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My jaw clenches so hard it might crack my teeth if I keep it up. His scent is agitated, and sampling it mixed in with Mackenzie’s is making my stomach turn. Scenting her withanyoneelse feels completely wrong. Especially now. “She wasn’t showing signs this morning.”
And it’s true, she hadn’t—but that knowledge doesn’t stop me from wanting to kick my own ass for possibly being even a little at fault. For lettinganyoneelse see her like this. The more primal part of my brain is actively berating me becauseIshould be the only one to see her like this, it roars.
“Well she sure as hell is now,” Liam grinds out. “She’s burning up. She needs—”
“I know exactly what she needs,” I hiss. “Thank you.”
I ignore him then, moving to Mackenzie’s side and pushing down the territorial rumbling in my chest when I notice her friend—Parker, I think she said his name was—is still touching her. The fact that I can tell he is human and therefore can’t possibly scent her like this is the only thing keeping me in check. It’s the only thing keeping me from ripping his hand from her body.
Parker frowns at me, still clutching Mackenzie’s shoulders. “She collapsed. She was complaining of a headache, and then she started looking pale, and she just...” He looks down at her with concern. “She really is burning up.”
I nod absently, not bothering to look at him. I can’t tear my eyes from Mackenzie now. “I’ve got her,” I murmur. “I’m going to take her home.”
Parker’s hand pushes between us just as I reach for her, his expression hard and showing not even an ounce of fear at getting between an alpha and an omega approaching her heat. Actually, he almost looks like he might attempt to kick my ass if I keep going.The shred of sanity I’m clinging to reminds me it would be bad to make an enemy of Mackenzie’s best friend.
“We both know why I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Parker says, low enough for only me to hear. “I don’t know if I should just let you—”
“Noah?”
Mackenzie surprises us both when she pushes up from the floor, tearing herself out of Parker’s grip and winding her arms around my neck and pulling herself closer so she can nuzzle at the front of my shirt. I can feel her inhale, hear her soft sigh after.
“Noah,” she breathes again, almost like a coo. Like she’srelieved.
I bring my arms around her. “I’m here.”
“Hurts,” she groans quietly.
“I know,” I soothe. “I’ve got you.”
She pulls her head back to blink at me, turning her neck slightly to take in the small crowd. “Can we go? I don’t...” Her fingers clutch at my shirt tighter. “Take me home.”
“Of course.” She doesn’t protest in the slightest when I pull her into my arms before standing, holding her against my chest to cradle her there. “I’ll take you home.” I look at Parker then, noticing he still looks more than wary of me. I step closer, lowering my voice. “I would never do anything she doesn’t want, but right now, my scent can at the very least keep her calm. Let me take care of her. If all she wants is to be near me, then that’s as far as it will go. You have my word on that. All right?”
He still looks unsure when I pull away, looking from me to Mackenzie and back again, finally nodding reluctantly. “I’m going to fucking hold you to that, Taylor.”
I’m already turning away from him before he’s even finished speaking, pushing through the crowd with Mackenzie in my armseven as she burrows closer against me, her face tucking into the crook of my neck as her breath puffs against my skin.
“Don’t let go,” she murmurs, sounding pained and tired.
I don’t know if she hears me answer—Never—since she dozes off then, but it’s probably for the best, given that I have no idea why I even said it.
?I’ve been watchingher sleep for more than an hour.
On any other occasion, I might worry that I was being a total creep, and there’s still a high possibility that I could be—but I don’t think I can physically take my eyes off her.
She’d woken only for a moment when I laid her in my bed after I had gotten her back to my place, only long enough to bury herself in my sheets and wildly pull the blankets around her. Almost like she’s nesting. Every so often she makes a tiny, pained sound in her sleep, and each one tugs at something inside of me that I don’t recognize. Each one pokes at that barely checked mania that seems to seep out of me whenever I’m near her. And those feelings are a thousand times worse now, with her scent filling my bedroom and most likely permeating the walls to the point that it might never fade. I can’t even find it in me to mind, honestly.
Admittedly, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this. I’m seasoned enough that I’ve helped more than one shifter woman I’ve dated through her heat in the last decade or so—but I haveneverfelt something as blinding as what I’m feeling sitting only a foot from the tiny omega in my bed whose scent threatens to drive me insane. What I’m feeling now seems bigger, more consuming, even. What I’m feeling now makes it hard to keep still. Almost like every fiber of my being is protesting that it isn’t wrapped up in her.
And if it’s this bad now, how much worse will it be when she fully goes into heat? I know this is just a taste of what’s to come, and that idea both delights and terrifies. Will I be able to keep my control when she loses hers?
I wonder if there had been some sort of sign I should have picked up on, if there had been any subtle tells that I might have sussed out this morning before leaving her alone. In all my experiences with someone’s heat, it has been something very scheduled, something that comes about almost like clockwork. It’s always been a building of recognizable symptoms that allowed for someone toplan—but I have never seen anyone go into heat this suddenly, and definitely not this fiercely.
It’s enough to make me wonder about all sorts of things, but mostly I find myself concentrating solely on the rise and fall of her chest, the soft sounds she makes in sleep, and the enticing fragrance of her, which washes over me in waves.
I don’t know how long I wait before I catch her lashes fluttering, sitting up straighter when I notice her stirring, her hands slowly pushing her into a more upright position as she blinks around the room in a daze. She notices me sitting at the end of the bed then, her brow furrowing as she seemingly tries to rectify my presence there with what she’s feeling—or at least that’s what I would guess.
I keep perfectly still, wrestling with the urge to touch her, even slightly. “How are you feeling?”
