Page 125 of Slow Heat

Rosen stepped and pulled Vale up off the ground, supporting him when he stumbled on shaking legs. “You’re weak as a baby right now. Besides, someone’s going to help you.”

“No.” Vale shoved against Rosen. “No one can help,” he slurred. “Only Jason. And he won’t come. I made sure of that.”

“Well, that’s for Jason to decide, isn’t it?” Rosen tugged Vale toward the stairs, and he considered resisting. But his muscles were sore from the makeshift nest on the floor and he felt filthy already, covered in sweat and slick.

“He did decide,” Vale pointed out. “He didn’t come after me.”

Rosen sighed. “Come on, Vale. Help me out here. You’re heavy.”

Giving in to Rosen’s determined manhandling, Vale decided a shower would feel delicious. And then, if he was lucky, he’d have time to reason with Rosen before the next wave came on, and before whomever he’d enlisted showed up.

Dizzily, he let Rosen guide him up two flights to the bathroom in the hallway outside his bedroom, and then Rosen steered him under the warmth of the already-running shower. He moaned and leaned against the tiles, shaking in exhaustion, letting Rosen soap him up and wash away the grime.

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Rosen whispered. “You’re in pain.”

“I’d forgotten,” Vale admitted. “I’ve had Urho for too long now. It was dulled in my memory. I thought I just needed to be brave, but, wolf-god, Rosen, it’s beyond endurance.”

“I know.”

He let Rosen wash his hair. “My omega friends who’ve given birth. They say it’s the same. The mind forgets the agony.”

Rosen smiled gently, taking time with the rinsing. “I take back what I said that day in my studio. I’m not sure any child is worth all this suffering.”

Vale enjoyed the pampering, but then the prickling sensation started under his skin and spread deep into his muscles. It was coming back again all too soon. “Rosen, it’s time. Help me.”

Quickly Rosen grabbed a towel, and then dried him off before leading him, protesting feebly, toward his bedroom. “You have to get me into the basement,” he whimpered.

“No, you deserve a bed, Vale.”

Rosen maneuvered him onto the soft, cool blanket covering the mattress.

“I don’t want Urho,” Vale muttered and Rosen ran a hand through his hair.

“I know, darling. You won’t have him. But you’ll have someone, all right?”

Vale didn’t know what Rosen was talking about anymore. The bed under his back was soothing but nothing could obscure the burn rising forcefully inside. He whimpered and threw his head back. “I need Jason,” he said, voice clogged with tears.

“Jason’s right here,” Rosen said gently.

And then, somehow he was.

Blinking wetly, Vale reached for the tall, naked boy exiting his bathroom. He gasped at the sight of Jason’s hard cock pointed right at him, and his tear-swollen, bruised face.

As the heat gripped Vale hard, he moaned, “Darling, you came.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

After Jason hadcalled Xan, he’d told Urho where he was going.

Father was too distraught over Pater to notice Jason’s absence, and Urho could explain it all to him later when the danger had passed.Ifthe danger passed. That was yet to be determined.

After that, he’d taken a handful of alpha quell and stuffed more in his pockets. He’d need to be in control.

Racing to Vale’s house, the people on the sidewalks made way when they saw him coming. Images of all he’d seen that day played through his mind. He never wanted children. No matter what. Not after that. It wasn’t worththatat any price. He’dnevertake a surrogate, and he didn’t care what Vale had done in the past. So long as Vale was safe now. Safe and not hurting. Which was Jason’s job. To make sure Vale didn’t have to hurt anymore.

He was out of breath and sweating when he arrived at Vale’s. He hoped Xan had made it to his house half as fast. His pater needed blood and Jason’s photographic memory hadn’t let him down when it mattered most. As he’d been desperately casting about for a solution, he’d remembered sitting next to Xan in biology class two years prior, both of them pricking their fingers, and scribbling down the test results. Wolf 3—that was what Xan had written. And Wolf 3 was what Pater needed now.

Xan had been sleeping off his liquor but he’d agreed to come over immediately when Jason told him the situation. Hopefully he’d gotten there in time. Part of him wanted to call his house and make sure, but a bigger part knew he couldn’t control what was happening there. His duty was here with Vale. His pater was in good hands with Urho. Jason trusted him to do what needed to be done, even if it meant standing in the street and waving down drivers until he found one with Wolf 3 blood to volunteer.