Page 160 of The Heat of Us

Do you need an ice pack for your dick? I bet it’s just a shrivelled raisin now!

Your back probably looks like you fell backwards into a pile of rakes!

Should I send an industrial grade wet vacuum to your house? Hahahahha.

And those were just the ones said to your face.

Everyone found it so funny.

None of them understood.

Because when I watched Hazel with her alphas, all I could see was how vulnerable she was. How little control she had over herself and how afraid that must make her.

I lived for the moments when she was lucid and I had my girl with me. When I could make sure she knew that she was loved and she was safe.

“Aleks,” Hazel called out. She was lying on her side, knotted with Ben behind her.

I was already there when she reached for me. “Hey pretty girl.”

I carefully cleaned her sweat-lined face with a cool washcloth and kissed her burning skin. I stuck a quickly melting ice cube under her tongue and she sucked on it dutifully.

“That feels good,” she mumbled. I slipped her another one as soon as the first one disintegrated.

“I’m going to get you something to drink as well, ok?” I glanced at Ben over her shoulder. “Think you can get her in a sitting position?”

He nodded, using the wall of the nest to hold himself up with Hazel in his lap. I had an insulated bottle keeping a smoothie ice cold for her. She took a tentative sip, made a hungry noise of appreciation before sucking ferociously.

“Not too fast, gorgeous,” I cautioned. “I don’t want you to feel sick.” I kept dabbing her skin with washcloths. Ben carefully collected her hair up into his hands and I laid one across her neck and shoulders.

“I don’t like feeling out of control,” she admitted quietly between sips.

My chest tightened with sympathy. “I know. You have your bonds now. They’ll never let you go, surely you feel that?”

A small smile. “I do.” Hazel ran her fingertips across my lips before letting her hand cradle my chin. “I’m just missing one more.”

I kissed her palm, trying to stem the butterflies in my gut. “Ready wherever you are, beautiful.”

She looked down at where Ben’s knot was stuffed deep in her. “Maybe not while another man is inside me,” she said blandly. “Even if he is our prime.”

Ben chuckled easily and kissed her shoulder. “You two will get your moment.” He wiggled slightly making Hazel yelp. “Give it, oh I don’t know, another fifteen minutes?”

I spent the time making sure Hazel drank and ate a little. I updated her on a groundbreaking new development in a decades old missing persons case that just made the news, hoping it made her feel a little more normal.

“The body was in the walls of the house?” she asked in hushed whispers.

I nodded earnestly. “Just stuffed in there, wrapped in a tarp and bricked up.”

“Aaand there goes my knot,” Ben said, looking queasy. He slipped out of her and none of us blinked an eye at the rush of their combined fluids. Ben passed Hazel to me and looked over to where Remy was snoring under a blanket.

“I’m gonna have a nap too,” he sighed.

Hazel threw her arms forcefully around my neck. I was wildly unprepared, the momentum enough to send us backwards. She landed on top of me, her boobs squashed in my face.

I don’t need air. Let me stay in this pillow perfection forever.

Hazel squeaked and unfortunately for me, scooted back down.

I could see her pupils starting to blow out, the flush beginning to take over her cheeks. I was about to lose her again.

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