2🫟

RIN POV

Warmth.

That was the first thing that returned to me—thick, suffocating, pulsing deep in my core like something alive was trying to burn its way out.

I tried to move. My limbs felt heavy, useless. Soft sheets brushed my skin. Dim lights hovered above. Somewhere distant, an air conditioner hummed. The scent in the room was different. Thick. Sweet. Intoxicating. Almost… embarrassing.

My mind struggled to piece it together.

Where was I?

“Easy.” A familiar voice cut through the haze. “You fainted. Just breathe.”

I turned my head.

Thorne sat on the edge of the bed—close. Too close. His sharp eyes studied me, concern and confusion warring in them. Jacket gone. Sleeves rolled up. Tie loosened. The usual perfect composure was cracked.

“What… happened?” My throat felt raw.

“You passed out at the party.” He raised a brow. “You’ve been burning up ever since. I had my driver bring you to my private suite upstairs.”

Private suite.

Panic spiked. I tried to sit up. The room tilted hard. I collapsed back against the pillows with a sharp gasp.

“Careful.” His hand settled on my shoulder, steadying me. The contact was electric. My skin felt hypersensitive, every brush of his fingers sending sparks straight through me.

“I need to go.”

“No. You need to stay still.” His voice was firm but not unkind. “You’re… not well.”

I opened my mouth to argue. Another wave of heat rolled through me instead. My cock throbbed with a foreign, insistent ache I didn’t understand. Skin flushed hotter. Breath turned shallow.

Thorne’s nostrils flared. Something dark and primal flickered in his gaze.

His alpha instincts were reacting.

To me.

No. Impossible.

I am an alpha. I cannot be in heat.

I pressed a trembling hand to my abdomen. “What… what’s happening to me?”

His jaw tightened. He stood abruptly, paced a few steps, then turned back.

“You’re going into heat,” he said carefully, like the words themselves tasted wrong.

The world stopped.

“That’s not possible,” I whispered. “I’m an alpha.”

“You *were* an alpha.”

The soft way he said it made the room spin faster.

“No… no, that can’t be. That pill—it wasn’t supposed to do this.” My voice cracked. Horror tightened my chest. “It was for you. I meant to—”

I cut myself off too late.

Thorne’s eyes narrowed. The amusement vanished. “The drink,” he murmured, piecing it together. “You tried to drug me.”

“I didn’t mean to.” Panic and heat rose together, pressure building between my thighs. “It was a mistake—”

He wasn’t listening anymore. His focus locked on me. The air thickened with the unmistakable scent of omega heat.

*My* omega heat.

“You drugged me,” he repeated, voice rough with anger. “But you drank it instead.”

Shame, fear, and humiliation crashed together. My body betrayed me with every shiver, every helpless sound that slipped past my lips. My legs rubbed together instinctively, seeking friction, desperate for anything that might ease the pressure coiling tighter inside me.

“Goddammit…” Thorne dragged a hand through his hair. His voice had dropped lower. “Your scent… it’s too strong.”

His reaction terrified me almost as much as my own loss of control.

“Get away from me,” I gasped. The words lacked any real force. My body screamed for the opposite.

“I should,” he agreed.

He didn’t move.

The tension between us turned suffocating. My pheromones flooded the room like a drug. Heat had fully bloomed—triggered by the exact pill I had meant for him. Irony had never been this cruel.

I tried to shift away. My limbs trembled. Every small movement sent fresh jolts of unbearable arousal through me. The instinctive pull toward the nearest alpha was overwhelming.

Toward Thorne.

The one I hated most.

“I called a doctor,” he said, voice tight. “They won’t arrive for another hour. You need suppressants. We have to hold on until then.”

I whimpered, biting my lip hard enough to taste copper, trying to kill the pitiful sounds escaping me. Every second made it harder to think, harder to fight the primal need tearing at my sanity.

Thorne swore under his breath and turned away, fists clenched.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” I sobbed. Tears slipped down my face as humiliation swallowed me whole. “I didn’t want this. I never did.”

His voice came strained. “Neither of us did. But right now…” He exhaled shakily. “Your scent is driving me insane.”

Silence stretched, broken only by my ragged breathing.

His voice dropped to a near-whisper. “If you don’t get relief soon, your heat will only get worse.”

“I can’t…” The pressure in my abdomen twisted tighter, sharper. “I can’t take it anymore.”

Thorne’s eyes locked onto mine—dark, hungry, barely restrained.

And in that moment, we both understood exactly what was going to happen next.