Page 2 of Heat Me

And especially me—I had expressed my doubts to Nate so many times before, grumbling about the whole idea, constantly pointing out how ridiculous it would be to find a True Mate for my subspecies, how tiny my chances were.

Once or twice, I’d even sourly saidI didn’t really need it. But, of course, I wasn’t being totally honest. It was just easier to cope with the feelings that way.

"Happy? I'm too disoriented. I'm still processing it. It just doesn't feel real, you know?"

"Fair," Nathaniel muttered. "So… what happened? You’ve got to tell me everything. This sounds insane."

"Because it is insane," I said. "My six-month probation at the company ended, and I got assigned contracts that involved sex. One commission wouldn’t leave the system, no matter what I tried. It was the only one left, so I took it. Turned out, it was this twenty-year-old computer science student who wanted a super gentle, borderline romantic home-invasion scenario. All vanilla."

Nathaniel snorted. "Home invasion and… vanilla? That's new."

I laughed. "Right? Anyway, after the usual breaking-in bit, the sex part was supposed to be tender, as if he wanted to make love, not just hook up with a stranger."

"That's unusual, considering what kind of company Dark Dreams is," Nathaniel muttered.

"Indeed. But that’s not even the wild part. I… sensed him, Nate! Like, I could feel what he wanted—some kind of telepathic hocus-pocus! I just knew. And it was the same with the sex. I’ve never been that turned on by anyone. The sheer number of orgasms was insane!"

Nathaniel looked more excited than I expected. "But what about the First Touch? The First Orgasm? The electrical fireworks? Did it happen?"

I cleared my throat. "Well, the First Touch thing didn’t really have a chance to work—I just jumped on him, so any ‘tingling’ went out the window. Plus, remember, I’m on strong suppressants; they block most of it anyway. And the First Orgasm… I was wearing a rubber, so no fireworks for us. But even with that, we both finished in seconds after my first push!"

Nate's excited face suddenly became a bit… less excited.

"I hate to burst your bubble—because honestly, I hope this works out for you—but even with High Mates, there’s a huge sexual attraction when people first meet. Doesn’t mean he’s necessarily your True."

"Well, probably a lot of it can be explained by logic and reason, but something tells me it's the jackpot. And there’s even more weirdness. I messed up his nest… then fixed it, completely mesmerized by it!"

Nathaniel chuckled. "Of all the bizarre things, the nest is the weirdest part?"

"You don’t get it—I had this urge to fix it! I’ve heard the more an alpha connects with an omega’s nest, the higher the chance of a high mateship level. And this one—it was breathtaking. Like a work of art."

Nathaniel looked amused. "Storm, that’s not exactly proof!"

"Geez, don’t be such a buzzkill. Seriously, putting all the signs together, it absolutely points to us being Trues."

Nathaniel tilted his head, giving me a look. "I just would hate to see you crushed if it turns out you’re wrong. The purples have even less chance of meeting their Trues."

My eyes bore into him like two knives, and he finally snorted.

"But yeah, for sure… if you say so."

I raised my middle finger. "You’re such a prick."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Anyway. Are you planning to contact him?"

A wave of adrenaline ran through me—the thought of reaching out to Damien was intense. He was probably hurt by my rejection of his heat proposal. I would have to explain my reasoning to him, but how could I do it convincingly when it still felt so fresh to me? I was still processing it myself, coming to terms with the magical possibility of what we might actually be.

Nathaniel watched me closely. "You know that if you contact him outside of work hours, you're breaking the rules of your company, and you'll be fired or punished with a fine."

I shrugged. "That's very likely. I already told Mr. Ragu that Damien is my True Mate, and he reacted baaaaaaaaadly!He thought I was bullshitting him just to get out of another assignment."

"Not surprising, Storm. Even I’m still not sold on it."

"Oh, here we go again! Fucking doubters!"

"Storm, for fuck’s sake! Just listen. I've read about cases where people were absolutely sure they had found their True Mate, but it was just a case of a high-compatibility High Mate! At first, it feels very similar—the quasi-telepathy, amazing sexual chemistry, even something like the Pull—except for one major difference. No electric shock during the first Joining, followed by the lack of ability to heal and rejuvenate. And you didn't have the famous fireworks, did you?"

I clenched my jaw and looked away. Damn. Maybe I’d jumped the gun on this?

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