Amira

Heat encases my body as I tremble on the bed, the sheets soaked through with my sweat. What the hell is wrong with me? The doctor places another ice pack on my forehead.

"What is happening to me?" I struggle to force the words out of my mouth.

"Do you know who your mate is?" he asks me and I shake my head as another wave of heat makes me groan in agony. "Have you ever met him?"

"No! I don't know who he is."

"Amira, I know you're in pain but I need you to think. You may not know who he is, but has your mate ever touched you?" My mind immediately shoots back to the Alpha's Ball. The tingles being sent throughout my body as my mysterious mate ran his fingers up my arm. I nod and the doctor sharply takes a breath.

"You're in heat." Just then, the door whips open, slamming against the opposite wall, and Caine and Brayden stalk into the room. Their eyes are completely black and they look animalistic. Practically crawling towards the bed on all fours, I can see the sharp canines poking out from in between Caine's lips, and I try to push myself further back into the safety of the bed. Caine growls and stalks closer to me. Brayden does the same.

"Elijah! Guards!" the doctor yells and, just as Caine jumps up onto the bed, the former Alpha, Elijah, runs into the room and knocks him down. He snarls in response and tries to push his father off of him, but more guards quickly jump on him, pinning him down in a fit of snarls and punches.

Brayden then jumps up onto the bed while everyone is distracted with Caine and runs a cold finger down my cheek. The heat leaves my body and I lean into his touch, craving the relief he is giving me. Without much notice, his head dips to my neck, his lips connecting to my sensitive skin, and just as I gave into the cure from him, he is ripped away and pinned down next to Caine. I groan in disappointment as more heat surges through my body once again.

"Here to study history my ass," Elijah mumbles and two guards stick syringes into the Alpha and Beta. They soon stop struggling and are carried out of the room. I scream as I feel flames rip through the entirety of my body.

"Make it stop!" I beg the doctor for some sort of relief, but he shakes his head apologetically.

"Get her in a cold bath, I'll take care of the two boys," Elijah leaves the room as the doctor helps me up and walks me to the bathroom. As I dip into the ice cold water, a small amount of the scorching heat leaves my body, but the pain doesn't go away.

***************************

Caine

I open my eyes and find myself chained back in the same cell I was in for my Changing. Only this time, Brayden is in chains next to me. Again, I feel my wolf has full control of my body and I yank on the chains as I growl and snarl. Brayden does the same.

"Alright," an annoying voice fills the air and I glare up to see my father standing with his arms crossed in front of me. The cell door is open and I try once again to make an escape, but the chains hold me back. I growl in irritation.

"Which one of you dumbasses is mated to the guard's daughter," my father asks and I snarl, not able to put together a sentence in my state. "Yeah, that's what I thought." Brayden lets out some sort of angry bark next to me. "See what you did?"

There's only one thing on my mind right now, and I don't really want my father standing in front of me when I'm thinking about it. I'm sure the same thing is running through Brayden's mind as well. A loud growl grows in my throat again as I rip at the chains. My father rolls his eyes.

"Have fun. You better hope your Beta forgives you after this," he closes the cell and walks back up the stairs, leaving me and Brayden chained in the cellar to snarl and wrestle against the heavy steel to our heart's desire.

*******************************

Amira

I don't get any sleep. The doctor even froze some clothes for me to wear to bed and lined me with ice packs and I still can't fall asleep. There's no way, it's too hot, too painful. I crave Brayden's touch again to make it all go away. I'm not sure what's going on, but it needs to stop.

I throw the ice packs off of me and hurriedly walk to the bathroom, turning on the faucet and cranking it all the way cold. After forty minutes in the shower, I realize that it is not working, and throw on a thin, oversized t-shirt without even drying off first. I flop back on my bed, pointing all three fans towards me in the process, and groan loudly in pain.

How long is this going to last? I glance over at the clock and see it reads 2:47 a.m. I've been enduring this torture since 6:00 p.m. yesterday, and I'm just about ready to jump out the window just so I have a different kind of pain to distract me from this one. The doctor said it should end by sunrise.

All I can do is wait.

*************************************

Caine

I groan and lift my face out of the dirt. The sun blinds me and I squint my eyes against it. Wow, deja vu much?

"You're such an asshole," I hear a scratchy voice next to me and turn my head to see Brayden sprawled on his stomach next to me, his arms attached to chains like my own.

"How is this my fault?"

"You dumbass. I may not have paid much attention in school, but at least I know that we were horny as fuck all night because your fucking mate was in heat," he begins to push himself up, but changes his mind and flops back to the ground. I cringe at his choice of words, my wolf only slightly jealous, once again.

