Page 115 of Devoted

The monster backed down, but it took me a minute longer to. I exhaled sharply, nodding at Benji. “Fine, but make it quick.”

“Do you need us?” Micah asked. Breann had disappeared already, and Nox was tugging our leader towards the stairs. Presumably to go and remind himself that Micah was safe in a physical and…intimate way.

“No,” Benji said. “I’d suggest we all have a meeting soon, once everything has calmed down, but for now we’re good.”

Micah wavered, ignoring Nox’s impatient huff. “You sure, Ez? I can stay if you want me to.”

My anger abated at the fact that Micah was willing to wait for that time with his mate in order to make sure everything was okay. “No, it’s fine. Thank you.”

“We will meet soon though,” Micah said, his lips thinning. “There’s things we need to discuss with everyone too.”

“At the end of those five days, if the human is unmated, we will have no choice but to intervene.”

Yep. We sure did.

I trailed after Benji into the room, barely waiting until the door was closed before launching in. “What happened?”

“Rami persuaded Sam to join them all for dinner,” he said. I narrowed my eyes. How exactly had RamipersuadedSam? “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but a glass broke.”

My mouth dried out. “Was Sam hurt?”

Benji crossed his arms. “Not physically.”

Suddenly I remembered a few nights ago. The window in his kitchen. How he’d reacted. “Fuck. Broken glass is a huge trigger for Sam.”

Benji nodded. “I gathered. Noah tried to clean it up, but Sam yelled at him, and then he did it.”

I winced. “Sam cleaned up the glass himself?”

“I’m guessing that probably made it worse for him?”

“Yep.” I blew out a breath. “Fuck.” Benji hesitated, and I realised he wasn’t finished. “What else?”

“He started having a panic attack. No one seemed to realise exactly what was happening, which made things worse. When I got in there, the twins and Noah were all yelling, and Rami was trying to heal him.”

“Sam only likes being touched by people he feels safe with.” I dropped into a chair and covered my face with my hands. I shouldn’t have been gone so long. “And the noise? That definitely wouldn’t have helped.”

“No,” Benji agreed. “The sensory overload in the kitchen was a lot for me too, so I can’t imagine how it was making Sam feel.”

My head whipped up to look at him. “You have sensory stuff too? How did I not know this?”

Benji shrugged. “I just tell everyone to shut up, turn the lights off, and do whatever else is necessary. Something tells me Sam isn’t as comfortable telling others what he needs though.”

“No.” I stared down at my hands, ashamed that I’d never noticed this about Benji. “He isn’t.”

“I think he needs to be though. At the very least, he needs to share that he has OCD with the others. Everyone here wants him to feel comfortable and welcome, but we can’t do that if we don’t understand his needs and triggers.”

“I know. Sam said he’s usually pretty open about it, but he’s had some bad experiences in the past. Some twats have made him feel like his condition is too much hard work. I think he believes you’ll all show him the door once you know the truth.”

“Well, we know that’s not going to happen.” Benji squeezed my shoulder. “With time, Sam will understand that too. You know thatnoneof us will make him feel unwelcome. Fuck, once we know his triggers, you can bet everyone will be running in circles to make sure they are avoided.”

“I know.” I smiled grimly up at him. “Thanks, Ben. I’m lucky to have you all in my corner.”

Benji patted my shoulder before letting go. “You’ve got time though. None of this needs to be dealt with immediately. I think letting everyone know about his OCD would be useful, if he’s comfortable with that. But things like triggers, we can learn those as we go. Once everyone knows what’s going on, they’ll be more aware of his reactions.”

You’ve got time.That was the thing though—we didn’t. Not after our meeting with Gloria. I closed my eyes. Tempting as it was to tell Benji everything, to have him set out on a mission to find a way out of this for us, my need to get to Sam was too great.

“Tell me the rest of it. What happened after you found him?”

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