The Blood Rescue

🩸 CHAPTER 9: THE FEVER BREAKS

The air inside my bedroom felt like liquid fire.

The moment the heavy oak door had locked behind us, sealing out the

echoes of the tense gala ballroom, the fragile dam inside my body

completely burst. I stumbled away from Jax, my heels tripping over the

edge of the plush velvet rug. I caught myself against the edge of the

dark wood vanity, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the frame.

"Eva?" Jax’s voice was deep, rough, and instantly alert. I heard the

slow, deliberate stride of his boots closing the distance behind me.

"Don't... don't come near me," I gasped out. The words felt heavy,

scraping against a throat that suddenly felt bone-dry.

I looked into the vanity mirror, and a gasp tore from my lips. The

transformation was terrifying. The plain, ordinary brown of my eyes

was entirely gone, replaced by a brilliant, molten gold that literally

seemed to glow in the dim light of the room. My skin was flushed a

deep, feverish pink from my collarbone to the tips of my ears. A fine

sheen of sweat coated my neck, making the ruby-red silk of my dress

stick uncomfortably to my skin.

The suppressants hadn't just worn off. The overwhelming, raw Alpha

aggression Jax had unleashed on the balcony had acted like a catalyst,

forcibly triggering my first true biological heat cycle months ahead

of schedule.

The scent exploding from my pores was deafening. It wasn't just a

faint hint of citrus and fresh rain anymore. It was a suffocating,

intoxicating wave of sweet, blooming orange blossoms and heavy,

electric rain—the pheromones of an Omega completely ready to be

claimed.

Behind me, Jax froze in his tracks.

I watched his reflection in the glass. His chest expanded violently as

he dragged the scent deep into his lungs. The cool, calculating Pakman

vanished, replaced instantly by the wild, primal predator. His pupils

dilated until his eyes were pure, pitch-black voids. The veins along

his thick neck and massive jaw bulged, his jaw tightening until the

bone looked ready to crack under the pressure.

A low, guttural roar rumbled out of his chest—a sound so raw, dark,

and filled with ancient territorial dominance that it made my inner

wolf whimpering with a terrifying mix of fear and absolute, desperate

surrender.

"Eva," he rasped, his voice dropping into a register so deep it was

barely human. "Your heat."

"I have... I have pills in my coat," I lied frantically, my knees

buckling beneath me as a wave of intense, liquid heat coiled deep in

my stomach, making me slide down to the floor. "In the closet. Get

them. Please, Jax, I can't think straight."

"There are no pills for an Omega's first heat, little bird," Jax

whispered, his boots eating up the distance between us. He dropped to

his knees in front of me, his massive frame completely blocking out

the rest of the room.

The sheer heat radiating from his body was like standing next to a

furnace. My body screamed at me to throw myself into his arms, to beg

him to take away the agonizing ache blooming between my thighs. But

the rational, terrified part of my mind—the girl who had fought for

nineteen years to be free—was still desperately trying to push him

away.

I lifted my trembling hands, pressing them flat against his broad

shoulders to hold him back. "No. Jax, look at me. This is just

biology. It's just a trick of our blood. Don't touch me."

Jax didn't listen. His eyes were locked onto my bare throat, watching

the frantic, rapid pulse hammering beneath my skin. He lifted his

large hands, his fingers tangled in the silk of my hair, tilting my

head back until I was completely vulnerable to him.

"It's not a trick," he growled softly, his face hovering just inches

from mine. The scent of his cedar wood and heavy smoke was a physical

drug, making my eyelids heavy, dissolving my willpower with every

second that passed. "Your wolf is calling for me, Eva. She’s been

hiding in the dark for too long, and she wants her King."

He leaned down, his lips brushing against my burning cheek, tracing a

path down to the sensitive corner of my jaw. I let out a soft,

embarrassing whimper, my fingers instinctively curling into the fabric

of his black dress shirt, pulling him closer even as I tried to tell

myself to stop.

"Jax..." I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please."

"Tell me what you want, little bird," he murmured against my skin, his

teeth grazing over the exact spot where his claiming mark should go.

He was holding back with an immense, agonizing amount of control, his

entire body trembling under the strain of his Alpha instincts. "Tell

me to take the ache away. Give me your consent, and I will make you

untouchable."

My mind was a battlefield. If I let him mark me tonight, during my

heat, I would be bound to him forever. I would officially become the

Mafia Pack's Queen, tied to his dangerous, bloody world until the day

I died. But as another sharp, agonizing wave of heat ripped through my

core, making me arch my back against his hands, the fight finally

broke.

I didn't want freedom anymore. Right now, in this room, I only wanted him.

"Help me," I cried out, my amber eyes locking onto his pitch-black

gaze. "Jax, please. I can't bear it."

A dark, victorious smile stretched across his handsome, brutal face.

"That's it, my Queen. Give yourself to me."

He scooped me up into his arms effortlessly, my ruby dress swishing

around his legs as he carried me toward the massive black velvet bed.

The mattress gave way beneath us, and as he pinned me down beneath the

crushing, protective weight of his body, the rest of the world

completely faded away.

But as my hands slid down his back, my fingers brushed against the

edge of the mattress frame.

Beneath the velvet sheets, just inches from where Jax was laying his

hands on me, the plastic burner phone vibrated silently in the dark. A

new text message from Viktor’s traitors was arriving, a silent timer

ticking down toward a war that was about to crash through the bedroom

doors—whether we were ready for it or not.