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My mouth became dry as his stony gaze stayed fixed on mine. Fascinated, I watched as he unrolled his shirt sleeves, his muscles bulging with his movements. Long fingers opened his shirt more, and I stepped back as he shirked it off, revealing shoulders I wanted to dig my nails into.
“What are you doing?” I asked when he pulled at his belt buckle, dragging the tails of his shirt free.
In silence, he tossed the shirt through the bars to me, which landed at my feet as I failed to catch it, too entranced with the sculpted perfection in front of me.
“Hold it close to you when it comes tonight. It’s not perfect, but an alpha scent should help.”
I did not know what he was saying to me, a fact that Cannon realized quickly.
“Your first heat comes in three stages. First, you need to gorge fresh blood to satisfy the hunger. Second, you need to fight. Your wolf needs to show she isn’t prey.”
I knew this. Kris had taught me all the things I needed to fight them. “And this is for the third?” Now that I knew what he meant, I was skeptical. “Your scent will stop me from wanting…” I may be in heat, but I wasn’t blurting it out. Not to this male.
“To fuck?” Cannon’s smirk was as dickish as he was. “Yeah.”
Walking up to the bars, I looked up at the arrogant alpha, his shirt in my hands. Reaching through the bars, I stroked my fingers boldly over his pecs, stroking down his abs, resting lightly on the wolf’s head buckle, pushing aside what it meant as I reveled in the sudden hunger in his stare.
“Take this,” I showed him the shirt, pulling him closer by my father’s buckle. “And go fuck yourself, Alpha.” Dropping the shirt at his feet, I turned my back on him. “I need nothing from you.”
I heard his low chuckle as he walked to the stairs. When he was gone, I turned back and saw the shirt draped through the bars, taunting me.
And it was taunting me because I could feel the need building within me. Hearing the fighting above me, I knew my brother was just as miserable as I was. Drawing in a deep breath, my core clenched as I inhaled Cannon’s scent.
Wood, smoke, danger.
With a disgusted growl, I snatched his shirt from the bars, inhaling deeply one more time.
This sucked worse than anything. I needed to be stronger. That arrogant alpha whose pack killed our parents was not the reason I would get through my first heat. Bringing his shirt to my nose again, I inhaled, and then, in a fury, I threw it to the far side of the room.
Miserably, I picked my way over the dead deer and lay on the small cot. Emotions raced over me—anger, rage, need, hunger, and want.
Closing my eyes, I willed myself to sleep. I would get through this. Goddess help me, I would.
CHAPTER 8
Kezia
The sounds above kept me from sleeping. Thuds and shuffled steps across wooden floorboards, followed by the occasional crash, kept me awake. Each time I tried to find my inner calm, a noise from above jerked my awareness back to those who moved above me.
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, so I sat on my cot, my back to the wall, with my knees drawn up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them—anything to stop the shaking. With my chin resting lightly on my knees, I watched the stairs. Waiting.
I could smell him. Cannon.
At first, I thought it was his stupid shirt which lay across the room in a heap where I threw it. But the more still my wolf became inside me, the more his stench surrounded me, and I knew it couldn’t be the shirt. I inhaled deeply again, my eyes closing as I drank him in.
The ache from clenching my stomach muscles would linger for days. I was a healthy pack member—I trained religiously, and I fought with no fear. My body was one of a hunter. My wolf was ready to hunt, and her patience was running thin. With his added presence suffocating me, it wound me as tight as a coiled spring, and I knew my muscles would protest when I finally unclenched them.
“He’s not worth it,” I whispered to her, appalled that it was a very distinct thing she thirsted for from him. I didn’t need to speak out loud. My wolf wasn’t separate from me. We were one.
But I needed the noise and distraction because, my Goddess, what the hell was he doing up there? Was he lying against the door with a fan behind him or something, purposefully sending his scent into the cells? Was he deliberately taunting me? Didn’t he have better things to do? Was he such a complete and total asshole to make a mockery of me like this? Knowing this was my first heat, did he think it was a game to test me this way? Groaning, I pressed my forehead into my knees.
His scent was driving me crazy.
I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be tested right now.
Snarling, I got to my feet, stalking to the bars of the cell. “Cannon!” I screamed, the high pitch of my voice actually making me jump at the loudness. “Cannon, you bastard, get away from the door!”
Hearing a shuffle from above, I stood poised, waiting. Slowly, my shoulders relaxed. He heard me and was moving away. Maybe I was being unreasonable, or he hadn’t realized what he was doing. Satisfied I had everything under control, I stepped back when, once again, his scent drifted down to me.
