Page 138 of Pack Frenzy
“Yeah.” My throat’s dry.
“It’s her heat?” he asks, cause as a Beta, he smells it too, but it doesn’t have the potent effect that it does on me as an Alpha.
A thin gold line of light bleeds under her door, striping the floor. I breathe through my mouth, counting the seconds, forcing my brain to think past instinct.
Cassian’s door opens next. His growl slides down the hall, low and dangerous. “That’s her.”
“I know.” I’m already knocking lightly on her door. “Let me check first.”
They don’t argue. Smart.
“Jess?”
Nothing.
Another second and I’m done waiting. I open the door.
She’s curled in the middle of a nest made from our shit—hoodies, flannels, even that stupid pirate flag near the lamp. Her skin’s flushed, damp. Pupils blown wide in the low light.
The look she gives me hits straight through my chest.
Dazed. Needy. Ours.
“Jess.” My voice comes out rough. “You’re in heat.”
Her breath catches—soft, desperate sound that shreds what’s left of my control. She shakes her head. Tiny movement.
“I can handle it,” she whispers.
Bullshit. Her scent’s screaming otherwise.
I take one step inside. Slow. “We’ve got you. But you let us do this right—understood?”
Her fingers twist in the fabric against her chest. The smallest nod.
Behind me, Eli’s voice—strained. “Rowan?”
“Stay at the door.” It comes out harsher than I mean. “Just—give me a minute.”
Because right now every part of me is fighting not to drop beside that nest and give her exactly what she’s asking for.
Not yet. Not until I know she’s clear-headed enough to choose it.
Even if waiting might kill me.
The room feels alive now—heat and scent and the faint rustle of her moving against fabric. She looks at me like I’m the only thing keeping her tethered.
I close the distance by another inch, keeping my tone steady. “Breathe for me, sweetheart.”
Her pupils track me, slow and glassy. She does as I ask, but her breath trembles. The hoodie she’s wearing—mine—is half off her shoulder, skin damp, pulse fluttering just under the curve of her throat.
“Good,” I murmur. “That’s it.”
The words are for her, but mostly they’re for me.
Eli’s still hovering in the doorway, torn between wanting to help and knowing better. Cassian’s low growl vibrates through the wall; he’s pacing, barely holding it together.
“She’s burning up,” Eli says.
