Chapter 7: The alpha is in heat (part II)

**James**

“Brother.” He muttered carefully, holding out his hands defensively. “You are in no condition to be near her right now. We know very well what you intend to do with her, but she is human. A virgin. Do you really believe that her body will not succumb to her brutality? Her beast will possess her, and her human side will stand by and watch you tear her apart.”

I clenched my fists and caught up with him in two long strides, blocking my face a foot away from his. Dimitri lowered his gaze reflexively, following the natural instinct of submission, but his expression remained implacable, firm in his decision to oppose my irresistible desire with all his strength.

Without any warning, I hit him in the chin and his head fell back. I grabbed him by the back of the head and hit him again, earning a scratch on my knuckles that healed a few moments later.

“Tell me where the hell that woman is!” I shouted in his face, so close that I couldn't clearly distinguish the features of her face. “Tell me!”

His yellow eyes glowed with stubbornness and turned red when I struck him for the third time.

“React for God!” I shouted, shaking him.

Dimitri turned his head to the side and spat out blood. “Not while you are in this condition. Give it a hand job and we'll talk about it.”

“Screw this.”

A stitch in the lower part of the abdomen, ten times more violent than the previous ones, took my breath away, leaving my thighs sore. I leaned forward, supporting myself with a hand on Dimitri's shoulder, who promptly tensed his back muscles to support my weight. His erection rocked forward, driven by the frustrating need to be tamed, and radiated cramps in the center of his stomach.

“ Shit!” I murmured in a groan of manly despair, halfway between a dark plea and a groan of pain.

Deprived of all energy, I fell to my knees, falling to the floor in the fetal position. My temple hit the tiles, but I felt no pain. I was barely aware of Dimitri's arms shaking me.

“You have to breathe, James. Take three deep breaths. Focus on your breathing.” the voice was distant, a low and shrill moan mixing with the devastating pain.

The fire in my groin grew, shooting stabs at my balls, making my seed boil. Then it grew even more, until it surpassed any painful perception he had ever felt, reaching a peak that any human being could never physically endure. I was stunned, vaguely aware of what was happening around me, my heart galloping in agony toward the desperate desire to stop beating.

I coughed through my teeth as I wrapped my arms around myself and writhed on the hard floor, racked by epileptic spasms. Furthermore, I inadvertently bit my tongue and the metallic taste of blood slipped down my throat, almost choking me.

That's what calmed the fire. The blood.

The ringing in the ears gradually diminished, the objects returned to their own appearance, the pupils contracted a few times, bringing focus to the contour of Dimitri's face.

Kneeling beside me, he helped me helplessly, his gaze filled with reverent respect and solid understanding: I had officially and fully entered the heat.

I allowed myself to breathe more, and the air reached my lungs without encountering any obstacles, a sign that the worst was over. I felt my member throb as if after a powerful orgasm, but at least my scrotum was no longer tingling and my groin was free of the sharp pain caused by a testosterone overdose.

“ It's better?” he asked sympathetically.

I shook my head. I reached out and grabbed his biceps with my fingers, then propped myself up on one elbow. Weakness made me stagger, but with another long sigh I regained full control of myself.

“You've been through difficult times, brother.”  he commented, lowering his face to look at his torn and blood-stained shirt. The bruise I left on my cheekbone showed no signs of reabsorption. “Damn… you fell hard, huh…”

“I'm sorry, brother.” Although I felt a flicker of guilt, there was no trace of it in the tone I used. Every emotion was still controlled by the urgent need to mate.

Coming back to reality, I felt a sense of discomfort. I hated showing myself weak in front of a pack member. Heat or not, I had a reputation to uphold and a role to fill that left no room for any failure. What had just happened to me was proof that the full moon, the day on which I would turn thirty, was inexorably approaching?

If I hadn't completed my duties, the pack would soon be without an Alpha, at the mercy of other packs who had received word that I was still without a mate. And an Alpha without his female was weak, a very banal link in a bond that would lead to his bloodline's death.

Despite everything, I thought about Brooke, at that moment. Damn human, in the way she continually pushed a strand of dark hair back over her shoulder. The way she looked at me, always somewhere between irritated and uncertain. The way she stuttered awkwardly if I stared at her for too long.

The discomfort returned.

That female was dangerous. If she could make me lose control like that without even being close to me, it meant that my presence by her side would soon become a fast track to her destruction. Or mine.

“It's time to talk to her.” Dimitri understood my thoughts and I did the same with his, as they were identical to mine.

No sensible human would have voluntarily digested the existence of werewolves, much less would they have agreed to share their life with one of them. She would run away, that was for sure. And in doing so, she would have awakened my ancient predatory thirst, fueling and inflaming my innate desire to hunt prey.

She had no chance of escaping me, but she would have tried anyway, unconsciously turning herself into a sacrificial victim.

“I tried to join her with human tactics.” I snorted, letting go of her forearm and standing up. — And what did I gain? Did she fall in love with me? No. No, damn it. She rejected my relationship by giving me a stupid excuse.

“ I assume you're referring to flowers.”

Brooke's embarrassed face flashed before my eyes as her eyes darted from me to the bouquet of flowers in confusion. Her red cheeks were not artificial, and her shyness was something terribly disturbing, a kind of monkey wrench that delayed the moment in which I would have made her mine.

“He rejected the first bouquet of flowers. I don't know about the others I delivered to her house. I haven't seen it yet.”

“Thank God.” he started laughing, easing the cold in the room.

A cocky smile escaped me. “She is still a woman. Even though she is human, she will have hormones or urges. Maybe she wouldn't mind if I threw her on this table too…”

“For.” Dimitri raised his hands. “Block that thought immediately. Don't think about sex, or you will be in agony again.” He looked around, realizing the damage I had caused. “Besides, I'm afraid there's nothing left for you to destroy in this office.”

“You are here.”

“Funny.” he murmured, rubbing his cheekbone. “ So, what will be your next “human” move?”

I stood there for a while, considering the different options I had. Human courtship was very different from that of the animal world. What was immediate for us, for humans, required almost biblical times. Time I didn't have anyway. If I had imprinted on a female werewolf, all I would have had to do was stroke the soft fur covering her jugular, sniff her tail, and circle her a few times. At that moment she lay down on all fours, lowering her ears in a sign of acceptance, and with a howl she shouted that she belonged to me, so that all the males in the pack knew that.

With humans, however, it didn't work exactly like that. They made demands, took refuge in their distorted minds, in search of useless stratagems to resist as long as possible. Humans loved to complicate things. Otherwise, they were not happy.

“I'll invite you to dinner and explain how things are.” I said.

“Very human, indeed.” he rolled his eyes. — Taking her to a restaurant to tell her that you're an Alpha and that she belongs to you, whether she wants to or not, isn't exactly changing your complicated situation.

“Maybe you don't realize that I have very little time left.”

He opened his arms and let them fall with a thud to his sides. “Come on, James, you know very well that she will run away from you before you even have time to open the menu.”