Marie's heat. Ragon's voice cutting through the fog.
"Drake, stay with Marie. She needs you. Vee isn't in heat."
And I did.
I stayed with Marie while Vee was alone in our house.
I knotted Marie over and over while Vee screamed for help that never came.
I chose biology over five years of love. Again.
And again.
And again.
The GPS says fifteen minutes.
I press harder on the gas. The car hydroplanes on a curve and I wrestle it back under control.
The rain is coming down in sheets, I can barely see the road. Thunder cracks overhead so loud it shakes the car.
Almost there.
Almost to Vee.
The thought is the only thing keeping me conscious.
Finally the GPS says I've arrived.
A cabin materializes through the rain, lights on inside, woods all around.
The storm picks that moment to really let loose.
Thunder cracks so close I feel it in my chest. Lightning illuminates everything in stark white flashes that leave afterimages burned into my retinas.
I can't even turn off the headlights. Can't make my hands work that precisely.
I open the door and practically fall out of the car.
Mud. Grass. Rain so heavy I can barely breathe through it.
My knees buckle.
I catch myself on the car door. Force myself upright.
Then I hear it.
"Drake?"
Her voice.
Sweet and shocked and so familiar it makes my chest crack open.
I look up.
She's coming down the porch steps toward me. Hair already plastered to her face from the rain, eyes wide.
An alpha is right behind her. Tall. Broad. Hand on her shoulder.
