Page 76

We all come, one after the other, each orgasm detonating the next. We surge together, as if we are borne up on those white wings, as if our pleasure is crowding out the horizon.

We surge and break and surge and break and surge andbreak.

And then we feel something tip over into Lotus.

She collapses into a spot in the bed between all of us, and we all arrange ourselves, exhausted. Is the heat over?

How long has it been?

Doesn’t matter.

Sleep is a warm, dark enclave tugging down on me, on all of us. I surrender to rest.

Dreamless and good, it engulfs me.

Some time later, I wake up. Calix is shaking me.

I blink at him, bleary-eyed.

“We need to eat,” he says to me, gesturing with his head towards the kitchen part of the suite where we’re staying.

Yeah, I’m hungry.

“We should try to get her to eat, too,” he says, getting off the bed and leaving the bedroom.

I get up to follow him.

“But it’ll depend on how horny she is when she wakes up. The heat tends to override appetite, but it’s important thatalphas keep up with that. At the very least, she needs to stay hydrated.” His voice carries from outside of the room.

I catch up with him in the kitchen, where he’s pulling more of those pre-made meals out of the fridge.

“We’re running out,” he says. “I’m going to go down to the front desk and see if I can get more sent up. Can you heat things up and wake the others?”

“I can,” I say. “Is this how you do it in the Polloi?”

He nods. “Yeah. Alphas have to be the caregivers during heats, that’s what we learn.”

I nod.

“You good here?” He points. “I’m going to head down to the front desk.”

“Should I wake up Lotus?”

“No, let her sleep, but if she wakes up, try to get her to eat,” he says, turning and heading out.

“Hey,” I call after him.

“What?” He pauses, but he stays where he is, not walking back over to me.

“Why’s it feel different than, um, the frenzy?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “Does it really feel different?”

“It…” It does. I know it does. But there is some tendril of it that is the same.

“Let’s think about this later, huh, Striker? Let’s just get through this?”

“Yeah, sure,” I say.