have it. Damen. Does that ring a bell for you?” Nathan’s words sound too loud as Luca’s face goes deadly pale and Riley and I grab for him at the same time.

Oh, fuck.

Fucking hell...

Those bastards!