Chapter 22 Sharon
SHARON
Iwake up burning, and at first I think I'm dying.
My skin feels like it's been set on fire from the inside out.
Every nerve ending is screaming. My body is drenched in sweat, and the scent rolling off me is so thick I can practically taste it on my tongue.
It's not like the polite strawberry and honey scent I've been letting out since I arrived in Pine Hollow.
This is raw. This is primal. This is every omega pheromone I've been suppressing for years finally deciding to make an appearance all at once.
Oh god. Oh no. This is my heat.
Ever since I stopped taking my suppressants and just let myself be an actual person again, life has been a lot simpler. No more stressing over every little thing. No more walking around like a guilt-ridden time bomb because I thought Ben’s canceled wedding was somehow my cosmic fault.
"Guys," I whisper, my voice rough and desperate. The word barely makes it out before another wave crashes through me, and I can't help the small gasp that escapes. "Guys, I think I’m going into heat.”
Jett is awake instantly, his body responding to my distress faster than conscious thought could possibly work.
His alpha instincts are picking up on my panic, and I watch his entire body shift into protective mode.
His gray eyes snap open, and before I can say another word, his hand is on my forehead, checking my temperature.
"Sharon?" His voice is concerned, gentle, but there's an underlying note of something else. Something that smells like alpha arousal mixed with protective instinct. "You're burning up. Your fever is—Jesus, how long have you been awake?"
"Just now," I gasp as another wave hits. "I just woke up like this. I don't understand what's happening to me."
Pine and Cassian are awake within seconds, their sleep-foggy brains clearing immediately when they catch my scent. I watch their pupils dilate, watch their entire bodies go rigid with understanding. They can smell it. They know exactly what's happening to me.
"Your heat," Pine says, and his voice is rough in a way I've never heard before. He's swung his legs out of bed and is already moving, like his body won't let him stay still. "You're going into heat. A full heat."
"No," I say, panic rising in my throat like bile.
"No, this is not happening. Not now. Not this week.
The wedding is in two weeks, and I cannot be incapacitated for three to five days.
Tangle Peak is counting on me. Savannah just finally trusted me with something important and I cannot just disappear. "
Cassian is already reaching for his phone, his firefighter training kicking in despite the obvious arousal in his scent. "I'm calling Jessica. She needs to know what's happening."
"Tell her I'm sorry," I say, my body already shifting into something I can't control.
The heat is building, wave after wave of it, and my mind is starting to get foggy.
Everything feels simultaneously too tight and too loose.
My dress is somewhere on the floor, discarded at some point during the night.
Jett's t-shirt is clinging to me, soaked through with sweat that smells like my heat pheromones mixed with anxiety.
"Don't you dare apologize," Jett says firmly, his hands already moving to help me. "Sharon, listen to me. Your body doesn't give a fuck about weddings. Your body is doing what omega bodies do. You don't get to feel guilty about biology."
Pine is already on his phone, typing out a message with focused intensity. His jaw is clenched tight, and I can see the restraint it's taking for him to stay in control of himself. "Texting Jessica now. She needs to know what's happening so she can coordinate with Savannah."
"What should I tell her?" Pine asks, looking up from his phone.
"Tell her Sharon is in her heat and she's going to be incapacitated for at least three days," Cassian says, his tone brooking no argument. "Tell her we're taking care of her, so Jessica is in charge of the wedding logistics until Sharon is back on her feet."
Jett is helping me out of the wet shirt, and the cool air against my skin provides momentary relief before the heat surges back in stronger than before. My body is practically vibrating with need, with want, with something primal and demanding that I don't have words for.
"Let's get you to the shower," Pine says, setting his phone down after hitting send. "Cool water. It'll help."
But even as he's saying it, another wave hits, and I'm not thinking about showers. I'm thinking about the three of them. About how badly I need them to touch me.
"I don't want a shower," I say, and I'm hearing the need in my own voice. The desperation. The omega in me is clawing at the surface, demanding things that my human brain is still trying to process. "I want you. I want all of you."
"Are you sure?" Cassian asks, and his voice is strained.
