Page 9 of Hunted Pack (Her Vicious Pack #7)

Caleb

I stare at my phone as Erika walks us through what Jace found. Bounties on our whole pack, Luca’s family, the three guys we grabbed and the kids.

They fucking put bounties on the kids!

I’m going to take these bastards down.

I’m going to take them down once and for all.

“Caleb? Caleb!” Erika’s voice barely breaks through the fog of fury and destruction in my head. “You can wallow in your rage later. I need you to focus first.”

I look around the library, glad I’m only in here with Timothy and some of his tech team, who are currently staring at me in shock and silence. Just because I can usually keep my calm, doesn’t mean I can’t lose my temper, especially if I’m spread too thin already.

If Riley or Mathew hear about this...

That’s going to create a whole other mess, better get ahead of that.

“I’m here.” I try to control my voice, my pheromones, my emotions.

“We’re sending you everything we’ve got right now. But once we’re on the move, our connection will be spotty. So, once we leave, we probably won’t be able to do much until we’ve landed.”

Erika’s quiet for a couple of moments, her voice composed. “This isn’t the first time this has happened. We’ve seen this happen before. It’s not uncommon for the Suits to put bounties on the kids who escape from them, especially not when they know who to target for it.”

I let out a humourless laugh. “I was furious every time it happened before too. I’m just too tired to hide it this time.

” And the combination of having the kids and Luca’s family both on the list, it’s too much.

Luca’s family doesn’t have anything to do with the Hearts apart from being used to threaten Luca into compliance. ..

It’s hard to control my anger if I let my mind wander for even a single second.

“I’ll check with Mathew and Derrick, but I would feel better if we could bring some of our security team with us. To boost your numbers. I’m not worried about our own safety, and I’m sure Mathew’s team is great, but I would feel better if...” She lets out a long sigh. “Just for a short while.”

I meet Timothy’s gaze, who shrugs. The more people the better, but having people from multiple packs and organisations in a single location for more than a couple of days might also lead to tensions that we really can’t use right now.

Timothy crosses over to where I’m standing. “We’ve got two houses where your pack and any other people can stay for a while. It’s at the edge of Mathew’s property, still within the secure perimeter, but not too near the main house.”

He looks at me. “The option is there, if the others agree to it. We’ve got enough on our hands as it is, getting some outside security might not be the worst idea, as long as everyone gets along.”

“How are we going to bring this to Mathew?” I glance to the door of the library. “We’ve got about another minute or so, max, before he’s going to barge in here. Because that’s how his ‘something’s up’ senses work. Way too well.”

“I’ll talk to him.” Timothy looks to the guys from his team, thinking. “You go talk to Vera, Riley and Jorge. Let them know what’s going on. See if you can get them caught up about everything going on without worrying the kids or Luca’s family.”

“Sounds like a plan.” And it’s less likely to get me in that destructive headspace again, at least for a while. “Erika?”

“I heard. You go talk to the others. We’ll talk to Mathew.”

I nod. Well, let’s do this, then. I really don’t feel like it, but I also know that it’s better to let everyone know as soon as possible.

Oh, also... I don’t think Jorge knows yet that Erika and some of her people are coming over. With how he’s reacted to her name or even any reference to her in the past, that’s also going to be fun . Let’s hope that jealousy has lessened now we’ve been a pack for a while, but I have no idea.

Erika and Mathew’s organisations getting along might not be our biggest concern, our pack members might pose a much greater risk to all of this going well...

Fuck.

It turns out, my worries were misplaced, mostly.

As long as I don’t use Erika’s name or even refer to her by something related to me, like her being my ex, Jorge won’t growl. I can call her Nathan’s mum just fine or even Vera’s friend. So, that’s... somewhat helpful, for now.

What I should have been worried about was some of our pack members already knowing about the new names from the bounties and dealing with their own things.

When I got to the floor with our bedrooms, there was a strange mix of not-good pheromones coming from Riley’s room, a blending of Riley, Vera and Luca. Knowing that that was going to take a while to deal with, I decided to get Jorge first instead.

I worried that getting Jorge out of the room with Luca’s family and the kids without raising any suspicion could be tricky.

It turns out, telling them that we need him for ‘important work stuff’ and asking for them to please not worry too much and promising them that everything is going as expected, worked just fine.

At least, all the adults wordlessly agreed to pretend that everything is normal so that the kids wouldn’t catch onto any nervous energy.

Getting Jorge to Riley’s room also wasn’t too complicated because as soon as he stepped into the hallway, he sensed their pheromones and rushed over.

Turns out, Riley, Vera and Luca already knew what’s going on and getting Jorge up-to-date wasn’t too complicated either.

I should have guessed as much, especially since I knew that Nathan was in contact with Riley and Vera through the day, it makes sense that he would tell them as soon as he knew about the bounties.

What I hadn’t accounted for was Luca’s terror when he’s around Vera and my pheromones, but also his inability to let her go or Vera’s strong instincts to protect him.

And trying to get the two on opposite sides of the room to try to at least lower how much pheromones Luca gets didn’t work either, that only got very protective growls from Riley and Jorge.

Good to know that everyone seems to be on the same page about Luca’s status, he’s part of our pack. But it’s not helpful that any solution I come up with gets at least someone in the pack very upset.

