Chains

Chapter 30 - In Heat Part I

"I love the colorful homes", I said leaning against Kale. "It all seems so festive and yet peaceful at the same time."

"That's one of the things I love about our pack", he explained.

"Several generations ago, the pack Alpha felt that this would improve pack morale. That was back when the pack was much smaller. It worked though, and we've kept up the tradition ever since. Even newer homes are built following the tradition."

The market area was a large square building down one of the side roads that could easily have held a couple of football fields and had room to spare. It was a large single story warehouse-like structure which could be used year round, protecting from both summer's heat and winter's cold. The interior was all open space divided up into stalls. There was an area for stalls with freezers filled with a variety of meats. Another for stalls with vegetables and fruits. Along one side were stalls for various electronics and appliances. We passed a stall with clothing, much of it was hand made and very beautiful. There was a beautiful hand knitted sweater that I fell in love with that looked just my size.

"Do you like that?" Kale asked.

"I love it, it's so beautiful." I replied, not able to take my eyes off of it.

Due to my small size, I often feel chilled after the sun goes down or on overcast days.

"Then shall we get it?" My eyes went wide at his words.

"I-I don't have any money." I looked down embarrassed. I haven't even touched money since my eighteenth birthday. I hadn't expected to see anything in the market that I wanted, so I hadn't even been thinking about money; not that it would have made a difference since I don't have money anyway.

"Would you be willing to accept it as a gift from your mate who really wants to give you a gift right now?" He asked hopefully, looking down at me with love in his eyes.

"I-I guess so." I replied shyly, again embarrassed, this time by the raw emotion in Kale's eyes.

We spent the rest of the day wandering through the market and visiting with various pack members who stopped Kale and I to talk. After a few hours I began feeling too warm and slightly feverish barely able to arrange my thoughts coherently. I was sweating profusely and asked Kale to take me back to the manor. By the time we reached the road leading to the manor I was feeling way too hot and I stumbled, unable to walk on my own any longer. Kale caught me before I fell and picked me up, bridal style, racing to the manor calling for the pack doctor through his mind link.

Kale

I carried Jaxon the last bit back to the manor, calling the pack doctor through the link. The pack clinic wasn't far from the manor so it didn't take long for him to arrive. Jax was burning up and needed care right away. I carried him directly to the our room, laying him down on the bed.

"Don't leave me", he moaned as I released my hold. He grasped my hand and held it to his face. "You feel so good, you smell so good." He began writhing, grasping his shirt and trying to tear it off.

The doctor raced into the room, took one look at Jaxon and hurried over to the bed and putting his hand on Jax's forehead.

"Can you describe what you're feeling?" He asked Jaxon, taking ahold of one of his eyes and peering into his pupils.

"I feel like I'm on fire", Jaxon gasped. "And I'm having cramps in my stomach."

"Do you know what is wrong with him, Joey?" Joey Brown is the head doctor of our pack.

"It's nothing serious." He replied back, turning and shooing away the others who had followed me up to the room out. "He's just going into heat. You're the one he needs right now, not me." He smirked at me, winking. "You know what you need to do, right? I don't need to give you 'the talk'?" Now he was just teasing me.

I breathed a sigh of relief myself as he turned around and left himself, closing the door behind him.

I felt foolish after hearing the doctor's words for not recognizing the signs that Jax was going into heat. I was slightly embarrassed by it. Regardless, now that I know what is going on, I know just what to do for it. I turned back to the bed where Jaxon was still trying to get out of his clothes.