The closing of the door snapped Liz out of the fog clouding her brain. She didn’t know this alpha any more than she did the others, so she had no tangible reason to trust him, other than his willingness to put his own life in danger for her. At least he hadn’t immediately fallen on her, but taking her back to a room that smelled of him was suspicious enough to send a twinge of discomfort through her belly.
“Put me down!”
Her voice emerged hoarse and unsteady, but the panic she expected wasn’t anywhere to be found. A small, logical part of her told her to scream and fight, to get away from this alpha and find a place to hide, but most of her just wanted to stay cuddled against his warm chest. As he set her down on her own feet, his hands were gentle, and he made no move to grope her. She found she had no panic to fight off.
The scent wafting up from his shirt made her want to melt into a puddle at his feet but standing next to him without the overwhelming panic and fear made her realize just how massive he was. His thick fur and muscular shoulders towered over her head, making her feel tiny and helpless, which shot a touch of unease up her spine.
“Th-thanks.”
She tried not to flinch when he shifted, but she wasn’t as over the ordeal as she thought she was. When he merely brushed her hair behind her ear before stepping to the side and sitting in the one chair the room boasted, Liz straightened her spine and pivoted to face him.
“I couldn’t let them hurt you.”
His deep rumble arrowed to her womb, which cramped hard enough to make her press her palm over her abdomen. Still too shocked over what had almost happened and how quickly this dark alpha had dispatched the others, Liz fought to find her voice as her entire body started to shake.
Heat wafted up from her toes, and she realized she’d stubbornly ignored the initial signs of estrous. She’d been so set on finding her Nana that she’d refused to think about herself. Now she was locked in a tiny room with a mammoth, lethal alpha, on the cusp of heat, in a city full of chaos and on the verge of being attacked by Krantor forces.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, using the same stubbornness to pretend she wasn’t shaking like a leaf in the wind.
“I have to go.”
“Go? No, you need to rest.”
Just the hint of a growl made her want to drop to her knees and worship him, which wasn’t fair considering she’d never met him before and had no clue what kind of man he actually was. He could still have hidden motives for saving her, even if he seemed decent for the moment.
“Yes. I have to go. Now.”
“Go where? Back out there with the alphas? No.”
She wasn’t saying the right thing. She knew she wasn’t, but she couldn’t make her tongue form the words to tell him why she had to go.
He leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees, which should have made him seem smaller, since his silhouette was hunkered down, but it only made him seem more imposing. More dominant and sure of himself.
“Every male in a two-block radius will smell you as your heat progresses. They’ll attack you and hurt you if they don’t know how to control themselves. You can’t go back out there.”
Between her fury at her own inability to articulate her meaning and the release from the adrenaline rush the attack had sent coursing through her veins, Liz lost her hold on her temper. She stomped her foot and curled her hands into fists at her sides, nails biting her palms.
“I have to!”
His eyebrow quirked, but otherwise he remained unmoved.
“Why? What’s so important you’d face a mob of alphas during the start of your heat? You don’t have long before it’s too strong to resist.”
The last of her strength burst from her mouth, her heated words almost a jumbled mess they came out so fast.
“Nana is out there! She’s in the wilderness, all alone, and I have to go to her! I have to get her to safety!”
Watching as surprise flared from his eyes and shivering as he rumbled out an instinctual, quiet purr, Liz dropped her tush down onto the nearest surface and stared at the male who sat as still as a statue, worrying over how he might respond. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to do it on her own, but she didn’t know how to ask the male for help.
He lifted his shoulders, removing his elbows from his thighs and propping his palms on the arms of the chair. His purr took on a warning edge, and with a start, Liz realized she sat on the bed.
“Stop hurting yourself,” he growled, confusing her until she recognized the telltale zap of pain from her hands wringing her favorite tail. She loosened her fingers but couldn’t pull her hands away from the comforting softness.
“Why did you help me?”
The question shot from her wayward lips, and he cocked his head while searching her face.
