QUINN
If I was a test patient, I’d be immortalized in the pages of a medical journal.
No matter what we try, I simply won’t pass out.
I’m completely off my face and can barely keep my eyes open, mind you. My head swoops like I’m rolling a roller coaster and my vagina is possessed, only wanting what it can’t have, which is them.
“Stop fucking trying to break free.” Kade has reverted to speaking with the dominance I begged him to use way back when we were friends. And it’s infinitely better for my heat-addled brain and a thousand times worse for the sensible part of me trying to squash my cycle.
“It’s the cuffs,” I whisper, though it comes out like a slur.
Perhaps not, though. The three varying growls I get as an answer has my mind racing and my heat ramping up again.
I’m walking a tightrope. It’s too soon to tell if I’m going to fall into a proper heat. All these dips, full ofmaybeandhell no, are doing my head in.
As much as I’m suffering, they are too. I’m super sensitive to them; I can literally feel their emotions bleeding into my subconscious. After the past few hours, there’s no disputing the bonds we share. But that’s the very reason I need to ride this out, drugged and desperate.
It hasn't been an easy process. I feel bad about how riled they are, but it’s a thousand times worse if they leave the room. We’ve tried that a few times, and it works for no one.
Right now, I’m back on thefuck ittrain, and the first stop is getting railed by them.
All at once.
Jesus, that sounds amazing.
“That’s enough,” Aleksei barks.
I twist around to where his voice is coming from. My vision is messed up, but I could find him by scent alone, even if he was encased in a concrete block and my nose was plugged.
“We’ve tried your way,” Santiago says, and I smile up at him while I get a small wave of reprieve.
“What, then?” I ask.
Instead of answering, a hand massages my cramping calves. I know it’s Kade; his touch is easy to determine because my body relaxes like arriving home.
A part of the mattress near me dips, followed by the same motion on the other side, the combined scent of agarwood and amber flooding my senses. And while I’m breathing through how close Aleksei and Santiago are, they unlock the cuffs. The blood in my arms rushes back into my heart, which is hammering out of control. It stirs another crest, but instead of struggling with the accompanying cramps and need, I get distracted by them lying next to me.
Everyone must have talked about what they’d do, because they flow like water to bundle me up in them. Their warmth smothers the flames of my heat. Their scents fill my lungs, and the peace that settles in my bones has me passing out faster than you can turn a television off.
I wake with a piercing headache.
Someone already thought I would.
A bucket is placed in front of me while cushions are gently pushed behind my back. A small press, and I lean back against them, sighing in relief when Santiago holds an ice-cold cloth against my forehead.
“When you’re ready, I’ve got some water for you,” Santiago whispers, his voice purposely close, so I don’t strain to hear him.
My hair lifts, and the movement stirs Aleksei’s scent in the air. Everything is muted, except for the drilling in my head.
“My heat broke,” I say as he places a cold pack on the back of my neck. “What time is it?”
Aleksei’s fingers find a pressure point on my neck, and the relief as he massages it is nearly instant. “Just past eight. No one is awake yet.”
I feel Kade’s presence as easily as I feel theirs, despite him being a Beta to their Alpha.
“How horrible was I?” I ask, driven on by the softer, more vulnerable parts of me.
Nausea bubbles in my stomach, not just because of my headache. It might be unnecessary for me to worry about how I looked, but it’s a rather large concern too. Kind of like the morning after a big night, I’m horrified I might have done or said something to hurt one of them, or more accurately, turn them off me.
