7
Sage
Godsfreakingdamnit,it was happeningagain.
The fluctuating temperatures, the sweat, the weird not-painful cramps, the boiling pit in my stomach, the tingles all over my body… it was all back.
I groaned loudly and rolled over in the grass. It was cooler than my skin and the only relief I had.
“Uncle Sage, you’re funny.”
Lupa laid in the grass beside me, watching me with interest. I loved her so much I’d die for her, but right now, I wanted to be alone.
“Lupa,” I said breathlessly, “where’s your babysitter?”
She giggled. “I ex-scaped.”
“You gotta go back, okay? Uncle Sage is… not feeling good.”
She frowned, furrowing her brows. “Why?” She slapped her hand over my forehead, like she’d seen her parents do. “Whoa! Hot!”
“Yes, hot. Need help. Can you find your daddy or uncles?”
“Yeah!”
Excited to be given an important task, Lupa shifted into wolf form and tumbled away with determination.
Truth be told, I didn’t want another omega’s help right now. For some reason, all I could think of was Xander. He was the only person I wanted. As the image of him appeared in my mind, a twinge of pleasure and anticipation ran down my spine. I realized in horror that I was getting hard. I yelped and threw a hand over myself.
Ugh, this is so stupid, why does this have to HAPPEN—
“Sage!”
Remington, Len and Morgan showed up. In the background I heard Lupa’s mischievous cackle and Red lightly scolding her for ‘ex-scaping’.
Len kneeled by me. “Sage, are you okay?”
“No,” I moaned.
“This is your first time?” Morgan asked.
I made some unintelligible noise and hoped he would understand that I meantyes.
“It started the other night, but it didn’t fully materialize,” Remington said. “I think his hormones were just starting to gear up properly. He wasn’t this bad before.”
“Ugggh,” I said, flopping face-first in the grass. Remmy was right—itwasn’tthis bad the other night. The cramps were annoying but not debilitating. This was like, totally shitty.
And the worst part was that I kept getting harder. And harder.
“You know how to deal with it, right?” Len asked gently.
Morgan chimed in, all calm and neutral: “If you don’t have access to a knotted toy, even a regular one will do—”
I groaned as loudly as possible to drown out the sound of them talking about sex toys.
“I know, okay?” I said. As much as I appreciated them, part of me was annoyed that they treated me like I didn’t know anything. Just because this was my first heat didn’t mean I was completely clueless about how it was supposed to go. I knew stuff, I just didn’t have experience with it.
And anyway, I didn’t want to hole up—no pun intended—with some stupid toy.
