Living In The Gates

Enjoy The Heat

Two weeks, it's been two weeks since I left with Luca. I haven't run into the Sluts from Hell and I plan on making that streak last me through today. Today it's been nine months. Nine long, painful months since the last time I've seen my mother. Damn, I miss her. 

A hard shoulder bumps into me and a cold liquid splashes on my neck. There stood Brittany with a small vile. 

"Enjoy the heat, dog." She giggles and walks away. Within an instant, the scent of every male wolf-blood hits me like a bag of bricks. What did she splash me with? The scent is potent and overpowering.

The last bell of the day rang and I rush out of the stuffy building to Luca's car. He was leaning against the hood. A breeze swapped from behind me to him. Luca instantly straightened up with an expression of worry. 

"Are you okay?" He touches my forehead. "You're burning up and you smell..." His face instantly drops.

I slide into the car and Luca takes off down the road. "I was fine one moment then Brittany slashed me with something in a vile ten minutes before the bell. Now I smell all the horny teenage arousals in the school." My head starts to pound from the overwhelmingness of it all.

Luca speeds down the dirt road and stops in front of the Packhouse. "What did she say to you?" 

"I don't remember something about enjoying the heat or something."

"Heat," Luca whispers to himself. "She poured a wolf hormone enhancer to forcefully drive you into heat. Make you go into heat before I mark you as mine. She's one smart bitch. " Luca pulls me into the house and up the stairs so fast, no one would have been able to even say "How was school?". 

"She wants to break our bond?" Just when I was started to really like spending time with him. Sure it wasn't like we were doing anything, mainly sorting out the rogue vampires and my uncle but I enjoy his company nonetheless.

"Go laid down, I'm getting you a cold towel." I strip to just my tee and my undies and climb on the bed. The covers sounded like an oven as I could feel myself heating up. "Are you in any pain?"

"Nope," I pop the 'p'. "Your Aussie voice is so HOT. Has anyone told you that before?" Am I going delusional? But I have to agree with myself. I would be lying if I said I didn't find it very attractive.

He chuckles and places the rag on my head and pushes me back so I lay down. "Just get some rest, okay?" He leaves my side to sit at his desk. Within a few minutes, my eyes flutter shut and everything goes black.

"You're lucky your mother put up such a fight so I'll go easy today," I lift my head up slowly as my Uncle said this. I know he's laying. He means it will be sort but very painful. "Let's start with the cattle branding iron." My heartbeat quickens as he comes closer to me with the red-hot iron. My screams fill the room as my hands grip the metal chains with all my might. The smell of burning flesh makes my nose tingle and my eyes water. He takes the iron away and grabs a different one for round two. 

I sit up quickly on the bed, screaming in pain. It felt as if the hot iron was being pressed into me slowly and twisting inside me. No, this is worse than the hot iron. 

Luca was storming into the room and by my side in an instant. It was dark but I could make out the angle of his face from the moonlight. Sweat drips from my forehead and my skin feels hot, I'm in the full swing of heat. 

Luca wipes my forehead with a towel. His hands are shaking. I feel bad for putting him in this position. I grab his hand in mine and some of the pain goes away. We slowly close the space between us but Luca tenses up again and pulls away. The lack of his touch instantly made the burning feeling reappear as I yep in pain once again. 

"Please stay," I whisper as another surge of pain ripples through me. "It hurts Luca." By this point, I'm brought to unwilling tears. 

"I wish I could. It's killing me seeing you in so much pain, but if I stay I don't know how well I can resist you." Luca's whole body is tense as he tries to hold himself back. I can smell his arousal. 

"I don't care anymore, please just take the pain away." He looks at me with a sympathetic gaze in his eyes. 

"I'll run an ice bath for you in the meantime. I know you're going to kill me if I mark you when you're like this." 

As I slip into the ice bath, everything relaxes and my head stops spinning. I inhale a deep breath in and sink my head into the water. For once in what seemed like a century, I can think straight. He's right, I'd rather not put the effect of the mark on top of what I'm already feeling. Luca removes his hand from my arm and a slight sting comes back to my head. As I reemerge from the cold bliss, I grab his hand in mine and intertwine our fingers not allowing him to leave. 

With this being a forced heat, my body will now proceed to put me through this more often as time progresses if we don't finish the marking. We've been holding it off to make things easier communicating with my pack. Plus I fear he would find out who Luca was. I don't think she knew what the after side effects were going to be considering this starts naturally after the first few months mates meet and will continue until pups. 

For me, it was none stop ice baths to cool me off for five days. But from the none stop pain and sweating, Luca wouldn't let me go to school today or yesterday even though I felt better. I would be lying if I said I didn't try to trick him into marking me a few times to stop this heat but he'd have to leave the room when I did that. We both know I'll still have another one every six months even if we ended this once. 

The morning light flutters in from the balcony doors onto the bed where I sit with my watercolours. Luca is still sleeping peacefully next to me as I paint the way the early morning colours hit his jaw and cheekbones. This is one of those moments that I wish could go on forever. 

A knock on the door wakes him up. Luca sits up. "Damn it, whoever that is, better have an explanation as to why they disturbed my painting," I grumble as he cracks a sleepy smile at me before he opens the door. 

"Where is she?" Very angry-sounding Jake storms into the room past Luca. This instantly wakes him up fully and he becomes the very alert alpha we all know and love.

"I'm right here," I say with a raised eyebrow, getting out of the bed.

"Colton said you haven't been to school and I tried calling a few days ago but someone said you were 'busy'." Jake flashes a sideways glare at the alpha. 

"Did you talk to dad? Luca called him after I left school the first day." Jake looks down at his feet, so that's a no. What a dumbass? "Go home and talk to dad. I'm not in the mood to explain since you ruined my painting vibes." 

Jake glares at Luca as he leaves. I sigh loudly, "He can be the biggest drama queen, I swear."