5. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Kier
My eyelids stuck together as I tried to pry them open. My limbs ached and weighed like I’d been tossed into a pool wearing a wool coat. Heat radiated down my arms and legs, sending hot pulses of electricity to my toes. I pushed myself up and tried to twist and stretch my back. I kept my movements small, trying not to disturb Tav next to me, but it didn’t work. Sure enough, he opened his eyes and smiled at me like it was perfectly normal to wake up beside me.
“We have begun our descent. If you will please re-fasten your seat belts,” the flight attendant’s voice rang over the speaker system in that crackly, barely audible manner.
“Arriving already? Wow! I rarely sleep that much on a flight,” Tav said. “How about you?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said. “I’ve never been on one that long. Except the one here, and I worked for most of the flight.”
“We’ll have to take you more places,” Tav said. Then he narrowed his eyes as he looked at me, his nostrils flaring. “Kier, are you okay?” His voice lowered, and he leaned closer. The smoky scent of him enveloped me like a caress, and my eyes fluttered closed. I caught myself before I instinctively moved closer to him.
It took me a moment to recall what he asked, and I had to blink a few times to clear my head. “Yeah, I think so. Is there any water? I’m parched.” My mouth had gone dry, and my thoughts ran wild, none of them appropriate.
Tav flagged down the flight attendant. Even though we were descending and supposed to remain seated, she brought me a bottle of water. I gulped it, resisting the urge to pour it over my head. I wiped the sweat from my brow. Why was it so hot on the flight? Was that normal? How was it possible that Tav was so close to me? His scent wrapped around me.
“Oh, man. I hope I’m not getting sick,” I said.
“No, I don’t think that’s it,” Tav said. His jaw tensed, and he kept a close eye on me. I sniffed the air, and the scent of his concern hit my nostrils.
“What do you mean?”
“I should have thought about this. I didn’t realize, but it makes sense—with being this close to one another in the closed cabin, the travel, the stress...”
“What stress? What are you talking about? Tav, you’re not making sense.”
“You can’t feel it?” Tav asked.
I took stock of my body. I felt flushed, almost flulike and hot. Sick wasn’t really how I would describe how I was feeling, though. Instead, it was... horny. And hot. I was needy. My hands itched to take hold of Tav and run my fingertips over his skin, squeeze his biceps, and feel his muscles.
Oh, shit. My dick was rock hard—not just because I had just woken up.
“Oh, no,” I said. “I’m... are you’re saying I’m going into heat?” I whispered to him so that others wouldn’t overhear. Being that we were on a plane full of shifters, it was likely someone could still hear us. My scent was probably permeating through the cabin. Fuck. This was a mess.
“Crap,” I muttered, swallowing thickly. “I don’t have any suppressants. I don’t know where I’d get any. I can trust all these alphas... probably. I know I can trust you, Tav, but gosh, it’s terrifying being this close to a full-blown heat so far from home and where I’m comfortable.” The words and worry spilled out of me before I could stop it. My eyes darted around to see if anyone else had taken notice. Everyone seemed to be engrossed in their own little worlds, thank goodness.
“Stick close to me,” he said. “We’ll get a fresh blanket to keep wrapped around you. It’ll mask your scent a little bit. Do you have any cologne or deodorant?”
“Maybe,” I said, already digging through my bag.
“Look and see if you can splash some on you. Don’t leave my side. Do you understand?”
His eyes flashed, and for a moment, I swore I saw the deep cyan of his scales ripple over his face. The heat in my belly grew. I groaned. Fuck. Why was competence so sexy?
“No time for that. Be strong right now, okay? We’re gonna get through this, and I’ll take you someplace safe.”
“I need to get home.” Even when we landed, though, we still had another flight before I would be in the same city as my home. I was stranded and at the mercy of all these dragons.
Tav would keep me safe. My wolf knew I could trust him. I would not leave his side.
“I don’t know that we’ll have time to get you home, but I’ll try. If not, my family owns a cabin not far from the airport.” Tav’s gaze locked on mine, and at that moment, I’d trust him if he asked me to jump off a cliff. Then his words sank in.
“Of course you have a home nearby.”
He cupped my cheek in his palm, his thumb grazing over my skin. “I’ll take care of you. I promise. Nothing’s going to happen. No one’s going to touch you without your permission, all right?”
I nodded. “I trust you, Tav. I do.”
His eyes fluttered closed, and he groaned. “Fuck, it’s impossible to hear my name on your lips like that and not—” He clenched his mouth closed as if biting off his own words.
Then I said words I had only ever thought before but never imagined I’d voice out loud.
“Tav, are you going to help me through this heat?”
His eyes darkened. “If you want me to, I would love nothing more than to be with you during this time. I wanted to get close to you and get to know you better. That’s why I have you on this flight.”
“What do you mean?”
“I lied to you. There wasn’t an extra seat in first class, Kier. Thorne isn’t with us. I kicked him off the flight so you could have his seat. I just really wanted to spend time with you, and I thought we’d see each other at the dragon games, but I kept getting dragged off to meet with people and you were working...”
“Oh, Tav.” I laughed. “That’s kind of funny.”
“Thorne doesn’t think so. He told me not to blow this chance to get close to you.”
“You never said anything about... being interested in me.” I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I didn’t have the brain capacity to even try. At that moment, I was trying to keep the heat and need from overtaking my body.
“I’ve tried. You’re not an easy wolf to get close to.”
The plane jolted as it landed. Tav grabbed his phone, turned it on, and fired off a couple of quick texts. Then he seemed to switch gears to focus on getting us off the plane safely.
We trusted our clan, but it was difficult for unmated alphas to be around an unmated omega in heat.
I wrapped the blanket around myself and put the hood of my sweatshirt up. The cologne I splashed on was masking my scent a bit. With Tav at my side, it wasn’t likely we’d encounter any trouble.
“They’re gonna let us off the flight first, okay? My car will wait for us out front, and we’ll get out of here.”
“You arranged all that?”
“For you, I’d rearrange the planets.”