VINCENZO

The click of Nora leaving the house and closing the door echoes through the silence. It's a sound that ricochets straight to my fucking groin rather than anywhere else. I stand there for a long moment, staring at the dark wood dining table, listening to the faint, muffled sounds of her movements outside. Of her getting into the car, Henry uttering a few words, and then driving off.

The scent that she left behind still hangs in the air. It's fucking sweet and unmistakable... heat. Desire.

My jaw clenches so hard I hear my teeth grind. My fists curl at my sides, my knuckles turning white from the lack of control that I maintain.

Fuck.

I knew this would happen. I'd been waiting for it, dreading it, and now it's here—her heat. The Lockes always ran hot, early. And she... she smells like a goddamn fire. It had been all I could do to sit at that table, to eat, to pretend I could smell the way her scent had been changing over the days, thickening into something feral, something that screamed for another.

The image of her face, flushed and confused as she looked at me moments ago, is beginning to sear into my mind.

"Shall I clear the table?" Maggie's voice comes from the doorway of the dining room.

I don't turn. "Leave it."

I hear her scurry away. Good. I need to be alone. My control, something that I've prided myself on for years, is barely there anymore, and had she been here for a moment longer, I wasn't sure what I would do. Last night it wasn't as prominent as it is now, as it was just a few moments ago.

I walk out of the dining room, make it down the hallway, and keep moving. I need to get to my study, to my room, anywhere where her scent doesn't linger. Because right now, it's everywhere in the house, wherever she has walked or set foot in.

I can practically taste it on my tongue—her, the heat, the arousal.

I slam the bedroom door shut, the frame shuddering as it locks itself. I lean back against it, breathing heavily, trying to remain in control. My cock is hard, throbbing, aching behind my zipper, demanding release. Demanding things that I cannot have. Things I will not allow.

Fucking hell. It shouldn't be like this.

It shouldn't have been this difficult.

Under the ice-cold shower that I manage to get myself to, my hands grip my cock, jerking it slowly and harshly. I have to do this, to rid myself of the need. To get it out of my system, out of my mind. I'm tempted to call on someone else, to get a woman here, have her, to release this urge, but it won't do any good.

It'll only heighten my senses and make me want to claim Nora even more.

I grit my teeth, letting the freezing cold water pour over my body as I continue pumping my length while thinking, imagining what her skin would feel like under my palms. How tight her body would feel clenching around my cock, how it would sound when she screamed my name.

She's James's daughter, he must've kept her guarded, and I wonder how feral she will turn, how savage. How much of a monster would she become if I were to let go and have her? Let her have the truth and watch her become it, watching her turn into a wild little thing.

That's what happens to each one of them.

A low groan erupts from the back of my throat as the first spurt of cum leaves the tip of my cock, but it does little to nothing to satisfy the ache, to get rid of the throbbing. To rid myself of this... unwanted desire.

The water pounds against my back as I finish, my breath coming out short and quick, but my body remains in the same state. Hard.

Fuck.

It only worsened, not helped.

I run my hand through my hair, brushing away the damp locks from my forehead, and stare down at myself. This is going to be a bigger problem than I thought.

I turn the knob and stop the water before wearing my clothes and leaving the room nearly an hour later. The scent remains thick in the air, and I can't deny it when it's right there.

"Mrs. Sofia has returned," Maggie tells me as I pass her across the hall. "She's in the tea room."

I head in that direction. I'm at the end of my rope, and the past twenty-four hours have been a struggle to stay away, to not touch, to not take when that's what I've always done.

"I'm assuming Nora has left for work?" My mother gives me a look.

"Yes," I step in and shut the door behind. "It was... distracting."

I'm certain my mother knows what is happening, or how this is only going to worsen from here. That's the only reason she has returned from her family's home and straight here. She is needed here, at least in this matter, while I have managed most of everything else that's left.

"The heat, I'm afraid. Well, it will pass. All cycles pass." She replies, crossing a leg over another as she remains seated in front of a tall window. "Has she said something?"

"No."

"Well, I'm only concerned if all those medicines have left an effect on it as well. She could very well suffer from worse symptoms we haven't even heard of." Her face fills with concern as she looks up at me. "Though this is just the beginning of it."

Right. It is just the beginning of it, and I cannot even handle it anymore. I have vivid images of what I could possibly do, what I would have done had any female in heat been present in my house, rubbing her scent all over everything.

I press my lips together in a tight line and then take the chair across from my mother, unable to meet her gaze as I speak the words. "I was thinking of leaving. Staying in the compound until this is over." I suggest what is in my mind.

"Of course," My mother is quick to agree. "You should. I'll take care of her and anything else that's needed here. It'll be better."

I have no other option. I'd rather not have her be near me for some time, at least until the worst of her heat cycle passes. It's the only thing I can think of. To stay away. Far, far away.

And there's no promise of how long or strong this might be. James and Sara have kept her leashed from the beginning, medicines, herbs, everything possible to suppress her true nature. I don't think even she knows what is happening. Which is alright, for now, considering that's how her parents wanted her to be.

Time will reveal everything that needs to.

"I'll leave before she returns," I continue, looking at my mother. "How was your night there?"

"Good. Much needed," The smile reaches her face. "And do take Henry along with you as well, at least for the nights. Maggie will be enough, should we need anything."

"I will."

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