My spine arches, my nails claw at his sweater, tearing at the fabric, and then the pleasure becomes too much, and I feel myself slip away.
When I wake up, I am in my bed, covered with a quilt, and he is gone.
I sit up in surprise and look around. He took the time to carry me to the bed and tuck me in, but I do not want to think about it now. About the whole roleplay, the fragments of the past, the illusion of us being back together. It makes me miserable. I sink back onto the mattress and press my cheek into the pillowcase. All I want is for my life to be something else entirely, and for Bay to come back into it.
???
On the fourth day I wake with only mild waves, and I know the heat is coming to an end.
What awaits me now is recovery, lonely and depressing.
I wonder if this is the right moment to call Lake Nolan, but I also know I can’t wait any longer, because the fact that heat has clouded my mind for a while doesn’t change what has actually happened just before that.
I have killed a man in an absolutely impossible way.
And that demands investigation, I have to uncover that mystery since it is part of my identity.
I can’t just move on from it like nothing is happening, it’s too big. Now that the fog of heat is clearing from my mind my mood worsens with every minute, and it isn’t only because of the hormone crash tied to heat recovery. I have to understand who I am.
It is ten at night, which means there is a good chance Lake is getting ready for bed, or maybe he is having sex with his husband, since he is tightly bonded to his True Mate and they can go at it every three hours, so who knows. But after a few rings Lake picks up.
"Alex? Are you okay?" I hear his warm tenor.
"Not really," I mumble.
"Did something happen?" worry creeps into his voice.
"I have a very strange question, and I really need you to give me an absolutely honest answer."
Silence fills the line. Does he already know what I am going to ask?
"You know, that conversation we had with Bay on my eighteenth birthday was very eye-opening for me. But a few things we talked about that day never matched with what my dad told me during all these years. Please, tell me what happened on the day I was born."
Lake Nolan stays silent.
I swallow hard, my voice turning pleading. "Please. It is really important. Four days ago something happened, something I cannot explain, an awful event, but I have this strange feeling that there is an explanation for it and that you might be the one who knows it."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
I hesitate. Saying it out loud means risking everything, but maybe Lake is someone I can trust.
"I went into heat. One of my college friends came over. I said no, but he would not listen. He went into rut, his eyes turned red, and he tried to rape me, but then something happened and I… killed him."
"Oh no, sweetheart! Are you safe now?" Lake breathes out.
"Yes, everything is under control, but it is about the way I did it."
"The way you did it?"
"Yes, I just… it was like I drained his life out of him. He turned gray, almost like a mummy."
The line drops back into heavy silence. I hear his quickening breath, even the muffled rush of a fast heartbeat.
"Alex, what did you do with the body?"
I groan in irritation because this is not the part that matters. "I took care of it, everything is fine. I want to know if you know anything about the circumstances of my birth, because during our talk back then you sounded nervous, like you knew something, right?"
Another long silence, but this time I refuse to give up.
