22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Artie, you’re still a bit flushed, are you sure you’ll be all right today?” Leith’s voice was full of worry as I rolled off of him, both of us breathing heavily.
“Leith, we just had morning sex, I’d wager you’re pretty flushed too.” Though I couldn’t actually be sure. Curse my decision to purchase rose colored sheets for my nest. As soon as we got out of bed I was going to buy black ones and put them on a rush order.
I’d never really put much stock in my doctor’s recent advice to start purchasing high contrast items to help identify things even with how blurry my vision was becoming, but now as I glanced over at Leith whose head seemed to blend in with the pink sheets, even I had to admit he was correct.
“Your heat is coming pretty soon… maybe we should have Enzo stay home.”
With a sigh, I reached in between our bodies and gripped his still half-erect cock that was slippery from my slick. “My heat is two weeks off. If he stays home now he’s just going to have to fly down to visit his dad after that and I know he’s worried about him being in the hospital.”
Enzo’s dad had been admitted for an emergency heart surgery last night and the alpha had been in a flurry of activity as he arranged to fly down to California to see him. The surgery had been a success as far as Enzo’s sister had told us, but I could still feel the random spikes of panic from my alpha who’d shut himself away in his room last night.
He hadn’t been able to make it back to the states when his mom died and I knew it had always weighed on him. So I wanted him to be able to see his dad this time.
Feverish feelings and mood swings aside, I could handle him leaving for a couple of days.
Okay, maybe I was in denial that there was a very real possibility that my heat was going to be early.
Case and point my voracious appetite for my alphas had grown ever since Friday night after Enzo came home smelling of a mouthwatering mixture of his cranberry scent and Ciara’s cinnamon.
I’d been pissed at him for kissing her first… and then I’d licked every inch of his skin that night.
“Are you two still in bed?” Enzo’s voice came from the doorway of my bedroom, a dark shadow against the backdrop of the hall light.
Lifting my hand, I offered him a smile. “It’s not time to get up yet, we’ve still got another two hours before we need to drop you at the airport. Come cuddle?”
There was a pause before he finally surrendered and slid into the bed on my other side, his weight warm at my back as we settled in together.
Then his hand came up to my face before flipping over so that he could brush the back of it against my hot skin. I resisted the urge to press my mouth into it and give him a nip.
“He’s feverish,” Enzo said to Artie over my shoulder.
“I told him that,” Leith murmured, his hands also pressing into my body.
I could almost hear Enzo’s frown in his voice when he spoke again. “Maybe I should stay home…”
“No. Absolutely not, you need to go and see your dad.” I rolled over so that I was completely facing him.
“But what if you go into heat?”
It was definitely a possibility with the way I was feeling, but I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. My estrus was usually like clockwork, so for it to come two weeks early seemed unlikely.
“It’s still two weeks off, and Leith can help me until you get back if it does happen.” I could still feel his trepidation through the bond. “Enz, love, you haven’t been able to see your dad in a few years. You go and visit with your family, we’ll be fine here.”
“I have to agree with him, Enz, I can hold things down here,” Leith chimed in from over my shoulder as he tucked his chin into the crook of my neck, his beard tickling the skin there.
My alpha seemed to be deep in thought as he traced patterns into my skin before he finally let out a sigh. “All right, but if something happens you’ll call me right away?”
“What’s going to happen?” I asked, trying to get to the root of his anxiety. We hadn’t been apart for more than a couple of days since we met in University and I was afraid that it had done more to exacerbate Enzo’s overprotectiveness rather than soothe it.
Enzo shrugged one shoulder, his lips hovering over mine like he wanted to kiss me, but had gotten distracted part of the way there. “I’m not sure, I just woke up with a weird feeling about it all. Like something is going to happen if I get on that plane.”
“Nothing is going to happen. We’re still going to be here, waiting for you to return to us,” I promised, closing the gap and pressing my lips to his.
Like always, Enzo completely melted under my touch.
