“Tess,” I call, but there’s no answer.

I knock again, a little harder this time, but her door remains frustratingly closed.

“We’ve got to talk about it, Tess,” I sigh, still feeling restless because I can’t see her.

It seems that despite the fact that we didn’t actually get physical, my alpha has decided she’s ours to take care of until she’s…better. Something that will prove difficult when another wave hits. I don’t know if I can survive another without touching her.

Which is why we need to talk.

“Tess! I’m not leaving, and I live here, so you can either open the door, and we can talk about it, or I can—”

She wrenches the door open, and then she’s standing there, her hair a mess and her teeth worrying at her bottom lip. Her cheeks are flushed pink, her pale skin rosy at the apples, and her wide brown eyes even more owlish than usual. The dark circles underneath them certainly aren’t helping matters.

“I was hoping if I pretended you weren’t real long enough, maybe you’d go away,” she mumbles.

“Clearly not,” I remark.

She sighs, leaning against the doorframe as she scrubs a hand down her face. “A girl can dream.”

“We have to talk about it. We have to decide what you’re going to do before another wave—”

And then it hits me.

I can’t scent her heat anymore.

I lean in despite her garbled protests, inhaling at her throat deeply. Nothing. She smells normal now. Granted, even her usual scent is mouthwatering, but it doesn’t have my knot threatening to swell, at least.

I rear back, confused. “How can it already be over?”

“Yeah…” She rubs at the back of her neck. “About that…” She winces. “Are you sure we can’t just pretend nothing happened?”

I grit my teeth, still remembering the hell that was last night, when I was forced to stick close to her despite being tortured by her delicious scent.

“No,” I tell her resolutely. “We can’t.” I feel frustration building inside me. “How could you be so careless?”

Her eyes go wide. “Excuse me?”

“You come here on the cusp of your heat—no suppressants—and you just don’t say anything? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? What if I’d been a bad guy? What if I’d taken advantage of you?”

And I’m realizing how much that thought angers me. The possibility that there might have been someone with less scruples than me whom she could have found herself with. Someone who would have used her.

My alpha hates that.

I immediately feel guilty when her eyes go wide with shock, but the very real fear I feel when she’s imagining it keeps me from apologizing. Her mouth parts, her eyes going to the floor as she considers the question.

“I didn’t know, okay?”

This gives me pause. “What?”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen!”

“Like…” I struggle to think of reasons as to why that might occur. “Like you’re off schedule?”

She snorts, rolling her eyes. “Like there isn’t a schedule. Or…there wasn’t. I guess there is now.” She throws up her hands. “I don’t know!”

“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”

“Listen,” she says with a huff. “Two days ago? I woke up a beta. The same way I’ve woken up for the last twenty-eight years. The same as my parents and my brothers and everyone else I know in my family. Then suddenly, after Satan’s sky ride of a flight and the worst flu symptoms I’ve ever had, some random ER doctor is telling me that, surprise! I am apparently a shifter. And not just any ol’ regular shifter, but an omega.”

My nose wrinkles. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re telling me,” she scoffs.

I eye her incredulously, earning me another roll of her eyes.

“It’s called ‘late presentation,’ ” she tells me.

“And that’s…a thing?”

“Apparently.”

“Huh.” It’s definitely nothing I’ve ever heard of, but then again, she’s only the second omega I’ve spent any real time with. So what do I know? “And that causes you to…”

I wave my hand aimlessly, hoping she’ll throw me a bone so I don’t have to say it.

Her brow cocks. “To throw myself at the first guy I can get my hands on? Apparently.”

Her phrasing leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because I’m thinking of the possible scenario where someone else might have been around last night. Again, my alpha hates this very much.

Fucking hormones.

“To be fair,” I say, clearing my throat. “It being us trapped in the lodge probably isn’t making things any better.”

Her head tilts to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Because of what I am.”

She looks lost. “And…you are?”

“An alpha,” I answer flatly. “My pheromones are going to make yours go haywire.”

“You are?”

“You didn’t know?”

Her eyes go wide. “I had no idea. How would I have? I didn’t even know what I was two days ago.”

“But you said…”

Alpha.

Alpha.

Alpha.

I take a deep breath. “That’s what you called me. Last night.”

I watch as her cheeks tinge pink, no doubt remembering everything that happened last night. Not that I can blame her. It’s playing on a loop in the back of my mind.

“Oh” is all she says.

“Oh?”

“I mean…the doctor mentioned that I should steer clear of…people like you. I don’t even remember saying that. Maybe I was thinking out loud?”

Silence stretches between us, both of us no doubt trying to decide how to move forward. I can feel irritation brewing inside me, an emotion that makes no sense. Why on earth would I be annoyed that she hadn’t meant to call me that last night?

“Can we just…” She shuffles her weight from one foot to the other. “Can we please just pretend last night didn’t happen?”

“Pretend,” I echo dumbly.

“Yeah, I mean…I still have a job to do.”

“And what if this happens again?”

Her mouth forms an O shape, her brows lifting. “Again?”

“It seems like this came out of nowhere, right?”

“Kind of,” she admits.

“And it only lasted a few hours? I’m no expert, but that’s not normal.”

“The doctor said that I might experience some…issues. While my body changes.”

“There’s a chance this will happen again, Tess.”

She bites her lower lip. “Maybe it won’t.”

I want to grab her and shake her. I’m too on edge thinking about this happening when someone else is around. When she’s vulnerable.

“And what if it does?”

“Then I’ll deal with it,” she says primly. “Contrary to the way I acted last night, I can take care of myself.”

I stare back at her, thinking. The words on the tip of my tongue go against everything I’ve ever sworn to myself, but the thought of her finding herself in a situation where someone might use her makes my stomach twist. I can’t let myself get wrapped up in…whatever this is. I know where that road leads.

“You need to be on suppressants,” I say through gritted teeth.

Her brows knit. “The doctor said we shouldn’t hinder my body’s natural changes.”

“And how is that fair to me?”

She rears back. “Fair to you?”

“You think it was easy? Turning you down like I did? It causes me physical pain to be around you when you’re like that.”

“Wow,” she snorts. “I’m sorry that my life blowing up is inconveniencing you.”

I wince, trying to get my aggravation in check as I realize that this whole thing most likely is a nightmare for her—the fact that she can’t control it. Part of me feels like an asshole now.

I’m opening my mouth to try to smooth things over, maybe even offer to stay with Jeannie while Tess is here, as much of a hassle as that will be for me, but then—

“Oy, Tess! You here?”

I take a step back to catch sight of three random men pushing through the door in the foyer at the base of the stairs, each carrying a bag and looking around with interest. When I turn to Tess, I notice relief in her features, her mouth even twisting up in a smile.