One Bite

Chapter 3-1

The question is burning inside me.

"Elena, what is heat?"

"We are seriously not going to talk about that now." Raina was also awake.

"What?" I watched as she sat up and stretched as well. "In prison, I had a strange warm sensation, umm, everywhere. Including here." I pointed my index finger between my legs. "I've never felt that."

My cheeks warmed as I shifted my gaze back to Elena. "The rogue prisoner called me a dog in heat... Is that what it was?"

"Most likely, yes." She slipped her glasses up her nose and nodded. "Every month with your natural cycle, around the optimal mating time to make a pup, your reproductive hormones make your body physically crave your mate. The longer you go without your mate, the worse it will get."

"It's going to get worse?" My mouth dropped open.

"Yes. You're on birth control, right?" After I nodded at her question, she continued, "That should suppress it a bit."

A bit? That heat felt awful.

My shoulders trembled at the thought.

"That's a relief." I exhaled, puffing out my cheeks.

"Nothing will help once you find your mate. It's unbearable between starting the mating process and completing it." With a smile, Elena offered what felt like the worst pep talk, "Only your mate can provide relief from it."

"What about after completing the mating process?" At my question, Raina's eyes shifted to Elena.

"Again, no, Zara," Elena confessed and shook her head. "I assume it's part of the natural reproductive process."

"Awesome," I muttered under my breath, although the heat process was already very not-awesome.

Raina sat still, observing this conversation, so I turned to her. "Do you get it too, Raina?"

She rolled her eyes. "Some of us are capable of exerting control over our bodies, Zara."

"Oh." My palms rubbed over my upper arms, heat warming my cheeks from another reminder that I needed to learn self-control.

"Except for heat." Raina snorted. "It's a bitch."

My shoulders and chest pitching, I burst into laughter. Elena added in her giggles, her slender shoulders bouncing. Raina let out a small chuckle.

"I bet Cole's happy to be riding in the other car." I looked out the back window behind us, where he and Idris rode.

"He's not," Elena mumbled.

"Missing you already?" The corners of my lips curled up.

I assumed since they completed their mating process in the North, they cooled off on the obsessive affection, but nope.

"No..." Her voice softened and eyes averted to her lap. "He and Idris are watching over that rogue prisoner."

"He's with us?" Raina and I both blinked, wide-eyed at her.

Elena nodded, tipping her chin down. When her eyes met mine, they were dark under her lashes. "Your father's request."

That's not good.

My heart squeezed in my chest, throbbing pulses through my veins.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath and brough my fist up to my mouth. "He's going to kill him."

"You said he spoke to you, Zara." Raina's dark hair slipped over her shoulders as she leaned forward. The first time seeing her hair down, she was quite pretty with it framing her face.