Maybe I had, but at the moment it was hard to think past the growing, needy pain in my body. “I just want Jordan.”
“The alpha from last night?” Craig’s voice held surprise. “The one who scared the crap out of you and chased you off campus?”
“He didn’t scare me. Well, he did at first because I was already frightened and not thinking straight. But he makes me feel safe. He said I’m his mate.”
Craig bounced his knee as fast as a humming bird’s wing. “Wyatt, they all say that.”
“It wasn’t just him saying it. I could feel it. Something. It was different.”
Craig’s silence shouted at me.
“I know what I sound like. Do you know how many times I’ve heard the same thing from the other omegas I was with? He loves me, it’s different this time, he’s going to take me away from here. I know it’s never true. I know it’s wishful thinking. But this... this safety? I’ve never felt safe with anyone. Not since I was a child, at least.”
“So... you think this heat was triggered by a true mate?”
A strange burbling laugh shook my body. “I don’t know. Is that a thing? I don’t know how any of this works. All I know is getting fucked and pain and power and being powerless. I don’t know about heats and sex that isn’t painful or scary. You know what’s scary? Thinking about having sex again. Thinking I might want sex.”
Craig’s lips were a white slash across his face. “Then we need to keep you as far away from this alpha as possible.”
My body clenched in pain. “But I need him, Craig. I think he’s the only one who can help me.”
The doorbell rang and Craig shoved his chair back. “We need to keep you safe.”
Chance’s voice was a murmur, and I lost track of their conversation as my entire body cramped. I wrapped my arms around my stomach, crying. It hurt so badly. More than a kick to the stomach. More than a busted rib. It seemed to go on and on without end.
And I was hot. Cold. Shivering. I could barely sense the chair beneath me, my body was so overwhelmed.
When Craig laid a hand on my shoulder, I jumped away. Even that light touch hurt—cold as ice and heavy on my too-sensitive skin.
“Chance brought the knot. We should get you to your room.”
I shook my head and regretted it as my brain bounced around like a pingpong ball on a concrete floor. “I don’t want it.”
“It will help.”
“No. And I don’t want to go upstairs.”
I didn’t want to be abandoned in my room. Forgotten. Left alone to see if I’d die or not.
“Can we call Jordan?” He hadn’t left me by myself when I was terrified. He’d found me. He’d saved me. Maybe he could do it again.
Craig tapped his fingers on the table, a soft thud thud that jangled my nerves. “Chance said he’s supposed to come by first thing this morning to talk to Justin. He should be here any minute now.”
I tried to nod, but the shivers turned it into a shake.
Craig sighed. “Let’s at least get you to the couch, okay?”
Craig thrust the straw in front of my face. “You need to take another sip.”
I tried to roll away, but he held one hand next to my cheek as a blocker. It was either press my aching skin against his hand in an effort to escape, or take a sip.
I took a damn sip.
The chocolate drink was too thick and too warm. It coated my tongue and throat and made me want to gag.
“What time is it?”
Craig checked his phone. “Nearly one. Guess that alpha wasn’t as worried about you as he said last night.”
Tears burned at the corner of my eyes, but nothing came out. I was probably dehydrated. Craig said so, anyway. My mouth was dry, but my bottom half was slippery. It was like all the liquid in my body had turned to slick. When Craig had to help me wrap up in a towel, I’d been beyond embarrassed.
“Something might be wrong with him, too,” I said.
Craig snorted in disbelief.
I didn’t have the energy to argue with him. I got it. I had as little trust for alphas as anyone, but something wouldn’t let me believe anything ill of Jordan. Not yet.
“Here, let’s change out your washcloth.” Craig pulled the warm, wet cloth from my forehead and replaced it with a fresh, cold one. In response, I trembled harder. My muscles ached from the near-constant shivers that had assaulted me all morning.
“Sorry you have to take care of me like this.” It wasn’t the first time I had apologized.
“Shut up.” It wasn’t the first time Craig had told me to shut up.
After dropping Bast off at daycare, Hunter had peeked in briefly, but his wide eyes and shaking hands told me he didn’t know how to deal with the situation. I didn’t blame him. I didn’t know either. He disappeared shortly after, muttering about classes.
Which left Craig stuck with me.
If he hadn’t hated me before—and honestly, it was impossible to figure out what was going on in his mind, switching between anger and comfort like a faulty lightbulb—he probably hated me now.
The ring of the door bell clanged in my head.
Craig jumped to his feet. “About time.”
I lifted my head, hoping Jordan would walk into the room first, but the only newcomer was Justin, the older man from last night.
He squatted beside the couch. “No, don’t try to get up, son. How are you feeling?”
I let my head collapse on the pillow. “Terrible.”
“What are your symptoms?”
Craig clanked somewhere above my head, tidying the side table, it sounded like. “He’s had cramps—”
Justin held up a hand. “I’d like for Wyatt to tell me.”
Something crashed on the table, and I winced, but Justin smiled reassuringly at me.
“Cramps. Fever. Pain—down there. And...” I couldn’t bring myself to say it in front of a stranger. Especially an older one.
“Enough slick to fill a bathtub?” Justin shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been through heat before, son. And especially an unsatisfied heat... Do you feel like anything from last night might have triggered it?”
In him, I didn’t see the wariness and anger polluting Craig’s eyes. “Jordan... the alpha from last night... he said we were mates.”
Justin’s expression didn’t change. No dismissal, no approval, nothing but acceptance. “And what do you think? What do you feel?”
“I think he’s different. I think he’s safe. I... I think I need him.”
“He’s heat-delirious,” Craig said. “I’ve tried to convince him to go upstairs—”
“Time alone won’t help him if he’s found his true mate.”
Craig slid between me and Justin. “How can you say that? Half of the omegas in this place are here because some jackass swore up and down he was their true mate and they believed him.”
Justin wrapped his fingers around Craig’s arms. “And their suffering is a terrible thing. But you can’t fake a heat induced by a true mate. It doesn’t happen every time, but it’s extremely unlikely that this precise series of circumstances—Jordan saying he’s Wyatt’s true mate, Wyatt going into heat, Jordan missing our meeting this morning, and Wyatt feeling something is different about this alpha he met yesterday—all add up to another answer. If you took away any single one of those elements, I’d have doubt. But I went through an unmated true heat myself, Craig. I know what it feels like when your body cries out for your true other half and cannot reach him.”