(A/N: This was just an excuse for me to write smut & fluff! All characters are 18 or over!)
Chloe was on fire. Well, at least it felt like it. Her skin was boiling, and every brush of the sheets had her stuffing her fist in her mouth to keep quiet. Her head was swimming, her mouth cotton-dry, and her eyes were burning.
What was happening? Why was it so hot? She could hear the AC, feel it brush across her burning skin, but still she was soaking the sheets and comforter crumpled around her feet with sweat.
She shuddered, whimpering to herself, and curled into a ball as pain splintered inside of her. Her muscles spasmed as she heard the too loud notes of her aunt's voice, her Boston accent rougher and more pronounced with each word she was spitting. Had Aunt Lauren always sounded so…pinched? Chloe screwed her eyes shut against the sunlight that streamed in, burning her retinas.
"How the hell did this happen, then? She was supposed to be safe with you," Lauren said loudly as footsteps stomped up the creaky stairs, making Chloe's head pound in tandem.
As Chloe lay there, she caught a wisp of something that made her head snap up despite the uncanny swimming. Another pull of air filled her mouth, her lungs, as she drank in more of the scent. It was decadent and comforting, familiar, like her childhood stuffed animal, only this smelled much, much more…She wasn't sure and only knew she would happily drown in that scent.
She shifted, stretching her legs out, and a little whimper of pain bubbled in her throat as the sheet peeled away from the inflamed, burning skin of her bare thigh. Thank God she'd fallen asleep in shorts and a tank top.
Derek's voice was a rumble like distant thunder. "I did what I could to protect her." A snort, derisive. "Which is more than I can say for you. Yeah, I'm not the best—"
"My sentiments exactly!"
"—But I didn't fucking drop her in the hands of people trying to kill us."
Alpha's angry. Soothe him.
She tried to sit up, to push herself upright, but her arms were too weak, and she fell back on the bed with a soft thump. She must've made a noise or said something and drew attention somehow because her bedroom door creaked open.
A wall of that familiar scent—Alpha, a voice in the back of her mind crooned—came at Chloe, and she relaxed as her eyes found the tall, imposing figure in the doorway.
Relief flooded her like a tidal wave, and she smiled past the pain. "Alpha." She sounded drunk, her speech slurred, and her tongue was thick and heavy inside of her mouth. Part of her wanted to preen, to look acceptable for her alpha, but she was in too much pain, her body too weak.
As she lay there, watching him through a curtain of hair, she was aware of how tight her skin felt. Itchy, almost. She wanted to scratch until her skin came off.
Derek walked closer, his gait reeking of strength and concern, and stopped at her bedside. He stared down at her with soft, green eyes, and she moaned weakly, reaching for him. He swore softly and offered his hand, watching her with heavy-lidded eyes, as she curled her hand around his tightly. Her heart skittered; they'd never held hands before.
She hummed happily, gaze flicking up to meet his, and he gave her a small, wry smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Hurts," she whispered when she could speak past the pain.
"One of the wolves must've gotten her," he said finally, his voice oddly tight.
Chloe peered up at Derek, recognizing that what she was smelling was his scent that had shifted so drastically, curdling with guilt. His expression was shuttered, his mouth pinched thin.
"Liam or Ramon, maybe."
A spark of anger ignited at the names. Liam. Her lip curled over her teeth, and she felt her throat open up to use all of her vocal cords to snarl. She remembered his high-pitched laugh and swaying, her legs weak, trying to pick him out in the darkness. The pain as he slammed into her chest, knocked her flat, so hard her head cracked on the ground. Alpha screaming her name as she bit and clawed and kicked at Liam to no avail. His whisper against her cheek—
"Sh, relax. He can't hurt you." Derek was kneeling beside her, stroking from the highest point of her cheekbone down her jaw, soothing her. His touch sent both chills across where he'd stroked and soothed the fire burning beneath her skin.
"Was that me…?" she asked, alarmed at the sound she'd made, and how she pushed her face closer, leaning into his touch, drinking in as much of his calming scent as she could. A part of her was embarrassed but a bigger part of her didn't care—the fire dimmed.
Lauren's face was blood red and there was a vein standing out in her forehead as she stared in a mix of shock and unease. "What happened? Why is she—why is she like this? More animal than human." She was fighting to keep her voice down, her worried eyes examining Chloe as though there was an injury to cause all of this.
"There's two ways to become a wolf," Derek explained slowly, his fingers carding through the thin hair at Chloe's temple.
He hesitated, and Chloe squeezed her hand, lending him her strength silently. He'd told her, a little bit, in that truck stop bathroom but he was explaining again, and the cadence of his voice draped over her roaring senses like a damp blanket, soothing.
"You're either born one or…or you're Bitten. She obviously wasn't born one so when we ran into those wolves, she must've—" He stopped again and cleared his throat. Stared off for a second before snapping back. "—had a scrape or cut I didn't see and she didn't feel. Saliva, blood, whatever other fluids can work its way in through a cut, no different than ringworm." A dry laugh that lacked any sort of humor or amusement. It sounded like it scraped the inside of his throat on its way out.
"So it's an infection." Lauren's gaze slid to Chloe.
Derek's hand paused for a second before continuing. "Yes. But her body's not rejecting it so she needs—needs a wolf to guide her. I'm not letting her go through this alone. She's going through basically the werewolf equivalent of—"
"Heat, right?"
Derek froze, his scent turning metallic and sour with unease and panic, and Chloe knew it was Lauren's fault. Because she'd said that word, whatever it meant. She dragged herself out of the bed and, on wobbly legs, pushed herself in front alpha, baring her teeth. A loud growl sliced through the taut silence. She'd protect him, just like he'd protected her.
Lauren's face was pained and white. "I don't like it but if it helps her…"
"She's going out of her mind, Lauren. All of her human senses are basically gone, and she's being driven wild—"
She held up a hand. "I don't want to know the details, Derek. I just want Chloe to get better…to be herself again. And if it means you're the one helping her" —she glanced at Chloe— "so be it. What do you need from me?"
As Derek explained his stipulations, the wolf anger that had been holding Chloe upright faded away, and she fell back onto the bed. That snarl had been her, and it was hard to believe she even had the vocal cords for these new noises.
Soon enough I'll sound like him, she thought blithely, a small smile curling her mouth.
He turned, alarm on his face, relaxing when he saw she was only sprawled.
A wave of pain lanced through her, shredding her tender insides, and she yowled in agony. Tears sprang to her eyes as she gasped, shuddering, clawing at her abdomen. Whimpering, she screwed her eyes shut and tried to focus on breathing through the cramps wreaking havoc.
"It's just cramps," Derek reassured a concerned Lauren as she slipped out the door, promising to fill in Kit and his siblings.
"Just—just help her. Do what you have to. And don't make me a great-aunt," were her parting words as the door snicked shut behind her.
"Chloe," Derek murmured, "I'm gonna help you. What do you need?" He knelt beside her, his voice washing over her, pushing aside the pain like a boat cleaving through ocean.
She slitted an eye open to stare up at him and grasped his hand in hers, threading their fingers. Squeezed as tight as she could, panting hard. She blinked away the hot tears that welled up but they ran down her face anyway.
Nest. Nest for pups, for alpha.
"Nest," she croaked. "I need—" She ran her tongue along her cracked lips and, with pure Chloe determination, climbed to her feet. Her legs were weak and wobbly as she grabbed her laundry hamper and dumped it onto the bed, spreading the mix of her and his scents all over the bed. She pulled pants and kneaded hoodies, until she nestle herself inside and be surrounded by their combined scents on all sides.
Derek let out a small noise that could've been a laugh.
Chloe sat up and realized what she'd done. She shot him an alarmed, panicked look. "What did I just do? What's nesting? What's—"
"I'll explain, promise. Give me a second. I'll get some more of my things and then I'll tell you everything." He stared at her with dark, glittering eyes, his mouth pinched, his face drawn with tension. Before she could say anything else, he rose to his feet and just about ran out the door, though he was considerate enough to close it behind him.
She could faintly hear Lauren and Kit, catching snippets of their quiet conversation through the floorboards. Heat gathered like a dense ball in the middle of her stomach and spread, centering itself between her legs, seeming to grow in intensity when she caught a whiff of Derek's scent lingering in the air.
She was embarrassed to find the sluice of slick flooding out of her pussy and soaking her already wet underwear.
Get it off, a little voice, the one who called Derek alpha, urged her. It kept saying something about pups and alpha's knot and his smell but she was too busy yanking off her stifling clothes to pay attention.
Chilly air spilled over her head as she walked naked to the bed and laid down, closing her eyes at the mix of scents.
Strawberry perfume, burned wood, and the smell right before lightning struck—Tori.
Stinky cologne and that lightning scent—Simon.
A mix of antibacterial soap and latex—Lauren.
Freshly cut grass and, again, that lightning scent—Kit.
And then Derek. Axe deodorant, alpha musk, and hot skin. He smelled like home, like everything good and comforting and familiar.
Alpha will make it better. For once, Chloe agreed with her wolf brain.