My palms sweat as I race across town to the shop, cursing every single red light that gets in my way. There’s no way I can risk a ticket right now, not when every minute Carys is alone, her heat will only get more painful and consuming until she loses touch with reality completely. I call Ashton, one hundred percent panicking. He answers on the third ring.
“What’s up? Don’t you have a scent match to cuddle so you’ll score a goal tonight? Or has the routine changed already?”
Despite everything, my lips curve into a reluctant smile at his dig. Then reality comes roaring back in. I clear my throat.
“About that,” I start. Fuck, how do I bring up all of this to him? We haven’t told anyone outside of my brother and Billie. And, Jesus fuck, Ares is going to kill me. This is absolutely not what Carys had meant when she said she’d find a way over Christmas break to tell him about us.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Ashton instantly sobers. “You need me to grab you or something?”
“Remember my scent match?”
“Of course. You’ve been ten times more content since that date you had last month.”
“She’s in heat.” My voice is hoarse.
The line goes quiet, and then Ashton curses viciously. “You need help getting to her? Is she in the city?”
“Probably,” I mutter. I pull into the alley behind her shop, my stomach flipping when I see Paxton’s own Audi parked in one of the reserved spaces. There’s no one waiting behind the wheel.
My heart drops. The entire world just… stops. There’s an eerie silence in my head. I swallow down a rising scream of rage and helplessness.
“Yeah,” I admit. “I’m going to need help.”
Tears burn just behind my eyelids, but I blink them away.
“Where are you?” There’s the sound of Ashton grabbing keys and then a door closing. “You have an address or just cross streets?”
I give him the address I’ve had memorized for weeks now, since before I ever took her on a date. I don’t dare ease out of the car, terrified of what I’m going to find when I walk inside. I’d told him to wait, to not go inside. Had I not been fast enough?
“Breathe, Rhett,” Ashton says. “It’s going to be all right. I’ll let Miles know, and he’ll put you down as a scratch for tonight and probably the two road games, too. They’ll understand. They’ll be irritated they haven’t met her yet, but they’ll understand.”
“No, he won’t,” I mutter.
Ashton sighs. “All right. I’m just around the block from there. Is there parking in the back or do I need to find somewhere along the street?”
I ease into the empty spot just in front of the door that’s not technically a parking area. I don’t give a shit about a parking ticket right now. “You can park in the back. There’s a spot open.”
My phone drops into my lap as he hangs up. I stare straight ahead, not really seeing a damn thing, my hands shaking where I hold the steering wheel for dear life. Ashton pulls up only a few minutes later, parking next to Paxton’s car. Hisemptycar. A growl rumbles up my throat, and my entire body trembles with a primitive rage as I ease from my car. Ashton raises an eyebrow as he takes in the cars, putting things together without me saying a damn word.
“That’s not good,” he says anyway, shoving his hands into his pockets.
I shake my head. “No, it’s not.”
He sighs and rolls his shoulders back. “All right. I hopefully won’t have as visceral a reaction as you. I’ll use some kind of cloth barrier if I need to, but with any luck she’ll be easy to extract so you can get her back to your place.” His gaze flicks back to Paxton’s car. “You won’t hold anything I might need to do to him against me, right? Because he… might not be all that lucid depending on how bad this is.”
“Yeah, free liberty,” I grunt.
He scrunches his nose then nods. “Can’t believe this is how I’m meeting her. Jesus, Rhett. This entire thing has just been wild. And that’s saying something considering the insane shit you pulled in Toronto last year.”
I clear my throat and run my hand through my hair. Should I tell him now? Or when he sees her inside, possibly naked and definitely vulnerable?
Now. I should tell him now.
“Yeah, so…” He raises an eyebrow. “You’ve met her. You saw her on Thanksgiving.”
He frowns, his brows pulling low.
“Thanksgiving? You mean the team dinner?” When I nod, his face clears, dropping into unadulterated shock. “Ah, shit. You’re fucking kidding, Rhett.”
