Page 128 of Alpha Mates

“And it isn’t an option,” he declares, stepping towards me. “We’re staying together. We’ve done all of this together, and that’s not changing.”

My heart flutters, pattering a new tune in his name that makes it that much harder to breathe.

“I know,” I say, while I try to think past the excitement his words stir in me. “We can barely stay apart for a school day. There’s no way we’d make it two weeks, and that’s two weeks if we’re lucky.”

His shoulders relax at that, but it’s not long until he’s pacing again.

“We can’t ignore it,” I continue, leaning against the counter. “Clearly, we’re already slipping under its influence, and the longer it goes on, the worse it’ll get.”

“So then, what?” he asks as he stops to face me. “What do you think we should do?”

It’s my turn to stiffen.

So far, the panic of potentially being in the middle of a heat had kept me from thinking about it properly. But with Aiden’s expectant gaze pinned on me, I don’t have that luxury anymore.

I face it as a problem, because problems—I can solve.

The first step is treating this as if we’re in both a heatanda rut, because while they’re similar, there are distinctions we can’t afford to ignore.

Heats, in the simplest of terms, are a hormonal shift that encourage wolves to mate. A werewolf’s more primal instincts surface and remain at the forefront until mate bites are shared and the bond is completed, or it runs its natural course. Ruts are practically the same for alphas, only they don’t end until the alpha mates the omega that triggered it.

Assuming our bodies decided the other was our omega, and Aiden and I were in a rut, it wouldn’t end until we completed our mate bond. If it was a heat, then our desires for one another would only grow until we completed the bond anyway or endured it for long enough that it passed.

There were, of course, strange one-offs recorded; a beta in heat, an alpha in a rut without an omega. An alpha and a human going into heat was supposed to be the worst possible pairing, but this—two alphas in heat—sounds far worse to me.

“We only have one option,” I say when the conclusion settles in my mind.

“Which is?” Aiden encourages as he watches my mind churn.

“It’s pretty simple, really. Heats spawn between mates who haven’t mated yet, and a rut doesn’t stop until the bond is completed, so we do that before it’s out of our hands. We mate.”

It’s not until after I’ve said the words so casually and look up to see a shocked Aiden staring at me, that I realise the weight of what I’ve just said.

‘We mate,’ as in, Aiden and I should have sex.

“It’s the only option,” I defend as all the blood in my body rushes into my face. “It’s coming one way or another, and at least this way, it’ll be on our terms.”

“I don’t want to rush things,” he says, now struggling as much as me to maintain eye contact. “We’re still figuring things out.”

“I know, but we don’t really have a choice,” I reply with a nonchalant shrug that the quiver in my throat mocks. “We both know we can’t wait it out. If we try, nature will take its course, and we’ll end up so delirious, we probably won’t even remember mating when it does happen. Not to mention, we might end up hurting each other in the process, and that’s the last thing I want. Doing it before is better, right?”

“Yeah, but,” Aiden starts, then exhales, letting his head fall. “Why is there always something? If it’s not one thing, then it’s another.”

“Because that’s life,” I say, standing and moving into his space. I put my hand on his shoulder before I rest my chin on it. “Something would be wrong if everything was perfect all the time.”

“I call bullshit,” he retorts, and I snort.

“I call bullshit too,” I mumble as I lean into him, pressing our heads together. The next breath we take is an easier one.

Outside the obvious reasons, contending with a heat now feels like a kick in the teeth on top of everything else. We’ve only just become alphas and somehow, we’ve gotten to a point of actually liking each other as mates, but that doesn’t mean we’re at the point of mating.

Sure, it’s where we’re heading, but this speeds up our timeline by light years without giving us the courtesy of an out.

“Do we tell the pack?” Aiden asks only to shake his head. “No, we can’t. Whether we call it a rut or heat, it’ll either confuse them or cause them to doubt our bond.”

“I agree,” I say softly, and he sighs again.

“So, we complete the mating bond soon, and don’t tell anyone about the heat,” Aiden concludes. “We mate.”