Fug hell,” Liam’s yelled curse captured my attention. “Just how long ago did you use your SoulStone?” before I could answer, he lifted a hand. “Wait, it couldn’t have been all that long ago. Not with you being so weak and not really knowing how to use any of your abilities. Now, be ho with me, when was your st period?”

  What the fuck was wrong with this guy? I suddenly wao march up to the big bad wolf and smack him upside the head for asking that question. Who in their right mind would ever answer such a question?

  My silence seemed like it annoyed him because he growled. “I don’t have time for this. CAMILLE!” The very air around me vibrated as he roared out her name.

  Within moments, Camille's blurred form slid across the stone floor as she ehe room. “Yes, Alpha?” She panted out only to freeze at something.

  “Get me Pendragon and Ginger. Also, see if you get Kai back here.” As he spoke, her head turo look in my dire. She looked both horrified and sad for some reason. Before I could demand to know what was going on, he yelled at her. “NOW! Also, get me a room. Ohat lock from both sides and has an antechamber. Kyren is going to for at least…fuck, how long does a fox go into heat? Make it a week to be safe.”

  “Yes alph…” Was all I could make out as she vanished from the room.

  I wao ask what was going on, why he was suddenly so demanding but he didn’t let me. “This couldn’t e at a worse time. Now, I am not bming you or anything. Well, I kind of am. You should have noticed that your heat on you but then again you probably didn’t know such a thing was going to be a problem.”

  His hand lifted to rub at the bridge of his nose as he thought about something or another. “What do you mean?” I gingerly asked as a slight tinge of fear edged into my mind. While I got that animals went into heat and all that, I had hought about what that meant and I sure as hell hought that it would be su issue for me.

  “Tell me,” his hand dropped to his desk as he spoke. “Have your emotions been a bit off i few hours? Did some odd thoughts about people and various sexual acts pop into your head?”

  Everything that I had felt for the st day now made a bit more sense. I mean, why else would I have been thinking these things? Sure, there might have been a few curious thoughts floating in my mind over the years, but that didn’t mean that I ever thought about ag on such thoughts. So, yes, I had asked the questions every man asks themselves at least ohen there were my growing feelings toward the men near me and the sudden jealousy I had felt when the female wolf shifter transformed into a naked woman near Liam.

  Feelings that even now caused me to flush with embarrassment. Liam rolled his eyes. “This is not the time to get squeamish about sex or your feelings. Not unless you want to be stuck out here where you might be sidered open to offers.”

  If anything, his words made my embarrassment worse. Uo answer him, I simply nodded.

  “Damn.” He cursed. Before he could say or ask anything else, two figures came flying into the room.

  “Where is she and what did you do tinger practically screamed as her blurred figure smmed to a stop in from of his desk. Her hands smmed onto the desk with a loud boom as if emphasizing her need for an answer and her seriousness.

  “I o…” the alpha started only to get interrupted by Pendragon’s “Oh shit,” as his eyes met mihey were wide and his nose was rapidly expanding and trag as he rapidly pulled in air.

  Giuro him “What?!”

  “Tell me that Kai is nearby,” Liam said.

  “He is currently in the capital,” Ginger answered as she turned back toward the alpha. “Will someoell me what is going on?”

  The wolf ignored her question to ask another of his own. “And how long has it been since Kyrehe SoulStone?”

  “Five days, maybe even a week.” Liam groa her words. The groan did something to me. Something about it made me want to feel him use it on me. Where and how? I had no fug idea.

  “Do you happen to know whe period was? She refuses to answer me.” I rolled my eyes as I had a good reason to not ahe dickhead alpha. Of course, that thought brought back images of his exposed member. Suddenly I wao see how it felt when I rubbed it. Yeah, something was very very wrong with me.

  “She has…oh…” Ginger's eyes widened as she spun to face me. Her eyes looked me up and down. I could see her eyes flicker bad forth as she took me in. “Well, shit. My brother is going to kick your ass if you touch her.”

  I had no idea what or who she was talking about. Why would anyooug me? “You think I don’t know that?” Liam growled. Something about his growl had me imagining him leaning over me as he growled something into my ear. What it was I had no idea but it must have been something good because a few muscles I didn’t know I had between my legs ched. As I tried to work through the haze that was expanding in my mind, the two of them tiue.

  “A you are still here. Still h around her as if waiting for her to beg for your help.” She s him.

  “What would you have me do?!” He snapped back. “My office is not secure. Someone has to stay here and keep her from doing something she will e tret.” Regret? What was there tret? Surely it wouldn’t hurt to have someone help alleviate this growing need before it became too much.

