Amber

In two steps Devon crossed the room, and he leaned down, and wrapped his arms around me. The comfort of his touch made the pain lessen, and his kiss sent heat rushing between my legs worse than ever before. I moaned. He smelled so good...

As if reading my mind, he buried his face in my neck and began to kiss me. "You smell so good, I was so worried."

I shrugged. "Doc thinks it's my human period now that I'm not on that birth control the hunters kept giving me."

"Shit, we never found you birth control."

"Do we need it?"

"No. Not now. But, I hope so, some day. If you want." His hands wandered around and brushed the underside of my breasts, somewhere he'd never gone before. I burned hotter.

"Sarah and your brother thought I might be in heat, but humans don't get that."

He stopped what he was doing and looked into my eyes. "Heat?"

"Yeah, but humans don't get that," I repeated.

"Maybe they can..."

"Maybe your bite mark turned me into a werewolf." I raised my eyebrows. Sarah and I had watched a lot of hilarious werewolf movies while eating popcorn on the couch in our apartment. We humans sure had wild imaginations.

He smiled a bit at my joke, but then got serious again. "Does my touch take away the pain, Amber?"

"You know, I think it does help. Although Nurse Rene's been keeping me pretty full of pain killers, so that's probably part of it."

He was still inspecting me. "You smell good, Amber. You always smell good, but I can hardly hold my wolf back right now. He hasn't been this worked up since he tried to force me to mark you."

"No?"

"No. I can barely take my hands off of you."

"So, let's say I am somehow in heat, what can be done about it?"

"Well, most werewolf couples take care of it with a lot of sex," he said matter-of-factly.

Heat flooded my cheeks. "Oh. Well."

"But I don't want you pushed into that, so we'll exercise restraint." Under his breath in a voice I'm sure he thought I couldn't hear, he added, "Even if it kills me."

"Okay."

"I'll talk to Doc about maybe bringing you some heat medication that females use when they can't get to their mates. If it works, we'll know the truth about this."

Devon pulled me closer to him and we waited in silence, his hands rubbing my arms rhythmically. Everywhere he touched was on fire, but in a good way. I desperately wanted to kiss him again, but I didn't want Doctor Mansard to catch us making out. Enough of the pack had already gotten an eyeful of that since I had come back.

The doctor came into the room and nodded his head towards Devon in respectful acknowledgement. "Alpha. Are you sure you want to try this on the luna? We'll start with a low dose and everything I found about the ingredients seems safe for humans, but...I couldn't find any record of the combination being used on one before. There are risks."

"I understand that. But I'm sure she's in heat. My wolf is fighting to take over to get to her, if you understand what I mean." He looked at the doctor meaningfully.

Doctor Mansard nodded. "Ah, yes." Maybe he was right that I was in heat, because my cheeks—and other unmentionable places—were burning up.

"I can control myself, but I don't want her to suffer." He looked at me. "What do you want to do, Amber? It's your choice in the end."

Devon thought it was a good idea and he wouldn't want me to be harmed. "I'll try it."

"Then we'll start low and monitor for negative reactions, Alpha, Luna."

"Sounds good," Devon said, turning his attention back to me as Doctor Mansard left the room.

—————

For two more days I suffered through the heat that I shouldn't even have been able to have. The heat medication and the morphine made it tolerable, and Devon's hands took the rest away. He barely left my side, refusing to let any unmated male into the room. I managed to talk him into Dan, at least, since as a vampire he was completely unaffected by whatever was happening to me.

Devon and I had spent enough time together making out by now that I recognized the frequent bulge in his pants although he never complained about it. I'd managed to reason out what it was from my vague knowledge.

When my heat-period-whatever was over, I was just relieved to finally get out of there.

—————

Once the trouble had passed, Devon turned his focus back to pack business, and the search for the missing wolves continued.

Other than spending my time with Sarah or Dan when he was around, I found myself a few books and started working my way through them in Devon's room when I had time to kill. I had to try a few books before I even found one that I could manage and was able to figure out enough words to start decoding the story.

It took time, but I managed to get through a few chapters. A few nights after my heat, I was trying to decipher a particularly difficult sentence when Devon came into the room.

He raked his hand through his hair, so I asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing new. We just keep hitting dead ends in our search," he said.

I put the book off to the side and got up, walking over to him. I wrapped my arms around him, and his lips greedily found my own.

I moaned as his kiss grew more determined, but then he broke it. I didn't want it to end, but I didn't want to ask what was wrong.

Like he knew what I was thinking, he said, "It just gets harder and harder to hold back."

"Maybe you don't have to hold back?" I whispered, forcing myself to meet his eyes.

He looked at me like I'd said something incomprehensible. "What are you saying?"

"Well, I love the way you kiss, so...other stuff might be nice...?"

He didn't say anything else. He tensed and stared down at me.

"You're sure, beautiful?"

"Sure." Probably, but I didn't want to let my nervousness keep him from me forever.

He carried me to the bed and was on me in a second, and the speed of his enthusiasm almost scared me. He must have sensed it, because he paused again, looking into my eyes as if he could read my thoughts. "Am I frightening you?"

"No. Sorry. More like startled."

"I'm the one who's sorry." He began to pull away, and I did something daring, wrapping my legs around him to hold him above me. Of course that wouldn't stop him if he really wanted to pull away, but he froze, his eyes wide, then he leaned down to kiss me again.