Page 45 of Knot Your Pawn

Maybe I should ask Derrick for better masks?

It’s just the scent of the pheromones that Luca doesn’t react to well. He doesn’t seem to have any problem touching anyone and from the way he keeps staring longingly at Vera and Mathew when he can’t smell their pheromones —and even when he can, at times— it’s clear that their bond is intact.

The normal solution for pheromone withdrawal, especially during pregnancy, is to have everyone in the nest together until the Omega starts to feel better again. Not doing anything but be together, no work, no stress, nothing.

And after that, making sure to all be together as much as possible for at least a couple more weeks —though it doesn’t have to be all the time anymore— and to keep pheromones from people outside of the pack to a minimum.

That is the normal solution anyway.

Yeah.

With this pack, with our Omegas, that’s going to end with a lot of dead bodies. Not just because our Omegas suck at sitting still, but because we currently have a house full of people and Mathew runs a whole organisation that he can’t just take a break from for a couple of weeks.

So, how we’re all going to survive this, alive and in a single piece?

I have no idea.

It turns out that Vera and Mathew react poorly to everyone who isn’t part of our pack, not just other Alphas or Betas, but also other Omegas.

Usually, Omegas are fine around other Omegas when they’re dealing with pheromone problems —something about Omegas automatically having a soothing effect on each other— but apparently not for these two, at least, not right now.

Our initial plan was to get Eli or Erika involved, so Vera and Mathew wouldn’t become distressed when they brought us food and other things we might need.

But that went out of the window fast when even mentioning letting Erika come near our pack made Vera growl in a way that made even my hair stand on end.

If Vera’s withdrawal is bad enough that she can’t even let Erika come near her, someone she’s super close with and who she adores under normal circumstances, then letting anyone else we know come close isn’t possible.

That would be putting too much risk on them, especially since our Omegas have no problem getting rid of anyone who they feel might pose a danger.

But we also can’t leave our Omegas’ side right now, all four of us need to be near Vera and Mathew at all times, or things could get worse again. Which means that one of us can’t slip out for a bit to get food or do other things, we have to be with them at all times.

So, ultimately, we landed on our only solution: divide and conquer.

Divide the kids and Luca’s family over the pack houses.

There wasn’t a lot of space for us to work with without bothering any of Mathew’s employees, since Erika, her pack and the others were already staying in the spare houses.

But Nathan, Logan and Jace offered to crash in the library in the main house for the time being, sleeping on field beds and taking on some security duties, so the kids could stay in the house with Erika and the pack. And Luca’s family is staying in the other house with the rest of Erika’s security team.

It’s not the best fit, it’s pretty crowded, but it’s all we can do right now.

And then came conquering the pheromones that were still hanging around the house.

I guess there’s an advantage to Mathew being the head of an organisation who’s used to ‘cleaning up’ various ‘dirty’ situations, including cases where they have to get rid of pheromones quickly. Because once we got everyone out of the house, his people managed to clean out the floor with our bedrooms, and the downstairs hallway, in under an hour.

We have to wait for at least another hour or two before we can go up to the nest, since the chemicals are still in the air and they’re not good to be around. But after that time, it’ll be safe to go, even for pregnant people, as the chemicals will have fully dissipated.

On the one hand, the efficiency of what Mathew’s people did was kind of scary. Because, it means that you could leave for work in the morning and when you return home at the end of the day, the only clue that something happened in your house was that there are fewer pheromones than there were when you left.

And with how many people like using diffusers, especially of scents from their mates, you might not even notice it at all if the cleaning crew turned the diffuser on when they left.

It would simply smell like home.

That’s scary shit.

On the other hand, I should ask Mathew what the stuff is called, because it would have come in very handy in the past and I’m sure it’ll come in handy in the future. I’d love to get my hands on some, just to be sure.

And it makes me curious what other cool things Mathew’s people have access to that I’ve not heard about before...