“Okay,” he said, his voice rough with desire once we broke free of each other. “But you two do have to get up. I’d rather get to the airport early just in case my flight gets moved.”
Leith groaned from behind me. “Enzo, your flight doesn’t leave for four hours.”
“I like to be prepared,” Enzo sniffed defensively. “Never know how long the TSA security check will take and I’d rather get to my gate and wait than miss my flight.”
In the nearly ten years that I’d known the alpha, his pre-punctuality at airports was something that hadn’t, and probably would never, change.
“Fine.” I sat up in between them and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Let’s get on with it then.”
Crawling down the center of the bed, I very nearly stepped on Lucky who was on the floor snoring.
“I swear, for a failed seeing eye dog you really know how to get in the way,” I grumbled down to him, nudging him out of the way with my foot.
The golden retriever let out a huff and rolled to his feet, taking his sweet time to stretch before leaving the room.
Enzo was already up and getting out of the bed behind me by the time I made it out and he pressed a kiss to the side of my head as he passed. “I’ll get breakfast started, you get that one up and out of bed so we can leave.”
Turning, I found Leith with what looked to my blurry eyes to be the pillow over his face.
Giving his big toe a little pinch, I grinned down at him. “Come on you giant, let’s get up and ready. If you hurry you can shower with me.”
That got him up and out of bed, his arms wrapping around me as he lifted me clean off my feet.
“You don’t need to ask me twice,” he growled into my ear and walked the both of us to the bathroom for a much needed shower.
I just hoped that it made me feel better, though judging by the itch under my skin I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn’t do a thing.
“You guys look so much better today!” Eli shouted his encouragement from the sideline as we skated through the routine that was quickly becoming burned into my muscle memory.
It had been three days since Enzo left for California and my worries about my heat were growing by the day. I was sure even Ciara was starting to pick up on it as we came together and spun until we were face-to-face.
“Are you all right?” she asked, her voice tight as she seemed to catch my scent in the air.
Apparently, the suppressants I’d taken this morning were no longer effective.
And this is why you don’t take expired meds, Artie,I thought to myself as I nodded. “I’m just fine, now focus.”
Pushing away from each other, we skated in a wide circle as Ciara became more of a blur the further away she got from me.
But I knew, deep in my gut, that she would put herself where she needed to be when the time came.
After that first day, she’d shifted her skating style entirely to make up for my vision impairment and let me lead.
That meant that I needed to be on it 100%, but right now I was struggling as my skin seemed to feel like it was about to crack and peel away from my body at any given moment.
Every day when Leith dropped me off, he dropped his nose to my neck to check my scent, and every day I could feel his frown deepen at the strangeness of it.
I know I shouldn’t have been using suppressants to manage my heat—especially not when I had two very handsome alphas to help me—but just the thought of losing any more time with Ciara made my inner omega panic.
After realizing how far behind I was falling with her, I didn’t want to miss any of our practices.
But gods did she smell amazing right now as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and tucked my nose into the hollow behind her ear.
The move was definitely in our choreography, but the gratuitous inhale I took of her cinnamon scent was not.
Even the presence of the other alpha’s scent didn’t bother me as much now that my instincts seemed to be driving the proverbial bus.
As her fingers slid along my arm, again all part of our routine, my insides cramped and I let out a breath tinged with a moan.
Ciara’s head jerked up and around as we moved into the footwork portion of the choreo.
I couldn’t clearly see her expression, but I knew it had to be worried judging by the way her dark brows drew together.
Ignoring her, I focused on my skating. I could make it through this practice and I would—heat be damned.
But by the time the music faded, my entire world felt dizzy with waves of heat as I wobbled on my way to the exit.
“Artie—” Ciara’s voice came from behind me but I waved her off, too busy focusing on the twisting of my insides to try and come up with an excuse.
Eli didn’t even try to stop me as I pulled off my skates as quickly as possible and shoved them into my bag without the guards on.
I nearly forgot about Charm who’d been dutifully waiting for me as I gathered my things and it took a nudge to the thigh from her to finally grip her harness.