“I already told you, I couldn’t let them hurt you. I’m not that type of man. Where does your Nana live?”
Liz couldn’t ignore the desire running down her spine from his deep, masculine voice. She opened her mouth to answer, but closed it and scrunched her brows together, remembering the outcome the last time she shared her directions with someone. When he just sat and waited, watching her with calculating yellow eyes, Liz dug deep in her soul and decided that since her instincts weren’t signaling the alarm for her to run, she could probably trust him.
He’d already done more for her than anyone else besides her mother and Nana.
“East. Near the village Rontu. She wouldn’t leave when my mother warned her the attack was coming, probably because her friends couldn’t leave, but if she saw me, she’d get us to safety. I have to get her out of danger. I need her to be safe.”
Even though Liz wanted to jump up and show him she wasn’t some lost, scared little omega, her legs refused to take her weight, so she sat watching him study her in return. After a few moments of silence, his comforting, addictive purr filled the room.
“I admire your loyalty, Red. Did you know you were going into heat?”
She couldn’t stop the frustrated tears from filling her vision, and he shifted forward as though he wanted to comfort her but kept his hands to himself. Liz shook her head and tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat.
“Have you been in heat before?”
His question held no judgement, but Liz’s anger rose so fast she couldn’t stop her initial reaction. She didn’t feel like a child anymore, especially with the fire intermittently flicking up her body and the virile male sitting across the room from her, but his words made her see herself from his perspective.
This was obviously a male who’d seen many, many things. How much older he was than her, she didn’t know, but his question made her feel insignificant and juvenile.
“Of course I’ve gone through a heat before. I took care of myself both times. And I’ve had sex before too, so—”
His sudden movement brought him looming over her so fast she shrank backward and trembled. The fear that coursed through her was nothing to the arousal brought on by his dominant position and the way his scent thickened around her.
“You’ve had an alpha before?”
“N-no.”
His shoulders relaxed, the fur across them flattening, but he didn’t step away. With a slow, cautious movement, he lifted his hand and rested his palm along her jaw, angling her face up to his.
“Then you’ve never been properly serviced. You’ve never felt an alpha’s knot, or had your heat soothed by his seed. Sex with a beta is not the same.”
With butterflies tumbling around in her abdomen, Liz drowned in the heat of his gaze. He broke the spell by speaking again.
“It’s too dangerous for you to go out there alone. I can’t let you.”
“Then come with me,” she said before she could stop the words from leaving her mouth. “Protect me.”
His thumb brushed along her cheek, making her realize she was snuggling against his palm without conscious thought.
“With every passing minute your smell becomes more enticing, announcing your upcoming estrous. Once your heat fully hits, every male who can smell you will fight for the right to mount you, alpha and beta alike. The city’s growing more unruly as the attack nears. It’s too dangerous for you to be on the streets or around others.”
His rumbly words only solidified her conviction. If he was so worried about her safety, surely he wouldn’t hurt her himself. His lethal aura hid it well, but she could see the caring, trustworthy male at his core.
“Then take me out of the city. There are fewer men on the other side of the wall.”
With a cock of his head and a twitch of his ear, he considered her words, shocking Liz with the storm of emotions warring within his irises. When she feared he’d reject her reasoning, she widened her eyes and told more truth than she’d planned to share.
“I can’t nest here. There’s nothing nice about this room. I’d rather hide in a hole in a tree in the forest than suffer through that here, all the dangers included.”
The walls pressed in on her, and the flimsy door didn’t feel like enough protection against a child, much less a hoard of alphas, and she already knew how little it did to stop scent from seeping outside. The male’s purr dropped an octave, taking her stomach with it. He opened his mouth to respond, but Liz interrupted, feeling crazy for being so honest with him when she didn’t know the most basic thing about him.
“What’s your name?”
He paused, his lips still parted, before stroking his thumb across her cheekbone again in a calming motion.
“Blaide. And yours, little Red?”
