Come to Me If You Need To

Aurora's POV

My head snapped up to Kaelen.

A fine film of sweat sat at his temple.

And then the tightness in me eased all at once. His voice came soothing into my mind: Don't worry. The healer is mine.

Mind-link.

My feelings tangled. Even though Kaelen had never fully marked me, my body had already pledged itself to him — and so he could send me his emotions, his words.

I felt low, and lost, all at once.

These are things only fated mates can do.

Cedric is the mate I want to choose. I am about to become his Luna, and I have never once been able to mind-link with him.

But Kaelen — who refused three years ago to make me his fated mate, who left the mark unfinished — can reach straight into my mind with nothing more than that.

"The examination's done," the healer said suddenly. "She's overtired, and her nerves are strung tight. Rest will set it right."

I let out a breath.

I hadn't finished letting it out.

My belly clenched hard.

I was wet.

Worse than last night. Heat welled up in wave after wave until even the inside of my thighs felt slick.

Worse still, my chest had begun to ache and swell, my nipples hard against the fabric, itching and sore, and my skin had gone so raw that every inch of cloth dragging over it felt like the brush of a feather.

"Aurora?" Cedric turned and saw at once that something was wrong. "Why is your face so red? Do you have a fever?"

His hand touched me and I nearly cried out. I flinched aside on instinct — and ran straight into Kaelen's gaze.

"I… it's close in here." My voice came out hoarse. "I want to get some air."

Cedric moved at once to steady me. But Kaelen was up first, planting himself between us.

"Cedric," he drawled, "Rosalind's waiting. I've no idea what the Moonshadow elders like — you'd best go give her an answer. The coronation's near and you've a great deal to see to. I came back to take some of it off you. I'll walk Aurora around."

Cedric hesitated. I slid off the stool and made for the door, fast.

"I can look after myself."

As I passed Kaelen, his fingers hooked the wrist hanging at my side — quick — and then let go as if nothing had happened.

I rushed out of the stone chamber and braced against the corridor wall, dragging in air. My legs had gone soft, and the wet had already soaked through my underskirt.

I had slept with Kaelen and then mind-linked with him, and now — I was in heat.

If the elders found out, what waited for me was a punishment past all cruelty.

I leaned on the stone wall of the corridor, my legs too weak to hold me.

I could even feel the chill of my soaked underskirt.

"Aurora."

Cedric's voice, behind me.

I went rigid.

"Are you ill? Let me have the healer—"

"No!" It came out almost a shout, so shrill it startled even me.

The healer was Kaelen's. The last thing I could do was let him learn I was in heat.

I remembered how fierce Kaelen used to be when my heat came, in those three years, and a cold went through me.

I drew a deep breath and forced my voice down. "I really am fine. Just tired. It's too close in there. If you won't have me walk alone, I'll go lie down in my room."

Cedric must have taken it for nothing more than pre-coronation nerves. He gave in.

"Let me see you up."

"I can manage." I set off at a near-run and took the stairs quickly.

With every step, the friction at the top of my thighs shot up my spine like current.

I had just rounded the corner of the corridor when I walked straight into a hard chest.

Kaelen had come up somehow. He looked down at me, nostrils barely flaring.

He was scenting me.

"You're in heat?"

"Shut up." I went around him toward my room.

"You won't last till the assembly like this," he said, following. "Want to beg me?"

I spun — and he was already there against me, lifting a fingertip across my burning cheek. In that instant it was as if every bone had been pulled out of me; my legs gave and I nearly dropped to my knees.

He caught me, an arm locking around my waist, and pinned me back against the corridor's stone wall.

His lips were at my ear, his breath scalding. "The scent-blocker and my mark together — that's enough to get you through the heat. Come to me if you need to."

"You—"

He let go and tidied his collar as though nothing had passed. "Provided, of course, that you beg me."

He turned and left. The heat in me didn't recede — his nearness had only stoked it hotter.

Back in my room I fought to fall asleep, but my nipples ached with swelling and the hollow emptiness below grew sharper and sharper. I clamped my thighs together, trying to ease it with friction, but the harder I pressed the worse it got, the wetter it got.

I climbed up and dug out the scent-blocker, but even a larger dose did nothing.

I lay back down. A soft sound came from the next room, and my ears pricked up against my will.

His scent seeped through the seams in the stone wall.

I bit down on a corner of the pillow, and my hand slid toward my belly without my leave.

I only wanted — only wanted to make myself feel a little better.

My fingertips pressed where I was most sensitive, and my whole body jerked; I nearly cried out.

I bit the pillow harder, and my fingers began to circle, slow.

Not enough. Nowhere near.

I drew the underskirt up, and my fingers met the entrance, soaked and swollen and flushed.

Kaelen's face rose in my mind against my will.

Three years ago. My first night with him.

He'd pinned me to a stone ledge, my bare back against the scalding heat of his chest. One hand gripping my waist, the other reaching around to knead my breast, his teeth set in the back of my neck — a beast with its prey in its jaws.

His hips drove forward heavy and deep, every stroke grinding over that one most sensitive point inside me until I was crying, begging him to slow down.

He never slowed.

My fingers tried to do what he had done back then — pushed in, curled — but my fingers were too thin, too short, and they couldn't reach the place he used to reach.

Tears came, out of pure frustration.

"No…"

Just then, someone knocked at my door.

I froze, fingers still buried inside myself.

"Aurora? Are you all right?" It was Cedric's voice. "I was passing — I thought I heard you crying…"

My blood ran half cold.

I pulled my fingers out, wiped them clumsily on my skirt, and forced myself up.

The woman in the mirror had flushed cheeks and a lip bitten red and swollen, her clothes rubbed crooked to one side. I swept my hair forward to cover my cheeks, set my clothes straight, and only then went to open the door.

Cedric stood there with a cup of hot berry drink in his hand.

He saw me, started, and then his eyes went dark and deep.

"Aurora…" His voice had gone a little hoarse. "Just now, you…"

My face burned hot enough to bleed.

"I… I was just…"

Say I'd been sleeping? With my clothes in disarray and my face flushed like this?

Cedric was silent a few seconds. Then he stepped forward, close. "Were you missing me?"

I went blank.

The tips of his ears had gone red. This Alpha, who was always tall and composed in front of the pack, looked straight at me and said, very softly: "If you… want me, you can just tell me. You don't have to be alone…"