I know what happens when a wolf is in heat, it just didn't occur to me that it could happen to Amira. I didn't really think about it.

"Sorry," I mumble a half-assed apology to Brayden but don't get a response.

"Mark your mate, already," he says in a light tone and I chuckle, happy that I can get him to forgive me so easily. His light laugh mixes with mine before we both grow exhausted and stop. I sigh.

"Well I guess I really have to tell her now."

"She knows I'm not her mate. So yeah, you do," Brayden lets out a hearty chuckle, "Good luck, bro." I groan.

"And you might want to shower first."

********************************

Amira

I towel out my hair as I step out of the freezing cold shower once again. The heat in my body is far less intense than it was last night and this morning, but I'm still too warm to be comfortable. I wrap the towel around my body and examine my flushed face in the mirror before I hear a knock on the door. Without even getting dressed, I walk over and open the door to see Caine on the other side. His eyes grow wide and dark at my state but he shakes his head and looks down to his feet.

"Alpha?"

"Amira," he starts, "I think I owe you an explanation, and an apology." I feel my brows furrow in confusion at his words.

"What for?"

"Can I come in?" I nod and stand to the side. Caine walks past me. He's being surprisingly gentle today, and it's worrying me. "Listen, Amira," I hate myself for loving the way my name rolls off his tongue. "I haven't been completely honest with you."

"What do you mean?" He stalks closer to me without saying anything and I take a step back. The closer he gets, the more I step back, until I'm unfortunately trapped between him and the thick door.

"I mean," his voice is low and I can hear the growl in his tone. That dominant voice always makes me reel back in submission, and I hate it but love it at the same time. "I haven't told you the whole truth," he raises his hand and hesitates before slowly pushing my wet hair off of my shoulder. Sparks ignite on my skin where his fingers run and the heat drains from my shoulder to his cold fingers, giving me a greater release than Brayden did yesterday. I can't contain the gasp that escapes my mouth and I jump sideways, away from him and out of his reach.

"No," I mumble in disbelief. He looks me in the eye.

"Yes," he moves towards me again but I back up, trying to comprehend what is happening.

"Amira, I can explain."

"At the ball, you-you abandoned me!" I back even further away from him and clutch the towel to my chest.

"I lost control. I didn't plan to touch you. I didn't plan for any of this to happen. Meeting you, touching you, your heat, I just-"

"You knew. You knew and you just played with me!" I am so angry at him that I can't even put my emotions into words.

"I'm sorry." All he can throw out is a lame ass attempt of an apology. I stare at him in rage until I clench my jaw and speak again.

"Did you now when we danced?" He doesn't even look at me. "Answer me, Alpha."

"I knew before I even saw you," he looks back at me, an emotion I can't read brewing in his own eyes and his jaw clenched.

"You knew and you left me to suffer."

"I didn't know you were going to go into heat, Amira!" He stalks closer to me again, but this time I stand my ground and don't move. In one quick movement his hands are cupping my face and his forehead is rested in mine, his breathing heavy as sparks dance across us from the contact.

"Amira-" I can hear the sincerity in his voice, his apologetic tone emphasizing the guilt within him, but I push him away anyways, breaking our contact.

"Don't touch me," I growl and he growls back in return.

"I can fix this! I can help you," he again moves closer and I back up until the back of my knees bump against the bed. He reaches out and touches my cheek. I unintentionally lean into his hand, trying to relieve the heat that dances under my skin.

Beyond my control, I find my hands wrapping around his large biceps, the heat and pain completely gone just from the contact between us. Caine lightly pushes me back onto the bed and hovers over me. He lowers his face to my ear as his strong, muscular arms brace his body weight on either side of my head. His hips are resting on mine as I feel his warm, minty breath fanning across my neck.

"I can make all the pain go away," he whispers gently in my ear and stoops his lips down to brush against my neck. I feel his teeth graze a sensitive spot and my senses finally snap back to me.

Kicking my legs up into the air, I push Caine off of me and quickly scramble off the bed and readjust the towel around my body.

"Get out," I cross my arms snd stare at him with the most intimidating look I can muster.

"Amira, just let me fix this. It's going to happen again tonight and the night after that and again for the next two nights after that. I can end it now if you let me," Caine gets out of my bed and pleadingly stares at me to let him relieve us both of our suffering, but I need to think about everything that's happened and figure out what I want first.

"I said get out, Alpha," I hiss the word through my teeth and he groans, irritated, as he runs his hands through his hair and finally huffs before walking out of the room. Before I shut the door, he turns to me over his shoulder.

"We won't be leaving until next week, for obvious reasons," I nod and try to close the door, but he stops me again. "And Amira, please, call me Caine."