104- The Heat
POV Lunara Grimwald:
“It’s just your heat.”
“Just my heat?” I retorted, laughing. “God, I think I’m going to die any second if you don’t fuck me.”
I lay back against the mattress and rubbed myself against the sheets that still held his scent. My hand slid down my abdomen, fingers moving between my legs.
“Stop that!” he snarled, frustrated. “I’m at my limit, Lunara, using every ounce of strength to control my beast. If you keep this up, I’ll lose control and fuck you the way you’re begging me to.”
“Oh, but that’s exactly what I want.”
“Is it? And then what? When you wake up from the hypnosis of your heat?”
I froze mid-motion, squeezing my eyes shut and holding my breath so I wouldn’t smell him.
He was right.
The heat made me vulnerable to him. If he touched me, we’d fuck like animals again, just like the first time. My heart was already torn; if I stayed any longer with Edric, there’d be nothing I could do to lessen the consequences that would follow.
During the past few weeks while he’d been away, I’d missed him—I’d felt the ache of distance—but not once had I regretted it. He had gone to the elders’ council, and when I thought he’d give me a reason to hate him again, like I used to, he returned home as soon as it ended, skipping the feast of lust and ruining my plans.
This damned early heat ruined everything I had rebuilt in the meantime—the safety I had finally reclaimed.
If we took this step, there would be no return. Ever.
“Bring the herbs,” I demanded, exasperated.
“You’ll be safe in here. Scream if you hear anything strange. Anton will be downstairs and will come to you as soon as you need.”
“All right.” I bit my lips and rubbed myself against the sheets, sliding my bare thighs over them as if they were his fingers on me.
“Bring the fucking inhibitor,” I begged, exhaling pheromones.
I didn’t need to say it twice; he left the room as if his life depended on it, slamming the door behind him.
I gripped the sheets tightly, my fingers digging into the fabric as I arched my back off the bed. The liquid of my arousal had soaked through my panties, making me uncomfortable. I turned my head toward the bathroom.
A bath. Maybe that would help.
I’d drown myself in that tub if I had to—do whatever it took not to succumb to the cravings of my body, to the instincts of my she-wolf.
“There’s no fucking way to get pregnant!” I shouted, roaring in anger. “Edric can’t be a father. We’ll never have a pup.”
It wasn’t as if she could understand me, but maybe saying it out loud—forcing the words to carve themselves into my mind—might help.
Pregnancy was nearly impossible, and if I spent the rest of my life going into heat over and over again, until I finally surrendered to the wildest desire of our kind—to procreate—I’d go insane.
I stood up, unsteady and weak, and dragged myself toward the bathroom.
(...)
POV Edric Eldoria:
I squeezed the heat-suppressant pills between my fingers as I strode toward my house, boots crunching through the snow and leaving deep tracks behind me.
I still couldn’t believe Lunara had gone into heat without any warning. We had spent the past few weeks apart, trying to keep our feelings under control. I tried not to think about everything Thalira had said, but I couldn’t stop the conflict churning inside me.
I didn’t know whether I should truly leave Catalina in the past, or if what I felt for Lunara was a betrayal to her, as Thalira had claimed.
As much as I hated the time we spent apart, it had been necessary.
Lunara was making me even more dazed than she usually did. She stirred things in me—my emotions, my memories.
I had tried to let go of Catalina, of the bad memories, the grief, keeping only the good parts of what we’d lived, preserving them as something fond. Samhain had been the perfect opportunity for that—for moving forward with my plans. I hadn’t expected Lunara to follow me, or to become part of that moment, but everything turned out genuinely perfect, just as it was meant to happen.
I knew Thalira was jealous and trying to manipulate me—but how much of what she’d said was exaggeration, and how much was truth?
I had sworn never to take another female by my side after Catalina was gone, that I wasn’t worthy. And just a few months after Lunara’s sudden intrusion into my life, I was doing exactly the opposite.
I stepped into the house with my mind spinning, unsure what to do or how to react.
The effort it took to maintain control was enormous. One small slip, and my beast was more than ready to take over—to yield to Lunara’s heat.
Anton was on the couch, looking bored, arms crossed as he stared blankly at whatever show was playing on the TV.
“How is she?” I asked.
“Quiet. I think she’s asleep.”
I raised an eyebrow. I highly doubted that was possible, especially given how she’d been acting and the scent she’d been exuding. He and Andrei, like any other male, weren’t as affected—because she was mated to me. My scent was mixed with hers. And while they could stay unaffected, I could feel every single note of that damn aroma driving me insane.
“I don’t think so,” I muttered, lifting my hand with the pills. “But at least now we have the antidote, and this will be over soon.”
He laughed.
“Your desperation, not mine.” He yawned. “I’m just fine right here.”
I snorted.