It was stupid of me to come out today and I already knew I was going to get an earful from Leith and eventually Enzo about lying about my heat… but right now I just needed a cool shower.
Stumbling into the bathroom I dropped everything on the ground and stripped out of my clothing as quickly as possible, turning the water on as cold as I could stand it.
Charm’s concerned whine filled my ears as I stepped under the icy spray with a hiss and I swore steam rose from my skin as I let the water rain down across my shoulders and back.
“I’m ok, I’m ok, I’m ok,” I muttered and I wasn’t sure if I was reassuring the dog or myself as another wave of cramps nearly sent me to my knees.
It was no longer that I was heading toward my heat, I hazily realized with a moan that echoed off of the tile walls of the changing room, but that I was in a full-blown estrus with neither of my alphas nearby.
I hadn’t gone through a heat on my own since I was eighteen years old and just the thought of it made my breathing turn ragged with panic.
And then the door to the changing room opened, making me realize that I’d never locked it in my rush to the shower.
“Artie? Are you all right? I heard you cry out.” Ciara’s voice was music to my ears as she stepped inside. I could hear the exact moment she caught sight of me leaning against the wall because she let out a gasp that filled the room. “Oh, shit, sorry Artie I’ll go—”
“Wait!” Turning, I reached for her and snagged her hand, half-dragging her into the water with me.
“You’re in heat!” Ciara’s words were laced with a mixture of shock, and much to my inner omega’s delight, desire.
Cinnamon filled my nose so potently that I nearly slammed my mouth into hers, but I was still torn between begging her to help me with my heat or having her run to get Leith.
As if reading my mind, Ciara gave her arm a little tug. “Let me go and get Leith, he can help you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want him right now, I want you.”
The confession hung in the air so heavily between us that I nearly wished I could take it back.
“… Artie…” she began and I was afraid I was about to be rejected when I was at my most vulnerable. “Are you sure you want me? It’s not just biological chemistry needing any alpha that happens to be nearby?”
I shook my head back and forth so hard it nearly tipped me off balance. “No. I’ve wanted you long before today and you know it.”
Enzo had finally told us about his conversation with Ciara during her run—the one where he told her to turn us down if we asked her out.
She’d known exactly how I felt thanks to his loose lips and hadn’t acted on it.
It’d been a mindfuck for me to be skating with her every day, knowing how I felt and maybe thinking she felt the same, while never being able to act on it.
And she’d know the entire time that I liked her. That the connection I felt had started to go beyond just liking her scent or the way she skated.
Ciara had seen past all of the things that my packmates were worried about straight to the crux of my desire to keep skating. She’d found a way for me to do that by sacrificing her own needs and wants.
Anyone would be absolutely insane to not love her.
“I’m worried that doing this will ruin everything—” Ciara began but I cut her off, finally giving into the urge to slam my mouth into hers.
She tasted just as good as I imagined she would and her mouth resisted mine for a moment before I felt her shoulders sink, her hands coming up to cup my wet face.
“We can worry about all of that later,” I said, blinking away the water in my eyes and squinting at her to try and gauge her expression, but failing entirely. “Ciara?”
Then she nodded as her lips found mine again and she stepped with me into the shower, a noise slipping out of her mouth as she realized just how cold the water was.
“Christ, Artie, are you trying to freeze yourself to death?” Reaching behind me, she turned the temperature up and the sudden change made my skin prickle as sensation returned to it.
“It was helping,” I mumbled as the numbness that I’d managed to create began to fade and with it my perfume returned in earnest making both of us gasp. “See?”
Ciara’s hands slid down my chest and over my puckered nipples, drawing a needy noise out of me when she pulled them away.
I reached for her but her words stopped me. “Just give me a second to get out of these clothes and then I’ll give you what you need.”
And just like that the haze of my heat returned full force and I was lost to it as the sound of Ciara’s wet clothes hitting the tile of the shower floor filled my ears.