“You need to calm down, sweetie,” Jamie told me for the umpteenth time as I paced around the living room. Kenneth had taken Schuyler into the other room and put him down. I knew my vibes weren’t good for the house, but I didn’t see any way of calming myself down.

“This is my fault!” I blurted out, slamming my fist against the wall.

“How is that even remotely true?” Jamie asked, sounding aghast. “Didn’t you say your batshit foster father sold you to Corey?”

“Yes…” I groaned, pressing my forehead against the wall and closing my eyes.

“Then that’s clearly not your fault,” Kenneth told me.

“But—he came for me!” I protested, feeling like a black hole of despair was forming at the center of my being and I didn’t know what to do to stop it. “If he hadn’t done that—”

“Then you’d still be living there as a goddamn prisoner!” Jamie said, raising her voice. She came up behind me, grabbed me by one of the shoulders and turned me around to face her. “Look at me!”

I opened my eyes and glared back, probably looking like a pouty teenager.

“You two are fated-mates, right?”

I nodded.

“Then how in the world could you ever think that Juan wouldn’t have come and taken you away from that house?” she asked. She had a point and I knew it, but it still wasn’t helping that horrible feeling inside of me.

“She’s right, Bailey,” Kenneth told me. “This isn’t your fault. We’ve had some experience with this sort of thing before.”

“Really?” I asked hesitantly.

“The Vandertons,” he replied. “They’ve caused trouble for us twice now. Big trouble too. Came out to the farm and everything.”

“Big shitshow,” Jamie chimed in. “Those are stories for another time, but the important thing for you to remember now is that you are not to blame for this. You can’t control anybody else’s actions—only your own. And right now, you gotta cool down before you have a damn heart attack or seizure or something.”

I groaned and looked at the floor. The ball of emptiness seemed to have stopped expanding—for the moment. Jamie’s eyes were focused and intent, and I saw the support there, from her and Kenneth. I tried to focus on that; the sense of family I already had from people I’d just met.

I was already part of the pack, and the other alphas hadn’t even hesitated to rush off and help Juan when he needed them. This was a far cry from the life I’d known living with Travis. Finally, I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down.

“You’re all right,” Jamie told me, rubbing my arm. “Everything’ll be fine. Those boys are some tough motherfuckers!”

Shocked, I looked up at her quickly. She flashed me the goofiest grin in the world and I actually laughed.

“There we go,” she said, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me over to the couch. I slumped down like a wet rag and covered my face with my hands and let out the world’s biggest groan.

“Ah, god! This is terrible!”

“It ain’t ideal,” Jamie agreed.

“They’re tough guys, though,” Kenneth chimed in. “As Jamie said. You should see them in action.”

“God, I hope I never have to,” I admitted. Of course it would be a sexy thing to see, but it also meant someone was in trouble and there was a risk of getting hurt. All I could think about were the wounds Juan had already received rescuing me once. And now here he was again, with more of them risking their lives for me—someone they’d just met.

“They—they don’t even know me,” I said. “I feel terrible.”

“They know Juan,” Kenneth said firmly. “Juan is part of this pack, and being part of the pack means you are part of a family. A family fights for each other. A family protects each other. Juan brought you into this family, and that means we all fight for you. If I thought I’d do any good out there, or that Preston would let me go, I’d be fighting too.”

“I—I’ve never had a family,” I confessed as tears began to roll down my cheeks. Kenneth leaned over and placed a hand on my knee.

“Well, now you do.”

“They’ll be all right, Bailey,” Jamie told me. “You’ll see.”