I recognize it for what it is—it’s the same sensation that had me begging him to touch me only days ago—but with the way my body is keyed up from our afternoon, I’m more in tune with it this time. It feels less like a siege of my body and more like the way I’ve been feeling all afternoon. Like letting go.

And all at once, I forget why I protested Hunter’s attempt to help in the first place.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “I didn’t—”

“I know you didn’t,” he assures me. “I know.”

That same heat ratchets even higher, the throbbing in my core damn near painful. I grit my teeth, shifting slightly and gasping when I feel Hunter hard between my legs.

“Sorry,” he grits out. “I can’t help it.”

I swallow thickly, trying to shift away but only managing to rub against him again, causing us both to groan.

“I could…” He shudders beneath me. “I could help you.”

My skin feels like it gets tighter around my bones as a cramp tears through me. “You…could? Like last time?”

I feel the ghost of his fingertips skirt along my thigh, so warm despite the chill in the air.

“I don’t want to take advantage of you,” he says. “But you could…you could use me.”

I can’t help it; I rock my hips once—just once—gasping when I feel something long and hard between my legs. I realize that I’m absolutely drenched, and there is no way Hunter doesn’t feel it. Not when I’m two steps away from riding him.

“It feels like I’m taking advantage of you,” I groan.

He shakes his head. “Just because it’s instinct drawing you to me…doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

Oh. That makes me shiver all over.

“What if we just—” I let out a shuddering breath. “No sex. Just…just touching. Maybe that will…help it not get too complicated.”

I watch his eyes darken even further, the pupils swallowing up his irises until there’s almost nothing left of them.

“You mean”—his nails bite into the softness of my thighs right as his hips tilt to let the hard length of him grind against my aching core—“like this?”

I throw my head back with a gasp, my eyes fluttering shut as sparks course through me. It’s the basest level of satisfaction I’ve ever felt, like a desperate need that’s being met to the fullest. I nod dazedly, chasing after the motion with another rock of my hips.

“Just like that,” I rasp. “Again.”

Even as the fire tears through my body, threatening to consume me, the feel of Hunter beneath me, the clash of his own heat—all of it has me careening into some higher plane where nothing feels real and yet everything feels too real.

We find a rhythm—I rock my hips to meet the rolling of his, each slide of his cock along my slick folds sending sparks across my skin and deep in my belly that take me even higher.

And then he opens his mouth and sends me right into the stratosphere.

“Fuck, look at you,” he grinds out. “You look so pretty riding me.” His hands curl around to grip my ass, pulling me down harder against his cock until I’m gasping for breath. “That’s it,” he croons. “That’s a good omega. Use me. Take what you need.”

And I do, I fucking do. In a display that is more wanton than anything I’ve done in my entire life, I start to undulate my hips faster and faster, chasing the relief I know he can give me. Like this, I can feel every ridge, every hard inch of him—and every touch only makes me want more. I grind down against him again and again, shutting my eyes tight to focus on the feeling of him, on the raw power he exudes. He’s so big. Everything about him seems to call to this part of me that I never knew existed, almost as if simply being near him forces that part of me to wake up, to take notice of him.

“Fuck,” he grunts. “I’m going to come if you keep doing that, Tess.”

I nod frantically, because I want it. I want to know that he’s as lost to this as I am.

“Please,” I manage, my voice no more than a whimper.

“You want my cum?”

I brace myself against his chest, digging my nails into the hard muscle of his pecs until he hisses with it. “Yes.”

He grips me tighter, forcing me to roll against him even faster than before, and the delicious friction of his cock sliding along my clit has me shaking, has my entire body strung tight like a bowstring. And it’s so close, it’s right there, and I—

“Oh.”

My body seizes up even as I quiver with my orgasm, and if I weren’t so far gone, I might be embarrassed by the gush of fluids that escapes me, wetting his pelvis to the point that I can hear the sloppy slide of his cock through my folds.

“Look so pretty when you come,” he says through gritted teeth. “When you make a mess of me. Fuck, I’m gonna—”

I feel a hot splash of fluid as his cock pulses between my legs, and I have an irrational, fleeting thought mourning the fact that he’s not inside me. As if my instincts are angry with me for not keeping his cum for myself. I even have the brief, mortifying urge to reach down and stuff it inside me, one that takes the last remaining bit of my restraint to resist.

And when I come down from the high of it all, it hits me that I’m straddling Hunter, naked, both of us planted in the snow, out in the open where anyone might come across us. Endorphins still flood my system, accompanied by the chill creeping into my flushed body, making me shiver.

I stare down at Hunter with wide eyes, feeling a flush of embarrassment creep into my chest. “I—”

And Hunter, sensing my rising panic, seems to know just what to do.

“Shh.” He gently rubs my thighs, his glazed eyes half covered by heavy lids. “You’re okay. You’re safe. Just let me take care of you.”

He coaxes me down until I’m curled into his chest, his large hands smoothing over each notch in my spine.

“It’s okay,” he coos. “I’ve got you.”

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” I admit, feeling a rush of fear. “What’s happening to me, Hunter?”

“You’re going to be okay,” he urges. “All right? I promise.”

“What if this happens again?”

His hand stills near the base of my spine. “If it happens again…then you’ll let me help you. Okay? It doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just biology.”

“Biology,” I echo.

“It’s clear that all these new hormones being introduced into your system are triggering these sort of mini…heats. That’s the only explanation for you to smell like heat only to lose it after being…satisfied.”

“Satisfied,” I snort.

“I’m not a doctor,” he chuckles. “But it’s the only thing I can think of.”

“I guess it makes sense,” I sigh.

There’s a beat of silence before: “I don’t think my alpha will allow me to let you suffer, Tess,” he admits quietly. “You’re not the only one affected.”

“Is it wrong to say that makes me feel better?”

He chuckles softly once more. “No. I can’t imagine how scary this is for you.”

“So we’re…friends? Who help each other?”

“Friends,” he agrees. “Who help each other.”

I sigh, relaxing into his hold. “Okay. I can live with that.”

“Good. Now let’s get you back to your clothes before the adrenaline leaves your system and you freeze. Can you change again?”

I nod into his chest, strangely reluctant to let go of him just yet. I know we need to talk about this more, but with his cum drying on my skin and the air growing increasingly more frigid—I don’t think I can manage it right now. Maybe when we’re back in the warm lodge and more…clothed.

I feel his lips at my hair as he murmurs, “Race you back?”

His question eases some of my embarrassment, and my lips curl into a grin.

“I’m going to destroy you.”

He laughs again, giving my ass a soft pat. “Sure you are.”

The problem with calling myself Tess’s friend is that I don’t think that friends think of each other the way I’ve been thinking of her for the last week. We’ve been perfectly friendly when she comes to me with questions or asks for my help in making decisions regarding her current project; her brothers have also been a tad friendlier when interacting with me. Even if one of them keeps asking me if I have fangs.