Burning Heat.

He woke up scorching hot, hair sticking damp to his forehead, sweat running down his neck, chest, and back. The air felt thick. His breathing was shallow. That all-too-familiar weight of lust was pressing against his skull like a fever. His heat cycle had started.

Normally, he would have just popped suppressants and gotten on with his day. But lately, they weren’t doing their job. His body was rebelling against them. He could feel it in the way his thoughts slipped, in how quickly his composure cracked. The higher the rank of an omega, the harder it was to keep that composure during heat, and he was way past pretending now.

He didn’t sit up right away. His gaze roamed across the room, half-expecting to see his brother on the other side of the bed. But the space was cold, empty. He must have been gone for a while.

Taiga sighed, dragging himself out of bed with the sluggishness of someone whose body didn’t want to cooperate. He needed to get at least a bit of his routine done befo