Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

Callista

I stood under the icy stream of water, my hands shaking as I tried to keep my balance. The spray from the showerhead hit my chest, and literal steam rose from my feverish skin.

I was a mess.

My fingers fumbled with the shower knob, trying to turn it colder. The water was already as frigid as possible, yet it did nothing to quell the fire burning inside me.

This was it. This was how I was going to die. Scalded to death from the inside out. Ironic, really, considering the gaping wound on my arm and my aversion to heat. I'd always been more of a cold-weather girl, preferring snowy chill to oppressive summer heat. Appropriate, then, that I was craving an ice bath.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember the last time I'd felt anything like this. My first heat had been bad, sure, but not like this. It had been more of an inconvenience than an emergency, a biological reminder that I was, in fact, an omega. But this?

I leaned my head back, letting the water pour over my face. The icy droplets felt like needles on my burning skin, but I welcomed the sensation. I reached out and braced myself against the shower wall, my skin slick with water. The tiles were cold under my palm, a small relief from the heat, but it was like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.

I need a mate. The thought slammed into me like a freight train, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block it out. My wolf whined, pushing against my consciousness. No . I could handle this. I'd dealt with pain worse than this over the past few weeks. I could wait it out.

My muscles tensed, and I fought the urge to curl into a ball on the shower floor. I didn't just need a mate. My wolf wanted him. She could sense him, even with the doors between us. Kael was seconds away, and she was desperate.

"He's not good for us," I hissed. He wasn't. He was a hired killer, working for the same people Nathan had been. I knew nothing about him besides that, and those details weren't favorable.

But would it be terrible to have someone take the edge off? I knew wolves who did that all the time. Who called one of our single men or even a human. My wolf growled, and an image of Kael flashed in my head.

"Not helping." Damn. She needed to settle down.

I turned off the water, wrung out my hair, and grabbed the towel hanging on the bar. I barely had time to register the rush of cold air before Lana stepped in, her dark hair pulled back, her eyes sharp with concern.

She closed the door behind her, locking us in the small, tiled space. "You've looked…better."

I tried to smile, but my lips barely moved.

Lana exhaled. "How bad?"

I forced myself to take a deep breath, but it felt like my lungs were filled with hot coals. "Worse than before. So much worse."

Lana shook her head. "I'm so sorry. I wish there was something I could do. Do you want something to eat? Bill says he makes a mean Kraft Dinner." Lana smirked.

I shook my head. "No. I just need a minute."

Lana nodded and leaned against the counter, her arms crossed over her chest. "Do you want me to stay?"

"No. You can go enjoy Bill's noodles."

"Well, when you say it like that…"

I laughed, still clutching the towel around me. "This is terrible timing."

"It's predictable timing," she said. I shot her a look. "Your body has been through hell, and now, with all this going on." She twirled her finger in the air. "You need to be careful."

My eyes narrowed. "The moon, right? The magic? That's what you mean by all this?" It's not like I could avoid the moon cycle or the fact that the dagger was hunting me.

"Definitely. It has nothing to do with the ultra-masculine wolf sitting in the other room."

"Lana!" I hissed. "This is not because of Kael."

"It's not not because of Kael. He saved your life back there."

"Yeah! After he tried to take it!"

Lana shrugged. "When wolves feel threatened, their instincts kick in. It's like a survival mechanism. Your body is trying to find a way to protect itself, to ensure you have someone strong enough to keep you safe."

"But Kael's not?—"

"It doesn't matter what he is. Your body is reacting to him because he's the one who found you, who brought you back to life. It's not about logic. It's about biology."

I frowned. "So my body is just . . . doing this without my permission?" I opened the washroom door, darted across the hall to my bedroom and flopped down on the bed.

Lana stormed in after me, slamming the door behind us. " Careful. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but it makes sense, doesn't it?"

I was already sweating again. "If he's still here, will this go on forever?"

"I hope not," Lana muttered. "As it is, Rowan's going to be pissed we left."

Rowan was the last thing on my mind. "Are you going to call him?"

She nodded. "Pray for me."

I groaned and sat, looking at my bag Lana had brought in from the truck and the pile of dirty clothes. "I should sleep."

"Can you sleep?"

"That is yet to be determined." No . The answer to that question was no. The idea of putting clothes on made me cringe, but the thought of getting into Bill's sheets naked…well. I hoped they were clean.

Lana retreated to the door. "Okay, but you know where I am. Just call, and I'll be here." I nodded as she exited, leaving me alone with my thoughts and swollen lady parts.

As soon as she left, I threw off my towel. The digital clock on the nightstand read one-thirty eight. Fantastic.

I flicked off the lights, then stripped the quilt and top sheet back on the bed. I curled up on my side, trying to convince myself that I could handle this. That I didn't need anyone else. That I didn't need him.

But my mind kept drifting back to Kael. I made up stories about him. Pretended he'd looked at me in ways that he hadn't. That he'd touched me in places that weren't logistical.

Flashes of his eyes, his mouth, his hand played through my mind like a reel on an old film projector. He only had five fingers, and the things he'd been able to do with them were mind-boggling. They must be more dextrous…

And then there was the thought that sent my stomach plummeting.

Kael knew. He'd seen me run to the kitchen, and even if Lana didn't explain, male wolves were instantly aware of the change in scent when a she-wolf was at her height of fertility.

Was he in his room feeling this, too? Did he have the same insatiable heat running through his veins?

I hated that I wondered. That I was so desperate for release I was fantasizing about him.

Call him.

I froze at the thought. It wasn't words exactly, rather an impulse. A knowledge, pushed to me from my wolf.

I can't call him, I don't have his ? —

A rush of what I can only describe as colors and warmth burst from my mind, sent like a beacon meant for one person and one person only.

My wolf had just put out the equivalent of a red-light bat signal for Kael.