His gray eyes are dark with something that looks like barely controlled arousal, but there's genuine concern there too.
"Sharon, your heat is going to make you want things.
We need to make sure you actually want this and you're not just responding to instinct. "
"I want this," I say with absolute certainty. "I've wanted this since the moment you walked into that office."
Jett moves closer, his movements careful and deliberate. He's treating me like I'm something delicate, something precious. His hand finds my face, and his thumb traces my cheekbone gently.
"We would never change our minds about you," he says softly. "Not during your heat. Not after. Not ever. You're ours, Sharon. You became ours the moment we helped you with your first heat. Then we knew.”
Pine is already stripping off his shirt, revealing the tattoos that cover his chest and shoulders. His scent is shifting, becoming more intense, more alpha, more ready. "Tell us exactly what you need. We're here for all of it."
"I need to feel you," I whisper. "All of you. I need to understand what it feels like to be wanted this badly. "
Cassian leans down. His lips part against mine, not gentle, but claiming.
His hands slide down my body with purpose.
He touches every inch of bare skin, memorizing the landscape of me.
His fingers trail over my ribs, lingering.
They move to my waist, pressing firmly. They explore my hips, gripping with possession.
His scent wraps around me. Cedar and smoke intensify until I can taste the woodsy flavor on my tongue.
Pine presses against my back, his chest radiating heat through my skin.
His hands find my waist, fingers splaying wide.
He pulls me closer, his erection hard against my lower back.
He presses his forehead against my shoulder, his breath hot and quick.
His lips find the exact junction between my neck and shoulder.
He breathes in deeply, his chest expanding against me, inhaling my scent like oxygen after suffocation.
"You smell so fucking good," he murmurs. His lips vibrate against my sensitive skin. "Like everything I have ever wanted. Like home."
Jett moves downward. His mouth starts at my collarbone. He kisses a deliberate path down my sternum. His tongue traces between my breasts. His hands spread my thighs carefully. His fingers press into the soft flesh, giving me time to adjust. His touch feels reverent, worshipful.
“I’m going to knot you," he says. He looks up from between my legs. His brown eyes darken with arousal, but show more. Affection glows there. Tenderness softens his gaze. Promise tightens his jaw. "You’re going to feel so good. And then the others are going to do the same. Are you ready for that?"
"Yes," I moan, the word stretching long in my throat. "Please, yes. I need it so badly."
He enters me with excruciating slowness.
My body welcomes him like it has waited for this exact moment.
The stretch feels significant, my inner walls expanding around his thickness.
My heat has prepared me for this, has been preparing me for weeks without my conscious knowledge.
He fills me completely. The sensation overwhelms me so intensely that I press my face against Cassian's shoulder to muffle my scream.
The feeling of him inside me defies description. Every nerve ending in my body awakens with purpose. My muscles tighten around his cock instinctively. They draw him deeper inside me. They welcome him like he belongs there. Because he does. My body recognizes him as pack, as alpha, as mine.
Cassian's hands are stroking my hair, his touch grounding me to something solid. "That's it," he whispers. "Let yourself have this. You deserve this."
Jett moves inside me with careful intention, not trying to rush toward the finish line but instead making sure I feel every inch of him.
My body responds immediately, muscles rippling around him, drawing him deeper.
The knot starts to form, swelling at the base, and I understand now why alphas and omegas have been chasing this feeling since the beginning of time.
It's overwhelming. It's consuming. It's exactly what my body has been demanding.
"That's it, take it," Jett says, his voice rough with effort. "You're so perfect. So perfect for us. So perfect for me."
His knot locks, and the sensation is indescribable.
It's pleasure and connection and completion all at once.
My body climaxes around him, muscles contracting, and I'm crying out his name.
The orgasm washes through me in waves, each one bigger than the last, each one leaving me more satisfied and hungry for more.
Jett comes inside me, and I feel it. I feel the warmth of him, the rightness of him, the way his knot keeps him locked inside me as his body empties into mine. His forehead rests against my shoulder, and he's breathing hard, his entire body shaking with the intensity of what just happened.