Ah, so he noticed. Great.

“Your…alpha?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he says. “It’s like there’s this wilder side to me. Almost like my wolf runs the show sometimes.”

“Will that happen to me?”

“Probably,” he tells me. “After you come into it more, I imagine. Anyway…Again. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I say after a beat. And, weirdly, I mean it. “It’s actually a relief to know that I’m not the only one losing it because of some hormonal bullshit.”

He chuckles softly, the low sound enough to warm me from even a few feet away. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “You’ve really dealt with this before?”

He looks aggravated, like maybe he said more than he meant to, but nods heavily. “Like I said…you’re not the first omega I’ve met.”

Wow. The pure shock of something that feels dangerously like jealousy coursing through me is powerful and potent. And ridiculous. Definitely ridiculous.

He heaves a sigh as he goes on. “What we are…it’s like we’re designed to be drawn to each other. The more time we spend together…like that—the more we’ll want it. It’s just our nature. It’s not…you that I’m wary of, Tess. It’s the situation. I’ve played this game before and lost. But I want to help you if I can.” His brows shoot up as he realizes what he’s said. “With questions, I mean. If you have any. If I can answer them.”

“Well, I mean…that’s good, I guess.” My lips part as I shake my head. “For me, at least,” I correct, laughing awkwardly. “I’d definitely love to be able to ask questions if they come up.”

“Of course,” he says. “Anything you need.”

It’s a foreign sensation for me, the possibility of needing someone, and I don’t know what to make of it. Normally, it might irritate me, the thought of having to rely on someone, but for some reason, with Hunter, it just…doesn’t. Is that what he was talking about? Is that just what we are?

Anything you need.

All I can do is hope that it doesn’t come down to me needing his dick again, because will I really be strong enough to not go to him next time? I don’t know if I can survive another embarrassment like that.

“I appreciate it,” I tell him. “Really.”

He shoves his hands in his pockets, offering me a thin smile. “No problem.”

“And…I guess I should actually say thank you.”

He cocks his head. “Thank you?”

“For…” My cheeks heat. “For helping me. For being the good guy. You could have really taken advantage of me that night, but you didn’t. And now that I know you’ve had bad experiences with people like me…Well. Thank you.”

“Oh…” He rubs at his neck, shifting his eyes to his feet. “It was no problem.”

And right there on the tip of my tongue are questions about the omega he knew—what she was like, how they met—all sorts of things that aren’t my business to ask or even to think, but they’re waiting there anyway.

I open my mouth, not even sure what’s about to come out of it, but thankfully, Chase saves me.

“Yo, Tess!”

I turn to my brother. “Yeah?”

“Can you come look at this? I need your eyes.”

“Be right there,” I say.

He goes back inside, leaving me alone with Hunter again.

“Well,” I say. “I guess I’d better get back to work.”

“Lots of fixin’ to do,” he answers with a wry smile.

I match it with one of my own. “Lots.”

I leave him there, feeling better than I did before I found him. Maybe we can put the weirdness behind us. It’s only hormones, after all. It’s not like it meant something. Provided my body behaves, maybe the rest of my time here will go by smoothly. Maybe Hunter and I can even be friends.

Flashes of his naked chest flit through my thoughts, from the defined muscles to the thick fur there that shouldn’t be as appealing as it is.

Friends, I remind my stupid, horny brain. Just friends.

Things have been slightly less strained after my talk with Tess on the deck a few days ago. At least…outwardly. I still think about the way she sounded and smelled in my arms at least fourteen times a day, but who’s counting?

She and her brothers have gotten quite a lot done in their first week; the carpet in the great room has all been ripped up, and they’ve even started working on the mantel over the fireplace. I have to admit…the changes are already an improvement, and there’s still so much more to be done. My few discussions with Tess prove that she’s doing her best to plan her updates without changing the heart of the place, and I can’t tell her what that means to me. I probably should, but then again, I can barely speak to her for more than five seconds without remembering her touching herself in my bed. It makes for an awkward working relationship, to be sure.

Which is why I’ve resorted to calling what I hope will be a more expert opinion.

It rings twice before he picks up; ever prompt, my cousin.

“Hello,” Noah greets.

“Hey,” I answer. “Busy?”

“Most days, yes,” he tells me in that dry tone that garners no nonsense. “Did you need something?”

“I needed to ask for…some medical advice.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, it’s not for me.”

A stretch of silence before: “Well, go on then.”

I remind myself that Noah is practically an android and that I shouldn’t be offended by his brusqueness.

“There’s a woman—”

“I’m the last person that you should be asking for advice on women.”

I scoff. “Says the happily mated man.”

“Yes, but”—his tone goes a fraction softer, as it often does when he speaks of his mate—“that was mostly Mackenzie’s doing.”

“Are you telling me I should call your mate?”

I smile at the prickliness in his tone when he answers, “No. You can ask me.”

“There’s a woman here working on the lodge, and—”

“What’s wrong with the lodge?”

“Are you going to let me finish a question or are you going to keep rudely interrupting?”

“You introduced a new topic into the conversation,” he says. “It’s not rude to ask for clarification.”

Literally an android.

“The lodge is fine,” I explain. “Jeannie—” I frown, not exactly wanting to put it out there that my aunt strong-armed me. “I mean I hired a team to do some renovations.”

“That’s nice,” Noah says. He’s quiet for a second before: “Even the corner bedroom upstairs?”

“Yes, I’m sorry to say we will be touching your unspoken heat room.”

I can practically hear him frowning; I don’t want to think about all the reasons that room is special to him—it took a week of uncomfortable boners to air out the scent of Mackenzie’s impromptu heat last year.

“I suppose if you have to,” he says petulantly. “What about this woman?”

“She’s heading up the team doing the renovations.”

“And?”

“And she’s experiencing some…strange symptoms.”

“What sort of symptoms?”

“Like, a-week-ago-she-was-a-beta symptoms.”

“Ah.”

I rear back. “ ‘Ah’? That’s all you have to say?”

“I’ve heard of this happening,” he tells me.

“You have?”

“Mm-hmm. This isn’t the first case I’ve been made aware of. What sort of symptoms is she experiencing?”

“Heat symptoms,” I tell him through gritted teeth, tensing from just the thought of Tess spiraling into another episode. “Ones that go as fast as they come.”

“How long do they last?”

“So far, it’s only happened one time, but it lasted at least a few hours. I don’t know. She was gone when I woke up.”

“You slept with her? Someone experiencing heat for the first time?”

“No,” I huff. “I’m not a fucking monster. I just gave her my scent and…talked her through it.”

“Talked her through it.”

“She needed something! She was suffering.”

“I suppose it would take considerable willpower to resist a shifter in full-blown heat. That was good of you.”