Chapter 14
Glade was…? I frowned. Was she showering?
It was the next day, and I’d spent the night tossing and turning about the stupid-ass situation Zed had got us into.
And now, Glade was apparently showering, which didn’t make sense because there was no hot water in that room. Zed was in his bedroom, and Kyan was in the warehouse—which was what we called the massive multi-purpose space beyond what we used as the main living room.
I dug my key from my pocket—I had one and Zed had one—and approached her door, expecting a trick. I opened the first door, peering around to see the bathroom one shut, but the sound of the shower was louder from here.
“Glade?” I asked, knocking.
Nothing.
At least… I thought it was nothing. I pressed my ear to the door with a frown.
Was she… crying?
In a cold shower?
No. The hairs on my body stood on end, instincts dragging a growl to my throat, hand closing on the doorknob in an instant. Through the door I could definitely hear the low, desperate whines of my mate.
Was she hurt?
I paused a second longer, then shoved the door open, holding onto the meagre threads of sanity I had left.
What was…?
Shit.
She was on the shower floor, curled up and panting as she clutched her stomach.
I crossed toward her, but her eyes snapped open, finding me, and she shoved back, crashing against the shower wall.
“What’s wrong?” I barely noticed the frigid water streaming over my back.
She shook her head, eyes wide with terror, another low whine slipping out. In this small space I was drowning in her scent, dark cream cardamom like an…
Shit.
Her scent was an aphrodisiac. It was impossible not to notice she was wearing nothing but an oversized T-shirt, the beautiful brown of her smooth legs on full display.
“Heat?” My voice was hoarse.
Fucking heat?
Right now?
What the hell were we going to do?
My mind went blank as another low moan tore from her and she doubled over. I almost reached out, but caught myself. I hadn’t lost myself completely, probably because of the icy water washing her scent down the drain.
Oh no. This was bad.
And it had started… could we stop heat after it started?
“What do we do?” I asked stupidly.
We couldn’t fuck her—right? I’d almost rutted from a kiss. We couldn’t. And she didn’t want us—that truth smashed into me. She’d chosen an ice shower over telling us.
She didn’t want us.
“Sh-shut the door.” Her voice shook. “Just k-keep them out for a few days.”
“Are you joking?” That would be agony.
“Knight—” She reached out to me, trembling fingers, seizing my shirt. “P-please. I can’t—” She broke off with another moan of pain. Tears were streaking down her cheeks, chestnut eyes glistening. “I’m scared…”
My mind was foggy with panic.
“If you don’t want us, there are drugs…” Fuck. It had already started. I was sure that made them a whole lot less effective. “They’ll shorten it…”
What was I saying?
She was still going to be in agony.
“Is there…” I almost winced at the words that were coming out of my own fucking mouth. “Is there someone we can call?”
Right.
Invite another Alpha over to our pad, so he could fuck our mate senseless while we tried to drown out the sound of literal heat.
There was a beat as her gaze snapped to mine, shock so complete that it seemed to wipe her mind of the pain for a moment.
Her lips parted like she didn’t know how to answer. Then she swallowed, shaking her head.
“No one?” I demanded.
What?As screwed up as the idea was, it had kind of been the solution. And I was still fucked in the head enough I had to stamp down little embers of relief that flitted to life in my chest.
“Just… go.” Her tears were back.
I… Shit.
I needed help.
Zed would know what to do.
I was on my feet in a moment, backing out. Leaving the bathroom and her intoxicating scent sent shivers of panic down my spine, my hindbrain screaming that it was unnatural to leave.
I reached Zed’s door in seconds, ripping it open and finding him in his bed, laptop open.
“What?” he said, glancing at me. He set the laptop down the second he caught my expression. Oh. I’d forgotten how hard I’d locked down my end of the bond. He had no idea I was panicking.
“Glade,” I hissed. “She’s in heat.”
“She can’t be.” He scoffed, getting to his feet. “I saw her last night?—”
“She’s in heat,” I spat, crossing to him and jabbing him in the chest. It was his stupid fucking idea to bring her here. “In agony. Right fucking now—and she doesn’t want anyone to fuck her.”
“She doesn’t what? That’s stupid?—”
“There are meds, right? Please tell me we aren’t too late—at least to make it shorter, or… or pain control.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” he asked. “That’s not a solution?—”
My hand snapped out, fist closing in Zed’s shirt. “We’re not fucking her if she doesn’t want us.” Even if it wouldn’t scramble our brains for good, I’d seen the terror on her face. He had been right. There was something else going on.
Zed peeled my hand from his shirt, stepping past me. “I wasn’t saying we should,” he snapped.
I followed him as he made for the spare room Glade was in. I shouldn’t have left the door open. Her heat hormones would be in the whole space before we knew it.
I didn’t dare follow him in, though, not sure I could take seeing her like that again. I was just wringing the water from my locs when Zed appeared in the doorway, expression deadly.
“Knight,” he snarled. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“What?”
But Zed was tugging his gun from his belt, eyes scanning the room.
No…
Oh, no—there was no way she was faking it.
It took me half a second to cross the little room with the old mattress and into the bathroom. The shower was running, but sure enough, Glade was gone.
I backed out, mind racing. “That was… real. She was crying?—”
Zed spat a curse back at me as he crossed toward the cracked door that led to the rest of the warehouse.
I was after him in an instant, wildly trying to catch up.
I reached the large open warehouse space just behind Zed and scanned it.
“Kyan!” Zed spotted him just before I did. He was standing at the graffiti wall, mask in place, can of spray paint halfway to the spot with the skull he’d designed last week. He lowered it, turning to us.
“Glade,” Zed snarled. “She’s gone.”
Kyan said something as we approached, but it was incomprehensible through the mask.
“What?”
He tugged it off, a smile on his face. He looked high as fuck. “She was just here—you know, I forgot how sexy those thighs are. I want her like...” He narrowed his eyes, lifting his hands around his face, one still holding his spray paint, “... right here. She can crack my skull any day of the week.”
Zed seized him by the shirt. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
Kyan shrugged, voice dropping low as he mocked me. “‘Not allowed to touch her.’”
“You little shit!” Zed hissed.
Kyan just grinned.
“Which way did she go?”
“Uh...” Kyan looked around, then nodded in toward one of the doors. “That door.”
Zed released him, already making for it.
“Wait—!”Kyan called out. “—Might have been that one.” He waved his can at the other side of the warehouse. “Can’t remember. She’s too pretty.”
“I thought you wanted her here?” I demanded.
“I believe in you.” He clapped me on the shoulder, then returned his mask to his face.
Resisting the urge to strangle him, I glanced to Zed. He looked ready to murder Kyan, but he made for the far door, while I went for the nearer.