Page 46 of The Heat of Us

“Number 64’s bin.”

“Right. Cool.”

She turned to me. “I can go get my focus mitts if you—”

“Fuck.” I let out a loud exhale of relief. “I thought you’d never ask. Grab them and get in.”

Gray gave me her first genuine smile of the evening. “I call dibs on the playlist. Then we can punch the shit out of each other.”

I turned up to Sierra’s the next day and she didn’t have her wig on.

That was the first sign that she wasn’t herself today.

I missed the other ten thousand at first because I was too busy staring. Her real hair was so dark. Glossy black, thick and so so long. How did it all fit under that pink wig? Did she have some sort of space-time continuum localised within her scalp?

“Did you hear a word I said, Ryder?”

Her foot was tap-tap-tapping her disapproval. Her cheeks turned the cutest shade of pink. I didn’t have an answer so I settled for a shrug accompanied by a garbled mouth noise.

“Oh my lord,” she huffed.

I was by her side immediately, my hands finding her hips. “I’m sorry,” I apologised quickly before offering her the truth. “It’s just that your hair is very pretty.”

“It’s just hair,” she muttered.

Sierra had been the one to organise today. Her period was on the way and she understandably wanted to get one last filming session in. Even so, I was not such an oblivious male specimen to dismissively chalk her bad mood up to ‘hormones’ or ‘womanly troubles’.

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” I prompted. I wondered if giving her a neck kiss would sweeten or sour her disposition further.

Better play it safe and do neither. For now.

“Apart from the fact that you’re barely listening to me?”

I nodded sagely. “Yes, yes. I know I’m a big dum dum who doesn’t pay attention but you’ve been upset about something since I arrived.”

Sierra clasped her hands at my wrists. I thought she was about to pull them off her waist but instead she…ran them up my forearms.

It took a lot to focus on her words and not think about how I could still be floored by a simple touch. Wasn’t ‘fucking someone out of your system’ a thing? When was that supposed to kick in?

“I had my heat partner interviews the other day.”

Why did a simple sentence make my alpha absolutely murderous?

“It didn’t go well,” she sighed heavily. “The scent cards were fine but meeting them in person was a disaster. And then…”

And then? And then what? My mind immediately conjured up the worst possible scenarios and the only way it could possibly be resolved was with violence.

“There was this alpha…”

A dead alpha if I had anything to say about it.

“...I overheard him talking to his wife moments before he went into the alpha entrance of the building,” Sierra said, her posture slumping. “It made me realise that I have no fucking idea if the alphas I’ve been with in the past were single or not. The whole thing made me feel like a fucking disgusting wh—”

“Nope.” I stopped her with a firm finger on her lips. “Whatever you are about to call yourself — don’t,” I warned her sternly. “You did not break vows or cheat. You sought out necessary services for your health. They are the disgusting ones. Not you.”

She didn’t look entirely convinced.

“You still have time, right?” I continued. “Maybe talk to your…to your…”

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