Chapter 65: SECOND HEAT CYCLE part 1

ASHER

The pills worked for exactly six days. Six days of relief, six days where my scent stayed stable, six days where I could almost pretend everything was normal and then they failed.

I was sitting in Advanced Combat Theory when it started. One moment I was taking notes on pack dynamics. The next, heat was flooding through my system like a wildfire, fast and merciless and completely indifferent to the fact that I was sitting in a room full of Aphas.

My pen slipped from my fingers and I gripped the edge of my desk tightly. I pressed my back straight against the chair and told myself it was nothing, told myself the pills were still holding, told myself to keep writing but the heat didn’t care what I told myself.

It moved fast, faster than the first time, like it had been building pressure behind the suppressants for six days and now the wall had cracked and everything was rushing through at once. My skin went electric and the classroom air thickened until I couldn’t breathe it normally anymore, thirty students and chalk dust and someone’s coffee and underneath all of it, cutting through all of it, a pull in my chest so sharp it nearly bent me forward.

North… Reed was somewhere north of this building.

No. Not here. Not now.

I raised my hand. My voice came out steadier than I deserved. “Professor Williams? Can I use the bathroom?”

He waved me off without looking up. I quickly grabbed my bag, walked out slowly, and carefully, one foot in front of the other. The hallway was empty which made me happy, because they would have noticed the smell now coming out of my body. I made it to the nearest bathroom, locked myself in the far stall, and then the heat hit full force. I doubled over, gasping.

My whole body was on fire. Sweat soaked through my clothes in seconds. My legs buckled and the floor came up and I was on the cold tiles with both hands pressed over my mouth muffling sounds I couldn’t let anyone hear.

Slick was already coating my thighs. My scent was changing and I could smell it happening, sweet and warm and unmistakable, pouring off me in waves I had no way to stop.

Omega in heat.

The bond was pulling and demanding. The part of me that was wolf and instinct and everything I’d spent two years suppressing was screaming one name over and over.

Reed. Reed. Reed.

I fumbled for my phone with shaking hands.

Me: Reed

Me: help

Me: bathroom second floor science building

Me: heat

The phone slipped and I didn’t pick it up when Reed called because another wave had crashed through me, deeper than the last, and I curled tighter against the stall door and pressed my face into my knees.

“Please,” I whimpered into the empty bathroom. “Please, someone help—”

The door slammed open and the familiar smell shot through me.

“Asher?”

Reed’s voice hit me like the first breath after drowning and I sobbed before I could stop it, just once, the relief tearing out of me before I could catch it.

“Here,” I managed. “I’m here—”

Then I heard his footsteps, followed by the rattling of the stall door.

“Open the door.” His voice was strained in a way I’d never heard before. Tight at the edges and controlled but barely. “Asher. Open the door.”

I reached up, my fingers slipped twice before the lock finally turned and Reed yanked the door open and froze.

I was on the floor, my clothes soaked through, trembling violently, and my scent flooding the small space in waves that were getting stronger by the second. I watched Reed’s nostrils flare, I watched his eyes go wide and then dark, swallowed from edge to edge until there was nothing light left in them.

“Fuck,” Reed breathed. “Your heat — the pills—”

“Failed,” I gasped. “Reed, please. It hurts. I need—”

“I know what you need.” Reed crouched down in front of me. His hand came to my face, palm warm against my cheek, and the touch sent such a violent wave of relief through the bond that my eyes closed on their own. “Can you walk?”

“I don’t know—”

“Okay.” Something in his voice had gone very quiet and very certain. “I’m going to carry you. We need to get you somewhere safe before anyone else smells this.”

He got an arm under my knees and one at my back and lifted me like I weighed nothing, my bag over his shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face against his throat because his scent was the only thing making the pain even slightly bearable. The bond settled a fraction the moment I was against him, just enough to breathe.

“Hold on to me,” Reed said and I did, I held on to him like my life depended on him.

The walk across campus blurred, classes were between sessions and some students who had skipped their classes were outside. I felt every Alpha head turn as we passed, I felt them catch my scent and their attention sharpen, and Reed’s growl was continuous and low and his body angled outward like a wall between me and all of it.

He had my head pressed against his shoulder that no one would notice me or saw who he was carrying. Reed was keeping me safe and protecting my secret from others like he promised.

His scent was already wrapping around mine, mixing with it, claiming it, and one by one the eyes dropped away and nobody dared come close.

I didn’t know when we arrived at his room building, or how he climbed the stairs or even got to his room. All I heard was the sound of the door locked behind us and the curtains drawn and the world sealed completely out.

Reed laid me gently on his bed and stood back.

“Asher,” Reed’s voice was rough and strained. “I need you to look at me.” And I did, I forced my eyes open, and Reed was standing beside his bed. His hands clenched into a fidlst and both fists against his thighs, jaw tight, and his chest heaving. His eyes when they found mine were still mostly dark.

“My rut is responding to your heat,” Reed said, his voice low and careful, like every word was costing him. “I can already feel it starting and once it hits fully, I won’t be able to stop. I won’t be able to control myself. So if you don’t want this, if you want me to lock myself in the bathroom and let you ride this out alone please tell me now and I will respect it.” He said calmly.

His tone startled me, because the last time I was in heat, Reed never asked for permission, he took without thinking of what I was going through but this time he had taken permission and before I could respond another wave chose that moment to crash through me. I writhed against his sheets, fingers twisting into the fabric, a sound escaping my throat that I had no hope of stopping.

“Don’t leave me.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep