I woke up on a green-tiled floor. It was nice and cold against my burning skin. 

I was still dazed from the heat, but clear enough to actually look around and wonder where I was. I was in a small bathroom with a dark-skinned woman about ten years my senior sleeping against the door. The air was thick with spray-deodorant, but I could still smell my alpha.

What?!

My neck hurt. I got up and examined it in the mirror. My heart stopped.

“Oh my god what happened!” I completely freaked out staring at the bitemark on my neck.

“Hey…” the woman by the door said. She wasn’t my alpha. She wasn’t any alpha.

“I’m Aisha”, she said. “Who are you?”

“What happened?” I stammered.

“You went into heat. My friend tried being a hero and ended up fucking it up. Now we’re locked in my bathroom, so things don’t get any worse. Please tell me your name and where you live so I can take you home before you go all crazy again and get yourself raped.”

“Your friend, he…”

“No. You’re going home. Tell me who you are and where you live. I’m taking you home NOW. I think Chris is asleep, so now is the time. Where do you live?”

I picked up a piece of clothing and hugged it. It smelled like my alpha. 

I purred and smiled, then the woman ripped the piece of clothing out of my fingers and, sounding like my physics professor, repeated her question, her dark eyes burning a hole in my soul.

“31, Burnstein road.” I relied automatically. I god, why did my mouth say that, my alpha was clearly somewhere close by, I needed him to fuck me now!

“Ok good, we’re going”. The beta called Aisha grabbed me by my hand and unlocked the door. 

“Shut up if you value your chastity”. She said in a threatening voice. Then she started pulling me through the dark apartment. I couldn’t see anything but as soon as we entered a large room, I could smell it clearly: my alpha was there.

I wanted him, my body was begging for him, and I heard myself whimpering as we got closer to the source of the smell. In the dark I could vaguely identify the contours of a couch. My alpha was on there. I needed to go to him. I moved towards the couch, but the hand that was holding mine jerked me away.

I was dragged a couple of steps back, but was shaking with lust again. “Alpha!” I heard myself call out to him, trying to wrestle free from the woman’s grip on my wrist.

A shadow jumped up from the couch and moved towards me. I could only see the outline as Aisha dragged me through the door and turned her keys in the lock. 

“Alpha!” I panted, pushing myself against the door.

“Ow fuck me.” Aisha said, and smacked me in the face hard. 

It stung. 

“You. Me. Car. NOW!” It sounded like an order. Well it was an order, but I didn’t want to be taken away from him. “Chris!” I yelled out, suddenly remembering my alpha’s name.

The door rattled, but didn’t open, since Aisha locked it. Someone was kicking it from the inside. Chris. He wanted to be with me too, he was coming for me. The door wouldn't be enough to hold him. He'd push through and take me. It was all I wanted. 

“Let me be with him!” I yelled at the dark woman pulling me.

“NO!” she yelled and slapped me again. Then proceeded to drag me down the stairs.

“But why? I want my alpha, my alpha wants me too. Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re a kid in heat and she’s married.” Aisha said, and I felt a weight crashing down on me so hard I couldn’t breathe.

The entire drive my mind was going over her words. ‘she’s married.’ My alpha was a woman. My alpha was married. 

My heat went up and down again as I sat panting in the car, when at some point, I couldn’t contain myself anymore and threw up all over the dashboard.

“GODDAMNIT!” Aisha screamed, but kept driving until we reached my house. It was completely dark, as was Matt’s house. Oh my god Matt.

I whimpered again as Aisha pulled me out of the car and marched me up to the front door. I had trouble walking away from the car for the scent of my alpha was still in it. My mind was completely dazed as I suddenly found myself looking at my mother.

“David?!” she gasped. “Where have you been? What’s happened? Oh my god!”

She was staring at my face and then my neck horrified and didn’t move as Aisha pushed me into her arms.

“I’m so sorry. Your son is in heat. We only managed to save him from being raped, but well eh… please lock him up.” Aisha uttered in a completely different voice than the stern one from before. Then she turned on her heel, and sprinted towards the car. 

My body reacted quicker than my mind, as I tried to follow her back to where my alpha was. But my mum dragged me inside, and closed the door.

“ALLEN!!! Get down here!” She yelled, holding me close.

“What the hell is happening?” My father called out running down the stairs in his underpants. 

“David! What the hell happened to you?!”

“Alpha…” I whimpered, stroking the door. It was all I could think of. The touch, the bite, the kiss… 

I remembered the kiss. I remembered the eyes: dark brown, almost black. Everything else was cloudy. It was a woman apparently, but I couldn’t even picture her. I couldn’t picture me kissing a woman, but the sweet feeling lingered on my tongue all the same.

The had smelled like a warm fire in the midst of winter. She had smelt like a burning Christmas tree. The smell was still on me, but I wanted more of it. I NEEDED more of it. It turned me on like anything.

I heard myself whimper and moan as my parents carried me upstairs, forced me to take pills and drink water. 

My mum sat by me, stroking my head for some time, before locking the door from the outside. But I hardly registered any of it. I was fully submerged in desire and could only think of my alpha’s fingers on my skin. My alpha’s lips on mine. My alpha’s teeth on my neck.