How the fuck am I supposed to resolve this? Their mix of pheromones is starting to mess with my head too and there’s only so long I can stay in control.

Getting Mathew up here isn’t going to help either. He’s going to be affected by everyone’s pheromones but won’t be able to use his own to calm things down.

“Jorge?” I try to get the guy’s attention as he’s staring at everyone.

“Can you use your pheromones to flood everyone, try to calm them down?” The only two people whose pheromones Luca doesn’t react negatively to are Jorge and Riley, and Jorge is the one with the clearest head out of the two right now.

I try to suppress my pheromones as much as possible, so I won’t be adding to the problem, but the moment Jorge sends out his —much too tense— ‘calm down’ pheromones, everyone else seems to get even more distressed.

Fuck.

This is very, very bad.

“Vera?” I reach out to her, which makes her pheromones flare and sets off everyone else’s too. “Vera, talk to me.” I don’t use my Alpha powers, I purely use my own voice, relying on the bond we’ve had for years, trusting that I can get through to her. “What’s going wrong?”

Riley is holding our broken Beta and troubled Omega, trying to create a pheromone bubble around Luca, while Luca and Vera’s fingers tightly entwined.

Vera’s voice is muffled against Luca’s back. “My pack is in danger.” A sob punctuates her words. “I need to protect my pack, but I can’t because that puts my pack in more danger.” Another sob. “And then. And then.”

Her breath comes out harsh as she reaches her other hand out to me and I take it. “And now we’ve put his family in even more danger than before. And it’s all my fault. And I can’t do anything about it.”

Vera’s worries are easy to understand and I wish that I could hold her close and tell her over and over that she’s not at fault, but she’s in no position to hear that right now.

I’ll need to break the worry and protective loop they’ve got going on before she’ll be able to really hear any reassuring words.

I look at Riley, but her whole focus is on the two people in her arms, protecting them, guarding them. If I can get Vera and Luca to calm down, she should calm down too.

Then I turn to Jorge, who seems to be reeling from what he’s just been told, his pheromones all over the place, but mostly stuck in ‘scared’ and ‘pained’. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought him in here, but once he noticed their pheromones, that choice was pretty much out of my hands.

Luca’s pheromones are as clear as day, conflicted. Desperate to be with Vera, desperate for their connection, but also terrified of her pheromones, and mine.

Fury and destruction flares in me when my brain helpfully reminds me why he can’t be near her, why he can’t be near me, why our pheromones, which should comfort him only bring him more pain. My head starts to cloud again, blood red fury taking over my mind.

Fuck! Fuck!

No!

I can’t get lost in that right now, no matter how tempting it is with the other pheromones storming through the room.

I try to remember the way Vera and Luca looked when I came home, sitting on the balcony, talking, looking mostly happy. That’s what I need to work towards. That’s what I need to make happen. Calm and happy.

“We’ll get them.” It’s Riley’s voice that breaks through, both the fog in my head and the looping pheromones. “We’ll get rid of every person in the Hearts.”

Yes, we’ll get them. We’ll take the people who caused this situation down. We’ll take them down and make them regret ever laying their eyes on any of our pack members.

And to do that, we need to stay in control now and protect everyone.

My fury doesn’t go away, it merely slides into the background, creating determination and drive.

If we want to take the Hearts down, we need to be at our best and we all need to be together for that, our whole pack needs to be together.

I move closer to Vera, trying to wrap my pheromones around her without Luca getting too many of them. “We’ll protect Luca’s family. We’ll make sure they’re safe, that they’ll never have to worry about any of this ever again.”

“How?” Her voice is quiet, her grip on me still tight, not ready to believe.

“Mathew doesn’t have a whole organisation for nothing, and neither does Erika.” I ignore Jorge’s growl. “We’ll figure out a way. You know that we can. You know that we won’t stop until they’re safe.”

Riley’s pheromones change, just a little, more focused, determined, still very dangerous. “And until then, they’ll be safe here. Protected by everyone. We won’t let them out of our sights until we know that nobody will ever put them in danger ever again.”

She moves, touching Luca’s cheek tenderly before hugging both of them close again. “And I’ll ask if Sam can come with them. He helped me when they rescued me from the Diamonds. He’s got experience with adults who’ve been held by the Suits.”

Of course. I hadn’t even thought about that. His problems won’t be solved in just a few days, but we can make a start. If he gets the right help, we might be able to deal with the worst of it and take a bit of stress off everyone, especially off Luca.

Riley’s words and change in pheromones seems to ease some of the tension in the room. By far not enough of it, but it’s a start.

“We’re safe here.” I kiss the top of Vera’s head. “We’re all safe here, in the house. As long as we’re all together, we’ll be safe. All of us, including Luca.”

Vera slowly nods, her pheromones softening as she glances at me.

Everyone is on edge, nobody feels safe, and since everyone is also at the end of their energy, exhausted, wrung out, emotions and pheromones are running high. Making everything so much worse, making every curve up into a peak and every curve down into a crater.

It’s dangerous, but then, dangerous is basically the norm here, so I’m sure we’ll make it work.

Somehow.

Hopefully without too much blood and no dead bodies…