Page 16 of In the Mouth of the Wolf

She had addressed me, and her tone wasn’t dripping with acid. I took a deep breath. This could go well; I just needed to cool it.

“Because he is one. Archer works at UW Eau Claire.”

Her eyes lit up, and she turned back to Archer. I quelled the beast inside me that wanted to wrestle for her attention.Sharing is caring.

“You are? That’s so cool. Which department?”

Archer gave me a smug smile and then looked back at our omega. “Biology,” he answered.

She laughed, and the sound sent a wave of pleasure down my spine. Damn, I wanted to make her laugh like that for me.

“I should have guessed with the way you were talking about shifters. It was a very biological approach. You know, if they were actually real.”

Archer cocked an eyebrow and leaned forward. “We are very much real, Marlowe.” His voice was so deep and sultry it was almost turningmeon. “Have you noticed since you arrived this morning how much stronger your sense of smell has become? How you’ve picked up on scents that seem to attract and entice you from certain males? How you’ve been eliciting strange reactions from the males around you?”

Marlowe glanced between the two of us nervously, taking a sip of her drink. Her sweet perfume coated the air and Archer and I both shuddered.

“Baby,” I whispered. “We can tell how turned on you are, and it’s killing us.”

She looked at Archer with shock on her face, waiting for him to disagree or tell me off but instead he nodded. “Has your appetite increased? Do you feel flushed? Aroused?”

Marlowe’s jaw dropped open and she quickly crossed her legs. What I wouldn’t give to feel the way they wrapped around my head...

“Do you take any special pills, Marlowe?” he asked quietly.

“Just birth control,” she whimpered. “But I forgot them at home.”

Archer and I looked at each other and both swore. “She could go into heat by the morning. We need to get her out of here,” he said.

“On it.” I took out my phone and headed towards the hall near the bathrooms, where it was a little more private. I flagged down the waitress on the way and told her I wanted my order to go while the phone rang.

“Hey Cam, what’s up?”

“We’re headed to my cabin. Meet us there.”

“Are you kidding me? In this weather? Dude, I finally finished coordinating all the snowplows and road closures. I’m in my sweats, I’m ready to call it a night, and I don’t really feel like risking my life just so you can get plastered and snowed in.”

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my volume low and out of earshot from any opportunistic alphas who could hear me from the bar. “Linden’s daughter is here and she’s about to go into heat. She needs a safe place and safe alphas.”

“Heat? Wait, she’s…”

“Yeah.”

He paused, letting the news sink in. “Holy shit, are you sure?”

“Yes!” I said louder. “But she’s not ready. This isn’t… this isn’t that kind of heat, and she doesn’t need that kind of help.”

I heard a rustling of fabric as he got dressed, switching to speaker phone. “Look, I’m not going to be mad just because I can’t get my knot wet, but what do you mean she isn’t ready? How old is she? Because if she’s like eighteen, I don’t really feel comfortable…”

“Gross, she’s twenty-six, you pervert.”

I heard him scoff, his voice muffled as he responded, “Wait, how does that makemethe pervert?”

“Anyway,” I continued, “it’s a long story. We can tell you when we get up there.”

Yeah, I was a little disappointed I couldn’t get my knot wet either, but I was mostly worried. Marlowe didn’t even know what she was, and she’d likely been on hormone suppressants her whole life. Or at least since puberty. She had no idea what was coming for her, and honestly, I was afraid of how we would all react, too. It had been hard enough keeping my hands off her this morning when she hated my guts, but in the middle of her first heat, when she was begging for someone to fuck her? I didn’t think even Archer was prim enough to withstand that.

But we had to try. And even if we failed, at least it was us and us alone. If any other pack got a sniff of her here, it could be a bloodbath.

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