"Last night. Alex and his pack. They took her."
My lungs cave.
Actually cave. The air goes out of me and doesn't come back.
"Vee's gone?"
Horror sets in. My brain is trying to catch up but it keeps slipping on the information. Vee. Gone. Taken.
Ragon nods once, sharp. "She went into heat. They took her right in the middle of it."
Everything goes white for a second.
Heat.
Vee was in heat.
While we were with Marie. While I was locked in a room for days doing exactly what my biology told me to do and Vee was alone and scared and going into heat without her pack.
Oh god.
"Why didn't you stop them?" The words come out too loud. "Why didn't you go check on her? Why didn't you—"
"They're her scent matches."
Silence.
The kitchen goes completely still.
The refrigerator hums. The clock on the wall ticks and somewhere outside a car drives past.
Eli's face drains of color. "What?"
"Alex's pack. Malcolm and Alex both. They're matched to her. I never questioned the blockers before, but they were hiding it from us. Her too."
"Why didn't youleadwith that?"
Ragon's hands curl into fists on the counter and his knuckles go white. "Because it doesn't matter. She belongs to us. We've had her for five years. I have legal custody. She's ours and I'm getting her back."
I can't breathe again.
Scent matches.
Vee has scent matches.
They've been living next door this whole time and we didn't know. Or maybe we did know and we just didn't care because we were too busy with Marie.
Theytookher.
She's gone.
"She can't be gone." The words come out desperate. Pleading. "We need her. We love her and she loves us."
Doesn't she?
Did we? I did. Ido. I was just too scent drunk to remember.
The thought slithers in unwanted.