“Elizabeth, but my Nana calls me Liz.”
“She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”
“Yes. If anything happened to her…”
Liz let a tear escape down her cheek, unable to push out any more syllables through the mass of emotions clogging her throat. The room grew too warm, the tension too tight, the smells too potent, and suddenly all she wanted was to lie down and sleep, but the thought only reminded her of how vulnerable she was right now.
“It’s okay, Red. Cry if you need.”
“No. I don’t have time to cry.”
The massive chest in front of her expanded as he sucked in a breath and held it. Liz gritted her teeth and met Blaide’s intense gaze. He stepped back and dropped his hand from her face, the loss of his warmth sending chills across her flesh.
“Do you have other clothes?”
His sudden change of topic creased Liz’s brow, but she shook her head in answer.
“I’ll go find you some new ones. Take a shower while I’m gone. Maybe a nap, if you can manage it. When I get back we’ll discuss this further.”
Liz stared in shock while he took his pack off, grabbed another shirt from inside, and slid it over his head. After a moment of considering her, he rummaged through the bag again, stuck whatever he’d found into his pocket, then turned to face her head on. He offered her a knife, handle first, on the palm of his hand.
“It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing. Don’t open the door for anyone. I have a key, but I’ll knock when I get back.”
Before he could slide the door open and leave, Liz found her voice.
“Does this mean you’ll take me?”
Her stomach dropped as she realized her poor choice of words. He turned his neck and looked over his shoulder, the expression on his face scorching her insides and heating her cheeks.
“We’ll talk when I get back.”
Without another word, he left the room, closing the door and waiting until the automatic lock clicked before his shadow moved across the tiny window.
His room was smaller than hers had been, even though they were next to each other, but without his massive presence filling the space it seemed easier to breathe.
After setting the knife on the little ledge on the headboard, Liz stood on wobbly legs. She stripped on her way to the shower, suddenly eager to rid herself of the grime lingering on her skin, pushing away the terrifying memories of unwanted hands on her flesh. She put the shower on its hottest cycle and shampooed herself several times even though she knew it would make her tails fluff like crazy.
It wasn’t until the dry cycle kicked on that she realized she didn’t have anything clean to put on until Blaide returned, and she couldn’t wait for him wearing nothing. Even his apparently firm control would be pushed too far by that.
Peeling open the shower door, she eyed the trail of clothes she’d left on the floor and gulped when she found the humongous shirt he’d put on her. After a fortifying breath, she picked it up and slid it over her head, sinking into the glorious scent wafting up from the fabric. Lava simmered in her womb, and she rubbed the neckline with her fingers, releasing more potent pheromones for her nostrils to enjoy as she wondered what he would be like if he did lose his grasp on himself.
Another factor rose to her attention, pulling her focus back to reality. Her heats had lasted for almost two weeks each time. She didn’t have two weeks to wait—the planet would be under attack any hour now, so she had to get to her Nana as soon as possible. If she let an alpha knot her, though, her heat would abate much quicker. If what she’d heard was true, her heat would end as soon as she received an alpha’s knot and seed.
Letting go of her worry for a second, she let herself bask in the thought of giving her body to Blaide. He’d saved her, but that wasn’t why she wanted him. Something deeper than words ached to have him inside her.
When her tails flicked against her leg in a happy twirl, she smiled and crawled onto the bed. His scent lingered on the pillow, so she buried her face in it. Between one breath and the next, she dropped into slumber, unable to resist the pull after the emotional drain of the last few hours.
In her dreams, she let herself imagine having a strong, cunning, furry alpha take care of her every need. His rough fingers holding her in place as he filled her and sank his teeth into her neck.
Even though she’d never aspired to finding a mate, she decided she wouldn’t mind having Blaide as one. He’d keep her safe, and pamper her, all while she nurtured him in ways he never knew he needed.
An odd thought flitted through her subconscious, and she couldn’t help but wonder… was his tail as soft as it looked? Her fingers ached to run through it and find out.