Page 29

“Who was that?” I mumbled when he hung up.

“The only person I’d trust on this floor while you’re in heat.” He dabbed my forehead with a cool cloth, and I felt myself relax. “He’s taking care of the screen room, so I don’t have to leave you.”

“Does he ask a lot of questions?”

“He never asks questions.”

That should’ve worried me. It didn’t.

“You have weird friends.” I laughed, the sound sleepy and breathless.

This felt like the first break I’d had. My cheek rested against his thigh. His fingers were in my hair, lightly massaging. I was purring. I didn’t remember starting.

Then something shifted.

It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t the need for his knot. A restlessness crawled under my flesh, one I couldn’t ignore. The fever clung to me like a second skin, slick dampening my thighs and sheets, but it didn’t build the way it had before. It just clawed at my insides.

I curled my fingers into his sweatpants and whimpered.

“Alpha.”

“I’m here, baby.”

“Something’s…” I rubbed my face against his thigh. Woodsmoke. Mine. “wrong.”

It wasn’t enough. I squirmed against him. Pressed closer. Pulled back. Nothing felt right.

“Tell me how to fix it.”

“I don’t know.” I shoved the blanket off, then pulled it back. Too hot. Too cold. Too empty.

His hand slid up and down my spine. “Do you need my knot?”

“No. Not yet. I need—” I whined, frustrated, because the word was right there and I couldn’t reach it. My mouth ached. That was the only way I could describe it. An emptiness I didn’t have a name for.

He was quiet for a moment. I felt the heat of him against my cheek as he pushed his sweats down. Then his fingers threaded into my hair, gentle, and tilted my head back. My lips parted as I looked up past ridges of abs, the silver glinting through his nipples that had my mouth watering, lips curved in a smile, and eyes that promised he had everything I needed.

Then the tip of him brushed my lips.

“Wrap your mouth around me. Just the tip.”

I hesitated for half a second. Then I did, and everything in me went quiet at his taste on my tongue and the soft crown filling my mouth. I breathed him in like I was drowning, his scent wrapping around me. I didn’t suck to get him off. I just held him there, soft against my tongue, and suckled. Slow. Each pull soothed something inside me, and a purr rumbled to life in my chest.

“That’s it,” he murmured, stroking my hair. “I’m here.”

I didn’t understand why it worked. Only that it did. My body seemed to know something I didn’t. I stayed there until the restlessness melted away and something hungrier took its place.

When I finally let him slip free, I looked up at him. Those pale eyes watched me.

“How did you know?” I whispered.

His thumb brushed my bottom lip. “I know everything about you.”

A cramp clenched low in my belly, and I sat up ready to crawl onto him. He caught my hips, and I growled.

“Eat first,” he said.

“Not hungry.”