Ryder raised his brows. Right. He’d asked Ash a question.
Ash cleared his throat, which was dry as a damn desert. “Either a minute or a lifetime,” he rasped. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Ryder nodded easily, like either option was fine. “Objectively, there’s nothing to stress about. Everyone enjoyed themselves. No one was hurt or uncomfortable.”
Everyone. No one.
Ash glanced around the room, noting a particular absence. His belly clenched in something close to panic. “Where is he?”
“In the kitchen, from what I can tell. He’s showered and everything. Energetic, that one.”
So Spencer hadn’t left. The hard clench in Ash’s belly loosened just a bit. “And what time is it? Or … whatdayis it?”
“It’s tomorrow. Morning. Your heat lasted a little over twelve hours. Maybe fifteen, sixteen?”
Okay, yeah, that was doable. At least Ash hadn’t lost whole days to it without warning. Just an afternoon and a bleary, cum-filled night.
Totally fine. Golden, even.
“A shower sounds good,” Ash said hopefully.
That was all it took to push Ryder into action. He stood in one graceful movement, holding out a hand to pull Ash to his feet.
Ash accepted the assist. Fuck, his legs were shaky, all weak-kneed and everything. Ash glared down at them.
“Food will help,” Ryder told him, reading Ash’s mind as per usual.
Food was definitely going to be necessary, but in the meantime, the hot spray of the shower was heaven. Ash soaped himself up once, twice, three times. And because it was Ryder in there with him, he felt no shame leaning into that broad body, borrowing its strength while his own muscles recalibrated after what had to be at least the equivalent of a marathon.
It wasn’t like Ash was some delicate flower, but the intensity of a heat would take its toll on anyone, no matter how fierce. He wasn’t even that sore … there. His body must have stretched and slicked its way into healing quickly.
He still hated the fucking shaking.
“What didyouthink I’d be?” he found himself asking sometime later, his forehead pressed to Ryder’s back while Ryder washed himself.
Ryder took a moment to answer. “I could have seen you as any of it, I guess. Alpha, beta, omega, whatever. You’re not just one thing. You’re you. You’re Ash.”
It was a nice fucking thing to say. Maybe even the perfect thing.
Ash breathed in deep. “Your pheromones aren’t as intense today.” He could still smell the woodsy scent, but it was almost lost under the clean fragrance of the soap and shampoo they’d been using.
“Yours are gone,” Ryder told him.
Ash straightened with a start, propping a hand against the shower wall when the movement almost made him topple. “What?”
He didn’t understand his own panic. He hadn’t even decided how he felt about his omega pheromones in the first place. But still—he’d just gotten them. How could they be gone already?
Ryder immediately turned and tugged Ash into his chest, running a soothing hand down his spine. “Hey, it’s no big deal. The doctor said it might happen between heats until things stabilize. Basically, your body’s running between two extremes while it figures everything out.”
Oh. Right. Ash hadn’t really heard that part. He’d been in the middle of a different panic episode at the time.
He should really stop having those. They were annoying as fuck.
He let out a long, slow breath. “Okay. I get it. Temporary blank slate.” He stepped out of Ryder’s hold, motioning for him to continue his shower. He was suddenly anxious to be done with it, no matter how heavenly the hot water felt. “Are we taking too long in here, you think? Is he gonna leave?”
Ryder rinsed off with a low chuckle. “He’s not leaving.”
“Why not?”
