Page 10 of Heat Clickbait
"There's a kitchen annex," Blitz said, and I could hear him moving around the perimeter of the room, not entering the nest proper but orbiting like a satellite. "Fully stocked. We can make you anything you need without leaving."
They were explaining the features like this was a tech demo, like I was a potential buyer considering a purchase. The absurdity of it, standing around discussing smart home features while I was literally going into heat in this insanely luxurious nest should have been funny. Instead, it made me want to cry.
"You can adjust everything from inside the nest," Nova continued, and I heard him typing on what sounded like a tablet. "Temperature, lighting, sound, even the wall colors. We wanted?—"
"Stop." The word came out sharper than intended, cutting through their nervous explanations. I pushed myself up on shaking arms, hair falling in pink strands across my face. "Stop talking about it like I'm a guest. Like this is an Airbnb tour."
They all went silent, and in that silence, I could hear the sophisticated whisper of the air system, the subtle hum of technology designed to anticipate needs before they were voiced.
"I can't—" I started, then had to stop as another wave hit, this one bringing a fresh surge of wetness between my thighs that made me squeeze them together desperately. "I can't think when you're standing around the edges like that. Like you're afraid to come closer."
"We don't want to overwhelm you," Nova said carefully, but his control was cracking. I could see it in the way his hands kept clenching and unclenching, the way his pupils had blown so wide his eyes looked black.
"I'm already overwhelmed." The admission came out raw, honest. "I've been overwhelmed since the moment you shook my hand. Either come in here with me or leave, but stop hovering like you're waiting for permission to exist in your own space."
Crash moved first, naturally. He dropped into the nest with the kind of graceless enthusiasm that should have been jarring but instead felt perfect. His hair was completely wild, sticking up in every direction, and his clothes were wrinkled from the car ride. He smelled like energy drinks and rain and something electric that made my skin prickle.
"Thank fuck," he breathed, immediately stretching out on his stomach, propping his chin on his hands to look at me. "The hovering was killing me. Do you know how hard it is to be still when you smell like—" He cut himself off, color rising in his cheeks.
"Like what?" I found myself leaning toward him, drawn by that electric scent and his complete lack of pretense.
"Like everything we've been waiting for," Milo answered, and then he was in the nest too, moving with more grace than Crash but no less urgency. He settled cross-legged within arm's reach but not touching, his baker's hands folded carefully in his lap. This close, his scent wrapped around me, comfort food and warmth and home.
Ghost entered silently, of course. One moment the space beside me was empty, the next he was there, stretched out on his side, not touching but close enough that I could feel his body heat. He smelled like midnight and mysteries and something protective that made my hindbrain relax fractionally.
Blitz took position behind me, and even without looking, I could feel his presence like a wall of warmth at my back. His scent, ocean and coconut and strength, mixed with the others in a combination that should have been chaotic but instead felt complete.
Nova was the last to enter, and he did it with the same deliberate precision he probably brought to business negotiations. He settled directly in front of me, close enough that our knees almost touched, and the moment he was in position, something in the air shifted.
The pack was complete.
The nest was occupied.
The careful balance they'd maintained for months or years suddenly had a center point.
"This is insane," I whispered, but my body was already responding to their proximity, the heat that had been building settling into something deeper, more sustained. Not the sharp spikes of earlier but a steady burn that made my bones feel liquid.
"Completely insane," Nova agreed, and then his hand was reaching out, hovering an inch from my cheek, waiting.
I leaned into his palm, and the contact sent sparks down my spine. His skin was cooler than mine, and I pressed into that coolness desperately, chasing relief from the fever building in my blood.
"The walls," Blitz said quietly, and I turned to see him pointing at the subtle patterns worked into the gradient paint. "They're actually micro-textured. For sensory input during... intense experiences."
I reached out to touch the nearest wall, and sure enough, there were subtle ridges and whorls that created interesting sensations against hypersensitive fingertips. "You really thought of everything."
"We had a lot of time to think," Milo said, and there was something sad in his voice. "Months of preparing, imagining, wondering if we were crazy to be building something so elaborate for someone we might never meet."
"The ball pit was vetoed," Crash added mournfully, which startled a laugh out of me.
"You wanted to put a ball pit in a heat nest?"
"Sensory variety!" He defended, gesturing wildly. "Temperature play with the plastic spheres! It would have been revolutionary!"
"It would have been ridiculous," Nova said, but his voice held affection.
"Instead, I contributed the weighted blankets," Crash continued, suddenly moving, pulling various blankets from hidden compartments I hadn't noticed. "Every weight from five pounds to thirty. Different textures too. Everything from silk to fleece, to that cooling fabric athletes use."
He draped a fifteen-pound cooling blanket over my legs, and the pressure and temperature combination made me moan involuntarily. Every Alpha in the nest responded to that sound, shifting closer without seeming to realize they were doing it.
