Heat licked at my skin. White hot desire pooled at my entrance, making me feverish with pure unadulterated need. I badly wanted Alex… scratch that. I needed Alex like I needed my next breath. He had placed me on the bed before disappearing into the bathroom, saying something about running a bath for me.
Who cares about bathing right now? I inwardly growled as I began to undress, my clothes suffocating me.
Despite the need burning within me, I couldn’t help but wonder how I could go into heat so abruptly. It didn’t make sense, and I wanted to know what was going on. How could I go into heat when I had yet to meet my mate? Surely if I had met him, he would have acknowledged my existence one way or another, no matter if I was unable to feel the bond myself… right?
“Alex,” I croaked out his name the moment he appeared next to me as I struggled to get my pants off me. “What’s going on?”
“A female goes into heat within three months of meeting her mate, love,” he said simply, his eyes soft on me, and yet hungry at the same time.
I let out a meek “I know” in response in between pants.
Then, without saying a word more, he carried me to the bathroom and placed me in the tub. The cold water did help ease some of the heat but I knew it was nothing but a temporary solution.
I had not gotten rid of the pain, of the need, but I had a mind that was clear enough to hold a conversation.
“Did my mate reject me?” I asked in a weak tone of voice, not meeting Alex’s eyes.
I wondered how much he knew about my situation.
“No! What made you think that?” His response was almost instantaneous.
“Well, I have yet to meet someone who claimed me as his,” I let out softly, holding back the tears.
He sighed loudly at that before saying in a soft tone, “I did, love. Many times. You just thought that it was the passion talking each time…”
“What?” I all but shrieked at him, turning to glare at the man. “You? You’re my mate?”
He nodded at me.
“How could you keep this from me?” Tears spilled and I didn’t bother wiping them away.
He sighed deeply one more time. “I didn’t want to tell you and force you into it, seeing as you couldn’t feel the bond, the sparks, anything really.”
“You toyed with my feelings,” I said accusingly, sniffling. “I had the right to know.”
“I never toyed with your feelings, love. I was always upfront with you, possessive of you, protective too. You just didn’t manage to see the truth the way everybody saw it.”
“Many pack members call me the alpha’s slut, others the alpha’s possession… what ever did they see? Is that any way to treat your luna? Or do you want to reject me?”
I wasn’t making much sense and I knew it… but I was beyond angry.
And the heat. God, the heat was driving me crazy. The water was no longer helping my case.
“You should know by now that I don’t want to reject you. If I didn’t keep trying to coax you to love me the way I do you, I wouldn’t have become snappish.”
“Huh?” I tilted my head to the side in puzzlement.
He reached out a hand to touch my cheek softly, and I leaned into his touch despite everything. “A werewolf that’s been denied his mate, an alpha no less, can only become grumpier the more time passes.”
“Alex,” I called out breathlessly.
“Yes, love?” He kept caressing my face lovingly, and although it helped, it wasn’t enough.
“I’m angry at you,” I told him flatly and he nodded in understanding. “But I’m in heat still… Touch me please.”
“You don’t have to beg, Jade,” he said in earnest. “It is my duty to take care of you.”
And boy did he take care of me!
After getting me out of the bath tub, he took me to the bedroom, where he peeled my undergarments off my body and then placed me on the bed.
He soon enough undressed, down to his boxers, and then laid next to me.
“How far do you want to go?” He asked.
I was almost taken aback by that. Sure, I was angry with him, but at the end of the day, he was my mate. And I was in heat, but he was still considerate enough to ask me what I wanted to do, and what my hard lines were.
“I don’t want to cross any forbidden boundary and have you hate me, love,” he admitted sotto voce.
Tears stung my eyes at that. I didn’t deserve this man.
“Whatever’s needed to take care of this damned heat,” I retorted breathlessly as I snuggled into his arms. He held me even closer if that was possible. “I’m going to say no to marking though.”
“I understand,” he said simply, although I sensed pain behind his words somehow.
Werewolves took pride in taking care of their mates during their heat. That being said, most were already mated by the time the female’s first heat struck, and weren’t confronted to my dilemma.
I wasn’t punishing Alex by denying him the ultimate pleasure of marking me, but I wanted it to be special. I wanted us to have our wits together when we marked one another, and to keep the best memory of it.
I was about to tell him so when his mouth descended on mine in a ravenous kiss. Feverish caresses followed the hungry kiss, and it wasn’t long before he was claiming me in the most primal way known to man, our bodies moving in unison in a dance as old as time itself.
Deep inside, I was happy my first time was with him, my alpha, my mate. But that didn’t make me any less disheartened at the circumstances. It almost felt like we were forced to mate because of the heat… admittedly, we were always passionate about one another, but I had always shied away from the ultimate level of intimacy. My heat had taken care of all my inhibitions.
I vaguely wondered what the future had in store for us, right before I was consumed by darkness, blissfully spent as I was.