***

When I woke up, I felt sore. Everything hurt and for a second, I wondered why. Then the events of last night came crashing down on me like an anvil on a cartoon character. 

I screamed.

My mother came rushing to the door, unlocked it and closed it again behind her.

“How are you David? Are your meds working?”

“I… I… Oh god what have I done…” I stammered.

My mother hugged me close as tears streamed down my face and I sobbed against her.

“I’m so sorry…”

“No, I’m sorry, WE’re sorry. We should have been there. We should’ve done more. We let you mourn Matt, but we didn’t really LOOK. We should’ve seen you stopped taking your meds, we should have known today was special. This is all our fault. If we had been more careful. If we had only kept you locked inside yesterday…”

Mom cried too. Nothing about this was her fault though. It was mine. Yesterday I could blame the world. Today I could blame only myself.

“We contacted Jack and Denise, they told me what happened at their house. That you climbed up to Matt’s window and made a ruckus, that you attacked that other omega… But they also said that it wasn’t Matt who bit you. So baby, who did? What happened after you left?”

I tried to search my scrambled mind for the answers… Everything was hazy. “Matt… Matt said I should… HIS omega. He called him HIS omega. I was supposed to be that… I wanted to kill that freak… Matt hit me.” I pointed at my swollen left eye.

“The bastard!” My mom yelled out. “Whoring bastard with his fucked-up parents. Hitting my son after he broke his heart. How DARE he!”

I smiled at how my mom stood up for me, but I knew it didn’t matter. I still fucked up, no matter how much she could blame Matt for what he did, there was only me to blame for what I did next.

“I should’ve gone back inside then, but for some reason I didn’t. I don’t know why. I went out looking for a party, and I found these guys on campus and then I think I went into heat. I don’t remember much, but they were all fighting over me and then someone took me away from them.” I sighed as I remembered the smell. “My alpha.” I said smiling.

“I’m gonna find that creep and kill him myself.” My mother said, looking as if she meant every word. “Taking advantage of my son like that! But tell me, did he hurt you? Did he…” she hesitated for a second “…rape you?”

I thought about that. My memories were so hazy, I wasn’t sure if I could rely on them.

“No.” I said finally. My mother sighed and pulled me into her chest again.

“I’m glad that woman got you out before he could rape you. She must really be something, fighting off those alphas being just a beta woman. I should give her a reward.”

“She is called Aisha I think…” I hesitated a bit. Did Aisha save me from being raped on that campus? 

I don’t think that was her, it was my alpha who got me out. But then… why did she... Suddenly the memory came crashing back into my mind and I trembled.

“What is it baby?”

“I remember now…”

“What do you remember?” she pulled away and looked at me, eyes filled with terror.

“My alpha. Chris. Saved me from the guys at the university. Wanted to bring me home, but I was just so messed up that I…” I took a sharp intake of breath. “… I wouldn’t tell where to go, I wanted to stay… Oh mum, I’m so sorry…”

“You couldn’t help it baby…” she said, but there was a bitterness to her voice that made me feel even more guilty. 

I continued. “Chris called Aisha, she picked us up and they brought me to her place. I was… in a bad state… Chris tried to get me to back off. They tried to lock me up somewhere... But I… The bite. It was my fault…”

“NO!” My mother shook me by the shoulders. “It’s not your fault! You went into heat, you couldn’t help it. That stupid man should’ve kept his distance! He should have gone away. Take a cold shower or something!”

“She was doing that when I ambushed her.”

“HER?!”

I nodded silently. My mother was silent too. We looked at each other with nothing to say, both overwhelmed by the craziness of the situation. Finally, my mother said: “she needs to take responsibility for you.”

I was afraid that would come. “No mom, she shouldn’t. She already has a family. Besides I…”

“WHAT?!” My mom shook me again. “She has a WHAT?!”

“A family mom. She’s married, Aisha told me when she drove me back here. I wanted to stay with my… em… Chris, since I was in heat and all, but she told me that’s why she wouldn’t let me. Besides, what would I want with a woman anyway?”

“But she claimed you…”

“Isn’t there medication that can do anything about that?”

I really hoped that there was. Because of the pills my parents gave me, my heat was significantly less than it was yesterday, yet every inch of my skin was still aching to be with her. Maybe that would go away as the heat subsided, but from what I’ve heard: if you’re claimed, it sticks.

“Not that I know of honey…” My mother started, but then her eyes lighted up. “…maybe… she didn’t, you know… complete the process, right?”

“No!” I said, suddenly excited. Maybe there WAS a way out!

“I’ll do some research”, she said, getting up from the bed, “you rest.” And with that she locked the door again and left me alone with my thoughts.

I walked over to my window and looked at Matt’s house. Only yesterday I had been pounding that window so hard… I looked at my bruised knuckles and sighed. I felt weird.

Staring out there seemed to hurt less than it had yesterday. My heart was still broken. I was still in love with Matt, but the pain seemed dulled. 

It was like the pain had subsided to make way for a longing for someone else. Someone I didn’t even know. Someone not my type at all. Yet someone I craved with every fibre of my being. 

My alpha…