October 29, 2015. Grimstone Asylum, Northern Pack Lands.

Fallon Morrow

The rec room was quiet as I sat on one of the couches and flipped through a magazine. The other patients were huddled around a TV, watching some talk show with rapt attention. I wasn't interested in watching it, so I decided to stay away from them and read a magazine.

The pictures in the magazine were a lot more interesting than the TV. At least it was something. I missed the world, the real world, not this asylum. I missed being free and being able to go anywhere I wanted, and do what I wanted to do.

I never knew that I'd miss it so much.

My hand went across my face, and I leaned further back into the couch while holding the magazine in one hand. For some awful reason, my heart was racing and my hearing was way more heightened today. Maybe it was the sudden call to Dr. Frost's office, or the fact that I was on edge since Dr. Crow asked me those questions about Dom.

I felt like I was being watched, like someone was constantly monitoring my actions, but I couldn't be certain.

Lana gave me a look before turning her attention back to the book she was reading. This was the fourth time she had done this in the past hour.

I closed my magazine and asked her, "What?"

"What?" She gave me the same look again.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" It wasn't the usual kind of look that she would give me; it was different and it made me suspicious.

Was there something on my face?

She closed her book and leaned closer to me. Something was clearly going on in her mind. Ever since we came into this rec room, she'd been acting a little weird.

Her eyes ran over my face. "Don't you feel like something is wrong?"

"Yeah, of course, something is wrong. Everything's wrong!" I exclaimed in a hushed whisper to avoid catching the attention of anyone else in the room.

"No, something else. Like something with you? You look a wee bit different today. Are you feeling fine?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I feel fine. I think. I feel just like any other day."

"You sure?"

I grew frustrated. "What is it? What's wrong with me? Is my hair out of place? Or do I look pale? Am I getting thin?"

"No, you're not getting thin, you're looking just fine. It's just that—I think your little she-wolf is in heat." She leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper.

I wasn't sure if it was a scoff that came out of me or a laugh, but something certainly did. "No."

"Yes."

"No, I'm not. Why would I even be? I'd only have a mating cycle if I find my mate—oh," I cut myself short when I realized that I was, in fact, mated to Cassius. "No. That's impossible. There's no way that I could be going into heat, not in here, not like this."

She let out a giggle at my realization. While it was funny to her, it wasn't to me. "Well, I think you might be."

"No."

No.

"Fallon—"

"No," I turned back to the couch. "No, no, no. I'm perfectly fine—I don't feel anything. Nothing at all. You might just be hallucinating it, but I'm not. I'm perfectly fine."

She moved closer. "You may be starting to enter it."

"Yeah, no." I said, my mind trying to convince my wolf and myself that I wasn't going to go into heat.

"You're going to start getting all hot and bothered soon, and then you're going to be really, really, really desperate. One of my sisters went into heat when she found her mate; it was awful for her. She was like a wild, uncontrollable animal in that one week of it. She barely slept, or ate, or did anything at all. She was just horny and desperate for the entire week, and she tried to fuck everything and everyone that moved."

"This isn't helping," I said, trying to shake away the thoughts that she was putting in my head.

I wasn't going to go into heat.

"And I'm not feeling any of this. So, I don't think it's happening."

Lana rolled her eyes at me. "Yeah, right. You'll be feeling it soon. I bet you're just denying it 'cause you don't want to face the truth. But it's better to get a fix earlier on. You don't want to get the nurses suspicious. If I can recognize the signs, I'm sure anyone can."

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. This was the last thing I needed right now.

"No, and no," I stood up from the couch and straightened my back. "I'm fine, and I'm going to go to my room and forget I ever had this conversation with you."

"See," Lana leaned back and grabbed her book from the table. "You're already getting frustrated. That's just the beginning. It's going to be a rollercoaster for you."

"No."

I walked out of the rec room, heading back toward my own. I did feel a little hot, but that was only because it was so warm inside the rec room. The minute I stepped outside, it was a lot cooler. The heaters weren't working overtime in the hallways.

Lana was just delusional.

Right?

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