Page 91 of Full Body Hit: Part 2
“It suppresses my pheromones—so, like, it controls my heats and eliminates my scent since, without it, I smell so crazy it would be a hazard, you know?”
Auston nodded slowly. “Right. So it failed, you went into heat, I could scent you…was more than enough to trigger my rut.” He buried his nose in Chase’s neck again and took a deep breath, making Chase shiver all over.
“Sorry,” Chase couldn’t help but say.
“I thought you just said you weren’t.”
“I mean, I’m not sorry we mated, I’m just…if this is only because of my scent—”
“Did you mate me just because you were in heat?” Auston pointed out.
“No!”
“Exactly. This is more than that. This is…” Auston had moved back so that their eyes met, an electric current in the air. He cupped Chase’s face, expression so tender it hurt to look at. They lay there for a while, soaking each other in until Chase had a thought. “I should stop taking my medication for good then, huh? The doc said mating would stabilise my pheromones…”
“We should head back home early. Get you to a doctor.”
Chase groaned. That was probably the right thing to do, but they had barely relaxed on the beach before the heat hit. “Okay. It can wait a day, though, right? To recover?”
“You feeling good?”
“Yeah. Perfect.”
“Okay, then. One more day.”
They rested for the remainder of the day. Auston called for heat and rut cleanup and they ensconced themselves in the bathroom while the hotel staff did their job. Chase let himself be washed in the bath and be fed little bites of fruit despite not being in heat anymore—it was just good to be taken care of. He could sense it helped Auston, too, both of them relaxing as they built their own little bubble to float in.
Chase rebuilt the nest when they stepped back into the now-pristine room. He missed their scents even though everything had been crusty with slick and come, but he made up for it by lying on Auston and getting the pheromones right from the source.
The day drifted past, drawing them nearer to reality, but Chase clung onto the peace as long as he could.
***
It turned out that suddenly being able to smell pheromones at the age of twenty-one wasn’t the best thing ever.
The return trip home was hell. The airport was overwhelming and nauseating with scents, and the plane even worse. Auston got him some menthol Vaseline to put under his nose, which helped, but every time it rubbed away slightly he’d be hit by a wall of stink that had him throwing up multiple times during the plane ride.
Thank God Auston wasn’t one of those people who couldn’t stand the sight of vomit, helping Chase hold the bags the air hostesses gave him, wiping his face and reapplying the menthol afterwards. He made sure Chase was hydrated, procuring some crackers from somewhere, and almost getting into a fight with someone in a nearby first-class seat who complained about them.
Stepping inside his apartment was the best thing Chase had ever experienced. He could actually smell his own scent, as well as Auston’s—it was weird that their scents had existed there all this time without Chase even noticing.
Thankfully, the doctor helped, prescribing some scent-dampeners that would gradually be decreased, and referred him to a physiotherapist to help Chase learn not only how to deal with other people’s scents, but how to control his own.
He’d explained why the meds had failed too. It was rare, apparently, but spending so much time with a ‘compatible Alpha’ had made their efficacy go down.
Chase had never considered how much work would go into adjusting to his new sense. On the street, people would stare at him, nose wrinkling, and Chase realised it was because his pheromones were constantly out of control, influenced by his moods or a stray thought.
Auston was helpful there, too. Chase couldn’t tell when his own scent was going crazy, so Auston would pull him aside, do one of the exercises the endocrinologist had sent him to control the production of his glands.
And then, of course, there was the whole ordeal of telling the team.
They started with management a few days before the break ended. To say that they were surprised would be an understatement. Chase sat still and small in the chair as they gaped at him and Auston, the Alpha taking charge in explaining the situation without going into the gory details.
“We’ve been keeping our relationship under wraps for the purpose of privacy, but when our heat and rut hit simultaneously…it just happened.”
“Right…” the GM said. “And this is…permanent?”
“Yes,” Auston bit out so harshly that Chase had to smile a little.
