Page 77 of Feral

Zach yanked his hand back with a growl, an unexpected pain blooming in his index finger.

“Stop manhandling me!” she snapped, her outraged expression twisting to discomfort as she put a hand to her lower belly. “God, I feel shit enough without you rolling up and getting all handsy on me.”

It was then as he stared at her rubbing her abdomen, face scrunched up in a cute scowl, that he finally realized what was happening with his mate.

The smell of soap had been too overwhelming to pick up those first delicate traces in the air. She’d cleaned, all right, despite Eric washing the floors just two days prior, and when he glanced into the living room he could see she’d washed all textiles she could get her hands on as well, including the curtains, and placed them all around the living room in neat stacks and piles.

Ridding what she planned to be her nest of all scents of the alphas they shared their home with.

His lips quirked up in a pleased smile, the throb in his finger numbed by the rush of hormones flooding his blood.

“What are you grinning at?” she asked, once more aiming her fury at him. “Is it f—oh!”

Her voice died on a whimper when he closed the rest of the distance between them, forcing his body flush with hers as he bent his head to sniff her neck.

Yes.There it was—her scent flowered against him, filling his nostrils as he drew in greedy lungfuls of her beginning heat. Pure and full, it rolled through his veins and filled his mind. She’d been in heat the first time he mounted her, but it hadn’t been right. Her smell, powerful as it’d been, had been laced with chemicals. The doctors had injected her like they had injected him, forcing her into heat.

This time, there was nothing but her natural, all-consuming, intoxicating scent.

He growled against her neck, licking at her skin to taste her. His cock throbbed hard and urgently in his pants, more than ready to sate her—

His thoughts cut off when another pinching pain bloomed from his chest where she’d bitten him—again.

“I said, stop manhandling me!” she growled, pushing at him to try and put space between them, but this time, Zach wasn’t caught by surprise.

There were many things he would never be able to give his mate, many things she did or said he would never understand without her help. This—this was not one of them.

Lillian screeched when he hauled her over his shoulder, her small fists pummeling his back as he carried her into the living room in a few strides, inspecting her piles of fabric. Without putting her down, he grabbed several of the soft piles, including the blankets she’d demanded he sleep in last night, bundled them under one arm, and headed for the stairs.

“What are you doing?!” she howled, trying to rip the cloth from his grip. “Stop touching them, you’re gonna mess them up! Give them to me!”

Zach ignored her until they got to the bedroom. There, he placed her back on her feet and threw the bundle of cloth on the bed.“Stay,”he said before he left the room again to get the rest of her fabrics.

When he came back, so loaded with cloth he had to twist to see around it, she’d started arranging the previous load in an oval shape on the bed.

She was so absorbed in her task she didn’t even look up when he returned, nor did she acknowledge him when he deposited the rest of her fabrics in the yet unused pile.

She muttered to herself as she worked, her jerking movements displaying her irritation when something didn’t come out just right. More and more frequently, she’d pause to wipe sweat off her forehead, the rich scent of her heat only enriching with each passing minute.

Zach watched her quietly, knowing she needed this time. He hadn’t been through this stage before. The many females he’d rutted through their heats in the laboratory were only in his presence when they were past ready for penetration, but his instincts guided him now.

Finally, some long minutes later, Lillian stepped back from the bed, staring at the misshapen oval she’d created out of an uneven mix of blankets, pillows, cushions, and curtains.

A faint memory made him bite down on a smile. An old, mated sergeant had taken it upon himself to explain to the younger alphas in their team what mated life was like. They’d all been young and stupid and pretended like they knew everything there was to know about females, but his words had stirred up urges that had little to do with knotting a freshly fucked pussy.

Zach remembered when the sergeant had explained about a woman’s first heat and how it would usually take her a few times before she would know what to do. How it was her alpha’s job to see her through, reining in his own instincts to mount her before she’d been allowed to prepare.

Looking at the floral curtain fabric sticking out of the wall she’d created, it was plenty obvious that his mate wasn’t great at this. Yet. She would go into heat plenty more times, and every time, he’d be there to see her through.

“What the hell am I doing?” Lillian’s confused whisper made him close the distance he’d been keeping, soothing her with a hand on the small of her back. She didn’t try to squirm away this time.

“Nest,” he rumbled.

“What?” She finally turned to look at him, brows knitted in confusion.

“Heat,” he explained, running his free hand over her damp forehead, wiping the sweat away.

Understanding broke behind her blue eyes, but instead of relief, terror stirred in their bond and flashed across her face. “Oh, no! No, it can’t be! W-What are we gonna do? I…Fuck!”

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