  “And what was your pn? To just sit here and wait for something to happen? For someoo e challenge you so that you could show her that you would make a great option? So that you could take advantage of her?” Ginger sounded pissed and something in the bay mind agreed with her. Too bad that part of my mind was slowly being drowned out by the growing need and fn desires I was suddenly aware of.

  “God no!” Liam sounded almost pissed at the very idea. “I sent one of my people off to secure a room with all the appropriate protes. She should be bay minute now, assuming she doesn’t have any issues with paperwork.”

  Ginger sighed but seemed to calm down as she stepped toward me. “Kyren.” My eyes met hers as she spoke my name. “Just try and hold on a little bit longer.”

  “It hurts.” And it did. The fire had slowly grown out from where it had started. Going from the tiny spark to the r inferno that now bzed beh my skin. My only saving grace was the fact that it was not the only fire that burned inside of me. My Fox Fire spat and s the invading fire every time it got close to my core. Then there were the ripples of muscles and odd feelings that came a. They hit everywhere yet didn’t seem to folloattern. Well, other than the fact that they loved to start or end at my navel or between my legs.

  “Oh, honey.” She sat dowo me and pulled my head into her p. “I am so sorry you have to gh this.” Her voice was soft and ing as one of her hands rubbed my ear. Something about the way she messaged it helped to rex my body and took the edge off the fires that raged through my body.

  I lost track of the voices arouhe world, and even my sense of time thanks to her ministrations. Unfortunately, as with everything, it had to e to an end. My short respite ended when a blurring figure smashed, literally, into Liam’s desk. As my eyes popped open, I found that the air was full of papers and a filing figure.

  A loud growling sound filled the room as Liam held the intruder up. “Did you get the room?”

  “Ye…ye…yes sir!” Camille whimpered. “Room Charlie three seventy-five. It was the only ohey would give me.”

  “It will have to do,” he stated as he let her go. Her upper body dropped to the desk as he moved around to where I ractically curled up in Ginger’s p. His voice dropped until it was barely audible and almost seemed to vibrate the air between us. “Now, I carry you like this,” Ginger let out a growl that had the alpha snapping at her. “Do you know where that room is?”

  Her growl shifted a bit as she spoke. “I will carry her or do you want to expin to my brother why you touched her while she was in her heat?” The annoying alpha let out a huff of exasperation. Almost sounding as if he would rather be doing anything else. Her voice gentled as her mouth practically touched my ear. “The trip will be more fortable if you shift to your fox form.”

  The fact that something was able to make me more fortable was all I o hear. With a quick mental push and a burst of mana, my clothes vanished into my iory as my body shrank. It went from my Kitsune form to my fox form. A fox form that had its tail tightly ed around my feet and c my nose.

  Without warning, a pair of hands reached under me. They pulled me toward their owner’s chest. A chest that was surprisingly well-toned and fortable. It helped that whoever it was smelled of teak and linseed oil. Or at least that’s what my brain was telling me. Given that I couldn’t remember smelliher, I had no clue if I was right or not but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the warmth that she was giving off and whether or not someone would be willing to help me get through whatever this was.

  Suddenly, she set me down in a bed. Which was odd as it felt as though she had just picked me up. At the sound of someone running off, I peeked over my paws and through my tail to find that I was no longer in the office. In fact, the room looked pletely different than anything I had found myself in until now. The only ohat came close was the one for the Oracle. But that one had beeroyed by whatever had killed him so I couldn’t quite tell.

  But, none of it mattered to me. All that mattered was the soft mattress and the sound of water spshing into what I had to assume was a tub. Before I could get up and race toward the noise, Liam grabbed my fad forced me to look at him as he spoke. “You will stay in this room until your heat ends. No one, and I mean no one, is to enter your room unless it is either Ginger or her brother Kai. Do you uand me?”

  A whine escaped me at the thought of being on my own with the slowly returning pain. Surely Liam or Pendragon was willing to at least help me get through this. It didn’t have to be something perma or anything. Hell, he must have dohis at least once or twice for other shifter women.

  His hand shook my face. “Do you uand?” With the sed, more forceful and, I realized he wasn’t going to stay to help me. No one was going to stay and help me. They were all going to leave me to my pain. Sad and resigo my fate, I nodded my agreement. “Good girl. Now go take a bath. Rex for as long as you are able.”

  With that, the man released me before striding out of the room. Ginger came from the dire of the rushing water. She shut the door and locked it before ing toward me. Her face was filled with sadness and pity as she spoke. “I am so sorry. While my brother knows that the two of you are just friends, Xander wao be here for you. If to do nothing more than to help you find a way to get through your first heat.”

  I let out a soft whimper as some muscles started to d release. “Let me help you to the bath. The hot water will help with your cramps.” She spoke as if she had some experience. Given that she art fox, I had no doubt that she did.