I press my palm against the door and open it.
My best friend, Claire, is pinned against the wall and Ben is pressed against her. Benson is the future Alpha of Hill River, also Claire's mate. The sound of their kissing becomes loud.
Cringing, I turn on my heels and walk away before an adult movie premieres in that room. Downstairs, I catch another couple's intimate moment, across the living room of the house where the party is.
On the couch beside a large plant, Katie is sitting on Luke's lap and kissing him. He's the future Beta of Hill River.
My chest feels heavy and breathing becomes hard. Luke is my mate.
Claire and I are from Moore Cliff pack. We are the youngest child of Moore Cliff's Alpha and Beta, respectively. Claire's elder brother, Mike, is our future Alpha, and my elder brother, Sid, is the future Beta.
In our current situation, that is a bit of a problem.
I sidestep a pair of giggling teenagers on the stairs.
The problem is not in the fact that Claire and I are mates to werewolves of the same ranks as our brothers, but that those werewolves are from Hill River.
Turf wars, loss of lives, heartaches, and age-old enmity – that's how the relationship between Moore Cliff and Hill River can be described. The bad blood runs deep and dark.
Claire and I found out on the same day that Ben and Luke are our mates. It was in one of the parties like this. We four agreed to reject the other and go on with our lives as if we never found our mates.
That plan didn't work out so well for Claire and Ben. But whatever it is between them is still a secret. It's sort of a love-hate relationship. Claire's mood keeps switching between wanting to kill Ben and have crazy sex with him.
Luke and I are at the opposite end of that spectrum. We are as good as strangers. He and Katie started dating two years ago. He didn't stop after he found out we are mates. Why would he? We agreed to continue to be strangers.
The sound of my phone ringing pulls me out of my thoughts. It's my brother.
"Where are you?" Sid asks.
"I'm at a party Claire wanted to go. Why?"
"Go back home. Our parents will be home in an hour."
The Alpha and Beta are out of town with their spouses. Our parents' absence gave us a rare opportunity to attend parties freely. Mike and Sid are also at a party at one of their friend's house. Our Delta is like a cool uncle, so he let us go for as long as we promised to stay out of trouble.
I run back up the stairs. Eyes shut, I go near the room and say, "Claire, we gotta go. Sid called. Our parents will be home in an hour."
I hear them cuss, and in a second, I feel her hand grab my arm and pull me downstairs. We leave the house hurriedly.
––––
We and our brothers reach home, our packhouse, on time. Ten minutes late and we would've been in trouble.
Feeling grateful for the close escape and hurtful from the memory of seeing Luke and Katie kiss, I fall asleep in my room with mixed feelings.
Not long after, I feel something heavy looming over me.
"Rose." I hear someone whisper my name. "Rosieee." The sound increases. "Rose!"
I snap open my eyes and see Claire bent over me. She's breathing heavily. "What?" I say half asleep.
She climbs up over me on the bed. Her breathing is uneven. When she moves to on top of me, I see her eyes lighted by the streetlight beaming in from the window. Her pupils are a darker shade.
"You okay?" I ask her. Something's not right.
"I think– I think I'm in heat."
Shit.
This is the point where I give her the "I told you so," speech. I warned her so many times not to get close to Ben. Intimacy with their mate can trigger the heat cycle in a female werewolf. If anyone finds out Claire is in heat, they'll know she found her mate, too.
I've to do something about it. Before I could react or respond, she bends forward and buries her face in my neck. Her scent is too strong. I hold my breath.
Thinking she might be in pain, I hold her arms to help her lie down on her back. But when she presses her body firmly against me, I realize what she's doing. She's trying to do "it" with me, wanting a sexual release.
I've heard stories of female werewolves desperate to get sexual reliefs. But Claire's desperation seems to be on a whole new level. I try to move her to the side. She bites my neck.
"The fuck, Claire! Stop trying to rape me! Get up!"
I'm finding it incredibly hard to push off my best friend from sexually assaulting me. She's taller and stronger. It's also difficult to shout at her to stop when I don't want anyone else at the house to hear us.
"I can't hold it in," she says through strained voice.
I run through my options:
A. Kill her and bury her at the backyard so no one will find her body.
B. Somehow escape, and kidnap a guy to sleep with her.
C. Get the inhibitors from the infirmary.
I don't like the first option since she's my best friend and all. Also, it'll be difficult to kill her considering she's much stronger than me.
The second option is not very promising, either. The closest guys to us are the guys in our pack. No one will want to sleep with the Alpha's daughter, and worse, they might snitch about her heat to her brother.
Option C, it is.
"Bear it till I get the inhibitors. But first, move! The sooner you let me go, the sooner I'll get the inhibitors, and the sooner it'll go away!"
She growls lightly. "Hurry," she says. Her voice is full of pain and makes me worry. As soon as she moves to the side, I dart out of the room and out of the house.
Claire and I sneak out all the time. We're quite the experts.
I know where the inhibitors are. I volunteer at the hospital sometimes. I climb up the back wall of the infirmary as quick as possible. I might not be as strong as Claire but I'm fast, thanks to my dad's Beta genes.
I take an inhibitor vial and a syringe from the cabinet and stuff it into my pocket. Then pause, before grabbing two more vials.
As soon as I open my room, Claire holds me against the door. "Ben!" she says excitedly.
My friend is officially out of it. She must've gone completely crazy now because no one in their right mind can mistake me for a six feet above tall, buffed up guy.
While she's smothering me with her hug and gnawing at my poor neck, I wrap my hands around her with the vial in one hand and the syringe in the other. I fill the syringe before squeezing my hand between us and jabbing it in Claire's neck.
I could've done it gently but I want her neck to feel as much pain as mine is in now.
In just a few seconds, she calms down. Her breathing becomes even. She moves away and starts to slowly sit on the floor against the dresser near the door.
Afraid she might pass out, I hold her shoulders steadily. I don't know what dosage of the inhibitor to give. To be sure, I emptied a full vial.
Soon, her eyes become clear and I breathe out in relief.
"Oh my God," she says, realizing what had just happened to her. "I'm screwed."
"Yeah, no shit," I say. "I told you to keep your distance with him."
She touches my neck to take a look at the wound. I wince from the pain. She winces, too. "Sorry," she says. "It needs bandaging. Let me grab the first aid kit. Where is it?" She tries to get up but I pull her down to sit. I'm still not sure she might not pass out from the heavy dose.
"I'll get it," I tell her.
While I take the kit from my bathroom shelf, I ask her, "What are you going to do now?"
I sit back down in front of her. She opens the box and takes out the disinfectant and the bandage. "We've inhibitors," she says as she tends to my wound.
I shake my head. "How long you think we can steal inhibitors from the infirmary before someone notices?"
"We don't have to steal anything. This problem is because of Ben. He's an Alpha. He can get us as many inhibitors as we need."
"Think it's a good idea?" I say. I'm still not sure what their relationship exactly is, so I'm hesitant about getting help from Hill River's Alpha.
Claire says, "We don't have a choice. My heat seems to escalate quickly. I've to carry inhibitors with me all the time, and I'll need a lot of them."
I sigh. She's right. There's no stopping her heat now. Not till she fully mates, with Ben or someone else.
Only a while ago I was feeling sad and jealous of seeing Katie kissing my mate. But, boy, I'm glad I stayed away from Luke.
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