Three cups of tea and countless pages of parchment later, my head was swimming with information.
It had been hours.
I’d watched the sun start to set in the window across from where I sat.
“How are we doing?” Xavier asked, walking into the room.
“Good, I think,” I said, peeling my eyes from the pages of the book. “I’m still on the same book I started with, though.”
He smiled. “Don’t be disappointed, you’re more than welcome to take the books to read on your own time.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I only planned on reading a page or two more before I came across a very interesting subject.
“What is Heat?” I asked Xavier.
“Heat?” He asked.
I nodded.
“Well, I don’t know the exact science behind it,” he said. “But I believe it has something to do with the pheromones put out by your wolf on certain nights when the moon is full. There’s a science behind it, I’m sure. I just never bothered to learn it.”
“What does it do?” I asked.
“Well, the way I understand it, Heat is your wolf’s way of basically making you consummate your relationship with your mate,” he said. “If you know what I mean..”
“Your wolf makes you have sex with your mate?” I asked.
This didn’t sound good.
“Yeah, but it only happens once you’ve been marked. That’s supposed to be the first step and then Heat is what comes up behind it and kind of drives it home,” Xavier explained.
He saw my eyes widen.
“Wait… you haven’t been marked yet, have you?” He asked.
I nodded. “Adam didn’t tell you about this?” Xavier asked.
I shook my head.
“I think I need to go talk to him,” I said, standing up.
Xavier nodded. “I think you do too.”
He grabbed me by my shoulders and made me look at him.
“Because tonight’s a full moon.”
Xavier led me down the hallway.
For an old man, he moved quickly. He moved with certainty, too I could imagine that Xavier probably knew every hallway and staircase by heart.
“Where do you think he is?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Xavier said, “I think he might be in his study. He has a lot of his meetings there.”
We were practically running down the steps to the second floor. Through the window, I could see the sun setting behind the mountains off in the distance.
We’ve got to hurry.
Once we reached the main entrance to the second floor, I could quickly tell there was a much heavier flow of traffic through that part of the castle than there was in the living quarters.
Men and women were walking everywhere. Xavier and I passed an office room where I saw people sitting at desks and staring at computer screens, some of them in engaged in heated telephone conversations.
“Who are those people?” I asked.
“That’s the communication department,” Xavier explained.
“Most of the people in that room can speak languages you and I have never even heard of. It’s how we keep in touch with others of our kind around the world. It’s also how we stay informed of other affairs.”
I raised an eyebrow at this, but continued to follow him down the bustling hallway. We came to one more hallway that everyone was walking right
past and Xavier stopped.
He gave a groan of frustration and threw his hands in the air.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They’re not going to let us in,” he said. “He’s probably in a meeting.”
I looked to where he gestured and saw two tall men guarding the only door on the hallway.
“They have to let us in!” I said walking over to them.
The two men stepped in front of me before I could reach the door.
“I need to go in,” I explained, “It’s urgent.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. We can’t let you in unless you have the proper documentation to access the Alpha Superior’s chambers during delegation processes.”
“What?” I asked incredulously. “I’m his mate! Is that not good enough?”
They didn’t answer me.
“Evelyn, they can’t let you in,” Xavier said, pulling me back. “No one is allowed into the Alpha’s chambers unless called upon to do so. Men who go in there otherwise have ended up dead.”
I yanked my arm out of his grasp. “It’s a good thing I’m not a man, then,” I said.
I ran towards the guards and, ducking under their arms, was able to slide in between them on the floor.
I pushed the door open quickly and ran inside.
“Evelyn!” Xavier shouted.
The guards quickly stopped him from running in behind me. I came face to face with a wall. To my left and right were both passages leading into different rooms.
But which one is he in?
l heard the guards coming after me so I ran to my left
This room looked like a library, a large desk sat in the middle of the room, but there was no one occupying it.
He’s not here.
I groaned loudly.
“Evelyn?”
I whipped around to see Adam standing in the entrance of a passageway I hadn’t seen when I came in.
I sighed in relief. Before I could say anything he stopped me.
“Are you here to finish me off, darling?” He asked. “I must say, if you are here to kill me, I hope you brought more than a bar of soap with you this time,” he said.
I rolled my eyes.
“I’m still pissed about that- and I’m not forgiving you any time soon- but we’ve got a bigger problem now,” I said.
His eyebrows furrowed Before I could explain further, the two guards came bounding out of the passage I’d run through.
They came to a halt when they saw Adam. Immediately, they kneeled.
“Your Highness, we tried to stop her but—”
Before the guard could finish Adam interrupted him.
“She’s fine. Leave,” he said waving his hand dismissively.
By the look on their faces, this clearly disturbed them, but they stood up and began to walk away.
“I need to talk to you,” I said.
“I gathered…” Adam said sarcastically, walking over to his desk.
“I’m going to go into Heat,” I said.
His head shot up and he looked at me with such intensity I thought I would melt.
“What?” He asked, walking over to me.
“Heat,” I repeated. “I’m going to go into Heat tonight because you claimed me- without my permission, I might add- and I need to figure out how I can stop it.”
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What?” I asked.
“Is that a shit ‘I-forgot-that-would-happen’ or a shit ‘I-didn’t-think-she’d-find-out’?”
“I didn’t realize tonight was a full moon,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“So you did know this would happen?!”
“Who told you this?” He asked, ignoring me.
“Your great uncle Xavier,” I answered.
“Unbelievable. So he’s finally climbed out of his hole?” Adam asked rhetorically. “What else has he told you?”
“That you’re two-hundred years old!” I exclaimed.
“But we’ll discuss that later. Right now we need to figure out what we’re going to do about this full moon, because I am not having sex with you.”
Adam gave me a fierce glare. “What? You’re saving yourself for someone special?” He asked sarcastically.
“Maybe I am!” I retorted. “And how would you know I’m saving myself? I might not be a virgin for all you know.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
I let out an aggravated groan.
“We need to fix this!” I said. “I’m not going into Heat.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he said, turning and walking back to his desk. “But it’s going to happen whether we want it to or not. There’s nothing we can do.”
Adam strolled over to his desk casually and sat down.
“I want to pound my fist against your head,” I said with a clenched jaw.
“And I want to pound you against that wall,” he said looking up from an open file and pointing at the wall behind me with his pen.
My jaw dropped.
All I could do was stare at him, speechless, and pray my face wasn’t as flustered as I was.
He did not just say that…
Adam gave me a smile. “You might want to run a cold bath. The sun should be setting at any time now,” he said.
“I’Il sleep somewhere else tonight so you can have the room to yourself- not that you’ll be sleeping- but
it would be best if I wasn’t there.”
“So you’re going to completely abandon ship?” I asked incredulously. “You caused this!”
Adam laid the file down on his desk and folded his hands.
“If it makes you feel any better,” he said, “I’ll be going into Heat as well for the first night. After that, well, then you’re really on your own.”
“How many times does it happen?” I asked, eyes wide.
“Almost every full moon until you decide you’re ready to get laid,” he said, standing up and walking around to lean against the front of his desk.
“And you only have to suffer through it once?” I asked in disbelief.
He laughed. “Once is all it takes for a male, we’re not the stubborn ones. Most females don’t last long though… it’s supposed to be more painful the longer you resist.”
“You’re just saying that,” I said crossing my arms.
He scoffed. “You’ll find out sooner or later. Until then, you might want to leave. Me and you against this desk is starting to sound like more and more of a good time.
I rolled my eyes and stormed off.
“And Evelyn…”
I turned to look at him.
“Keep the bedroom door locked tonight,” he warned.