#Chapter 5: Heat

Mason's POV

My blood still roiled with the thrill of the bond. I’d planned to wait until our wedding night, when I had her secured in every other way that mattered, but with her old alpha, back in the picture…

I stifled a growl. It was better this way. I needed Levi, or rather, I needed his pack’s money and support. And to get him, I needed Harper. Now I had her. The thrumming warmth in my chest that snapped into place the moment she swallowed my blood was proof.

Harper was mine.

And now there was nothing he could do about it. He could try to call off the engagement, but nothing would keep me from my mate. Speaking of…

I marched to the door, but checked myself at the last minute. I’d scared her enough already. And there was no telling what she’d told Levi. I had to stay calm from here on out, I still needed his cooperation. Gently, I wrapped on the bathroom door.

“Harps, you okay?” I called softly. She said she was almost done minutes ago. But there was no reply. I tried again, louder. “Harper, I’m coming in.”

But when I turned the knob – it was locked.

Rage, instant and hot whipped through me. My fist slammed against the door. “Open this damn door, Harper,” I snarled. No answer, not even her shuffling steps. “Damn it!”

I threw my shoulder against the door and it gave way, revealing an empty bathroom, the window open, the sink running endlessly. To cover the sound, I realized. That little…

I crossed to the window and picked up her scent immediately, bitter with her fear. Some part of me howled in pain. The fear was proof she didn’t love me, or why run from the bond? But I would deal with that later.

Reaching in my mind for the place I could call all my wolves, the mind-link, I roared, “Harper, where the hell are you?”

Only silence answered back. But how? With the blood ritual, I should be her Alpha now, I should be able to link to her mind whenever I wanted. But something was stopping me. The rage rose again, hot and thick.

I closed my eyes and imagined the solid cord connecting me to harper, stretching off in the distance. “You think you can run from the bond, from me?” I didn’t care if she could hear me or not. Because I knew she would feel this.

There were perks to forging a bond out of a blood curse, perks she had no idea about. But I knew them well.

I imagined that cord glowing red, like iron in a fire, molten heat –pain. I sent it down the bond and felt the shockwave of her pain ricochet back.

Good.

It’s exactly what she deserved. I’d make sure Harper learned quickly, betraying me would only mean pain. And it would hurt her more than me, I’d make sure of that too.

Harper’s POV

Levi stepped out of the car, his nose in the air – then his gaze zeroed in on me, trembling in the bushes.

“Harper, what happened?” he demanded. His frown was thunderous as he stormed over and grabbed my arms, pulling me to my feet.

I couldn’t stop shaking enough to speak, but my hand moved to the collar of my shirt where the bite was... it’s gone. Right, alpha blood could have healing powers, but Mason wasn’t my alpha, not yet anyway, not until we were married.

“Was it Mason?” Levi asked, fury snapping in his voice. “Did he hurt you?” Rather than wait for an answer, he turned back the way I’d come, like he’d to the house and confront mason right now.

My jumbled brain snapped into focus. “No!” I cried, grabbing shirt. “Levi, stop, no, I’m fine!”

 I shook my head frantically, and he narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing me. But I couldn’t let them fight. Levi worked too hard for his reputation, for everything he’d built, I couldn’t let him risk it over me.

But he sighed. “You’re not, but we’ll talk about it later.” He gestured toward the car, and I tried to step back – I couldn’t become his problem again – but I stumbled, my scraped and battered legs threatening to give out.

Levi moved without a word, scooping me into his arms. I gasped and tried to protest, but he just murmured, “Shh, I’ve got you, Harper.” His arms squeezed me tight as he folded us into the back of the car.

I was glad for the partition between us and the driver. I must look a mess, and I knew my face was flaming bright red, being pressed up against Levi like this. His broad chest was warm against me and he arranged me across his lap like it was nothing.

But then I remembered Mason’s hands on me, the pain of his teeth ripping my skin. I tensed and I felt Levi tense beneath me, like he only just realized what he’d done.

“Apologies,” he said gruffly, picking me up again. I wanted to protest, to nuzzle into his warmth, but his next words stopped me. “You’re almost a married woman, you shouldn’t be on my lap.”

Setting me on the seat beside him, hi tapped the roof of the car, signaling the driver to go. I wondered who it was, one of the betas I’d grown up admiring, or someone new? Levi cleared his throat though, and suddenly all my attention was on him.

“What happened, Harper?” he asked, in that same firm, but somehow gentle tone. “We were talking through the mind link and then…?”

I bit my lip, the words on the tip of my tongue. Maybe now that we were driving away, I could tell him… but as I looked down, I noticed a crème envelope on the seat between us. Levi’s name jumped out, but the second name, Avery, I didn’t know.

“What’s this?” I asked, picking it up. But my stomach dropped because after all the work I’d put into my own wedding, I recognized it immediately. But I needed to hear him say it.

Levi paused, but admitted, tone carefully neutral, “I’m getting engaged.”

Sadness stabbed through me. The moment I was off his hands, engaged to someone else, he moved forward in his life. I was in the way as I always thought. “Harper?” Levi asked slowly.

I just shook my head silently. I had no idea how to explain my tangle of emotions, but one thing was clear – I didn’t belong with Levi.

If he was moving forwards, starting a new life, I had to let him. So I just looked at said, “I want to go back.”

Levi gave me an incredulous look, but before I could spin some kind of story that would convince him, Mason’s voice blasted through my head, loud and pissed off.

“Harper, where the hell are you!?”

I didn’t respond, but I didn’t have time. Pain punched through my gut, a white hot flame. I screamed, wordless and raw.

It was an indescribable, excruciating pain. My abdomen burned with an intense fire, and a thousand needles seemed to pierce through my bones. In an instant, my face went pale, and I couldn’t control the violent convulsions that wracked my body.

"Harper," Levi sensed something about me was wrong. "Harper, what's happening to you?"

He reached for me immediately, pulling me back on his lap as I clutched my middle, where the burning lashed again.

He bit his own wrist and held it to my mouth

“Drink, Harper,” he offered steadily, “You know the drill, come on.”

Without meaning to, my mouth clamped on his wrist. I didn’t think, didn’t decide, I just needed the pain to stop, and alpha blood could heal just about anything, couldn’t it?

The pain finally started to subside, but my senses filled with pine and peppermint, with the sweet, metallic taste of blood. I’d never shifted, but part of me knew this taste meant life, not death.

Levi started to pull away and let him go, reluctantly. My tongue flicked out, chasing the taste. Levi stiffened – and then so did I as I realized what I’d done.

Oh god, I just licked him!

“Sorry!” I squeaked, turning to hide my face.  Levi took a breath… but just sighed and stayed silent.

Shame and guilt swirled through me, sending a blush through my entire body. But, as the seconds ticked by the warmth only grew more intense. I was hyperaware of every point where me and Levi touched. They pulsed with heat, getting more and more intense. But unlike Mason’s blood curse, this heat almost felt good.

I’d heard about this symptom – there was only one way to explain it. But it shouldn’t have happened just from drinking his blood.

This kind of heat should only be sparked by fated mates.

My mind rejected the possibility even as the heat reached my pussy. Pine and peppermint had never smelled so delicious. I shifted in his lap, searching for relief for the pulsing ache starting between my legs.

Please, please, don’t notice, don’t notice, don’t –

But then warm wetness spread beneath me. I scrambled out of his lap, my face burning bright red but it was too late. Levi looked at me in confusion “Harper, what?”

But then his eyes fell to the wet slick stain on his pants.