Page 48 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Briar

I’d made a very big mistake.

Leaving town in a rush without saying goodbye properly to my mother.

The first was stopping into a chemist in the next town to fill the script for the heat suppressants Riley had sent me and popping a few on the drive.

Anger got me halfway home before the cramps started.

My body felt heavy and my hands clammy as I clung to the steering wheel.

The empty fields and rolling hills changed colour as a red haze filled my field of vision.

Turn around, my body insisted, replaying the disastrous alpha trial and seeing it in a whole other light.

Beta women apparently were more attracted to angular features and male aggression when they were ovulating.

Well, I understood that on a cellular level right now.

Every brutal takedown was evidence of just how savagely my mates would protect me and any young we might have.

Those bright silver eyes, those snarls, would soften as they walked across a field littered with their enemies’ bodies and towards me.

Gods, hormones were stupid.

Home, I insisted, showing the wolf and my overheated brain my bed and my nest. Demonstrating just how carefully I’d rebuild my nest, ensuring only the softest fabrics touched my skin was enough to buy me a little time, but pulling up outside my apartment block had me staggering towards the lifts.

Tapping my fob against the security system, the whirr of the elevator up to my floor, it all took way too long.

My key tap, tap, tapped at my front door lock, before I shoved it in, the front door swinging open.

Home.

Clothes were torn off, the sweaty fabric sucking at my clammy skin like a lover that wouldn’t quit, but with a snarl, I tore them off.

The air was warm, stale, close, and I slapped the air conditioner on before running into my room.

With shaking hands, I dropped to my knees, pulling sex toys from the drawer beside my bed and setting them down by my nest.

Some beta had decided that people wanted their own version of big fluffy dog beds, and Candy had bought me one for a joke.

It was actually the perfect thing, the plush surface caressing my skin, forcing me to hiss as I went to work.

Nesting materials were kept in a basket beside it.

They spilled out as I dragged it down. Butter soft cottons and jerseys, the silken slip of satins, I wove them into a circle within the fluffy bed’s confines, yet it didn’t give me the kind of relief it usually did.

Because every other heat, I conjured shadowy alphas that watched my every move, a smile of satisfaction on their lips.

Now I had actual faces to put to them. That sandalwood and citrus scent of my candles reminded me of my mates, and that had my thighs rubbing together.

Without even preliminaries, I grabbed a dildo, easing it inside with a hiss, the knot rubbing at my entrance.

Usually it took me a few orgasms to get it in, but there was no time.

A tide I didn’t understand rose inside me, forcing it in.

Only to have the world’s worst orgasm. Tears in my eyes, the pleasure hurt as much as it pleased.

No, more. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The wolf noted the synthetic stink of the silicone, the way it wobbled completely unnaturally.

She’d allowed me my substitutes before, but not now.

As she panted inside my mind, she made clear what I actually needed.

And would never have.

I ground down, managing another orgasm, then another, and when I was panting through the aftermath, I found my phone in my clothes.

Tapping out a quick message to Emma, I let her know I was home and would be MIA for a few days.

That the launch was cancelled, but I’d talk to her about it when I was in a better mental space.

I tossed the phone down again, feeling the aches start up again.

When I was this deep in my body’s responses, time seemed to stop.

There was only now. The buzz of my phone felt like it came seconds later, the screen lighting up, but when I looked at it and saw a number I didn’t know, I noted it was the next morning.

I didn’t mean to tap on it, my thumb sliding feverishly across the screen and hitting the green icon, not the red.

Shame had my cheeks flushing. Whoever was on the other end would hear my frantic pants.

I scrabbled for my phone, having dropped it into my nest, when a tinny voice had me going still.

“Briar.” The tiny speaker wasn’t up to the job of conveying the richness, the depth of Mads’ voice.

“Sweetheart, there’s so much I need to tell you, but…

Right now, it’s that we’re here to help you.

” I made an inarticulate sound, the only one that could convey what I was going through.

“We’re just downstairs. You let us up there and you don’t have to hurt anymore. ”

There was so much to their words, a flicker of memories that rose up, insisting I consider them, but instead I forced myself to stagger over to the intercom. My finger pressed down on the button that allowed visitors inside the foyer.

“Have to take the stairs…” I groaned. “Floor 12, apartment 4.”

“On our way.”

My phone clattered across the floor as my heat bit harder. I thought I was suffering before, but now what was left of me was burned away. Instinct pummelled me like a prize-fighter, battering what was left of my defences, so when I heard a knock on the door, I wrenched it open completely naked.

“Fuck…”

Jace’s eyes on me, Mads standing in the doorway, then Gideon pushing past, closing it firmly, that was what I needed. His hand didn’t sweep down my body, provoking more and more pleasure. Instead, his hand went to my forehead, snatching it back when he felt it.

“Overheating,” he snapped. “Turn the temperature down, then we need to get her in a cold bath.”

“No!”

There was only one thing that would ease this heat, and it wasn’t what would come rushing out of my taps. Slick splattered my thighs, making sure I was ready, wet for this. My grip on Gideon was like iron as I dragged him over to the bed, then threw him down.

“Briar…”

The way his brows creased, his voice breaking on my name. I liked that a whole lot. My hand slid down his chest, right before I tore the fabric away. Those massive shoulders, that broad chest… The hair there prickled against my skin, right before I went for his belt.

“Hang on.” An arm went around my waist, hauling me off my bed and my alpha before setting me on my feet. “We need to talk about this.”

Jace stared at me, trying very, very hard not to stare at my breasts and failing. His eyes went from blue to silver and back again as his Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Not sure that’s possible.” Mads was always the one grinning at me, flashing his fangs, but he looked suddenly too serious. “But I think it's too late for conversations.”

On that, we agreed. My hand whipped out, dragging his head down to meet mine.

“This isn’t the way it was supposed to go.” Gideon’s cool tones cut through the haze. “We need to make amends for what happened, for not choosing her.”

“We will.” Mads nodded, and so did Jace as they moved closer. “Because this doesn’t change anything.” I jumped as his hand landed low on my pelvis, then pressed into it. “Just gotta get the heat to break, then a conversation has to be had. That what you want, Briar?”

Just a little nod and his lips brushed against mine, forcing me to chase them.

“No biting.” Gideon’s tone was stern, and didn’t that have me shivering? “It’s bad enough that she can’t consent to this properly.”

But I did.

I was the one claiming Mads’ lips as mine, the savage tangle of his tongue making me remember what else that clever mouth could do.

The rasp of his stubble was the pain I needed, not the current one raging inside me.

I was the one shredding his clothes, then Jace’s, each alpha stripping out of their jeans.

I was the one who paused, looking around at the riches before me as they came closer.

The way their cocks jumped, their muscles straining as I let my fingertips graze their shafts.

Words belonged to the human side of me, but twice a year, the animal came out to play.

Right now, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn’t another silicone dildo.

“You said you’d help me through my heat. We agreed to that.” I surveyed the lot of them through a red haze. “That’s what you’re here to do. Nothing more.”

“You heard our mate.” Seeing that twist of a smile on Mads’ face did something to me. “We ease her until the heat breaks.”