MOONLIT FANGS

The Rut

This chapter contains mature language or scene. skip if uncomfortable.

Rhys woke up on a Wednesday morning feeling like his entire body had been set on a low simmer overnight, and by the time he made it to his first class, he understood exactly what was happening, even if he desperately wished he didn't.

Werewolf ruts weren't like the movies made them out to be.

There was no dramatic full-moon transformation, no sudden loss of control that turned a person into a mindless animal.

It was slower than that, and in some ways more inconvenient — a rising heat that built under the skin for days, sharpening every instinct, every sense, every possessive edge of an Alpha's nature until it became almost impossible to think about anything except the one thing the body had decided mattered most.

For Rhys, mated as he was, that one thing had a name, and it was currently sitting two seats down from him in Interspecies Law, completely oblivious to the fact that Rhys's whole nervous system had quietly declared war on his ability to concentrate on anything else.

"You're doing the thing again," Milo whispered, leaning over during the lecture, nose wrinkling slightly. "The weird intense staring thing. Also you smell different. Like, a lot different. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," Rhys said, through gritted teeth, gripping his pen hard enough that it creaked in his hand.

"You do not look fine. You look like you're one bad thought away from doing something we'd all have to pretend not to have witnessed."

"Milo. Please. Not now."

Milo's eyes widened slightly as understanding dawned. "Oh. OH. You're— it's rut season, isn't it. Oh man. Does Sebastian know?"

"Not yet," Rhys muttered. "I was hoping to make it through one more class period before I had to explain that my body's decided this week is apparently the week."

"Good luck with that. You currently look like you want to either fight something or—"

"Milo, I swear to the moon goddess—"

"I'm just saying, it's giving very intense energy, is all I'm saying."

Rhys groaned and put his head down on the desk, trying, and mostly failing, to focus on anything except the low, insistent hum under his skin that seemed to grow sharper every time he so much as glanced toward Sebastian's side of the room.

Ruts hit every Alpha eventually. It was just biology. But Rhys had never gone through one with a proper mate before.

Three years of boring pack lectures hadn't prepared him for how bad it would hurt, or how much his whole body just wanted to lock Sebastian away and keep him.By the time class ended, he was pretty sure everyone within ten feet could smell what was happening.

Sebastian obviously noticed too, judging by the small smirk on his face as he packed up his notebook."You've gone very quiet," Sebastian said, walking next to him as they left the lecture hall. "And you smell amazing. I guessing that's not an accident."

"Don't," Rhys growled. His voice came out way harsher than he meant. "Don't start right now. I'm barely holding it together."Sebastian's eyes went dark, losing that usual calm look. "Is this your rut?"

"Yeah," Rhys muttered, locking his jaw. He looked at Sebastian, a sudden wave of worry hitting him. "Look, after what happened at the cabin last week... I'm a little freaked out, Seb. You went completely crazy on me for seven days straight, and now my body is doing this. A rut makes an Alpha crazy. Possessive. I don't want to break you, especially not right after you spent a week running me ragged."

Sebastian let out a soft laugh, reaching down to wrap his fingers around Rhys's wrist. He pressed right over the pulse point, making Rhys’s blood boil instantly. "You won't break me, Rhys. I’m a vampire, remember? Whatever you need, however bad it gets, I can take it. I'm not going anywhere."

Careful, Fenn’s voice popped up, low and heavy in the back of his head. The wolf sounded more focused than usual. This isn't just you or me anymore. This is old magic. Make sure he knows what he's getting into."It’s different this time, Seb,"

Rhys said, his voice dropping low as the heat started rolling off him in waves. "It's not just about having s*x. My wolf is going to want to mark you, pin you down, and stay inside you until it's over. After the cabin, I just... I don't want to push you past the edge."

Sebastian stopped walking right in the middle of the hallway, pulling Rhys into a corner away from the other students. He looked up at him, his fangs peeking out slightly over his bottom lip.

"Rhys," Sebastian whispered, his grip tightening enough to bruise. "I told you last week, you own all of this. If your wolf wants to lock me in a room and ruin me for days, let him. Stop worrying about me and get us back to the dorm."

The second the dorm room door clicked shut behind them, Rhys slammed Sebastian against it. The restraint he’d been clinging to during the walk across campus snapped completely. His mouth crashed down onto Sebastian’s in a hungry, possessive kiss, his hands instantly gripping Sebastian's waist to pull him flush against his overheating body.

The heat rolling off Rhys was thick, his alpha scent flooding the small room.Sebastian met the kiss eagerly, his fangs scraping Rhys's lower lip, but as Rhys’s hands aggressively tore at the hem of his shirt, Sebastian managed to wedge his palms against Rhys’s chest, pushing back just an inch.

"Rhys—wait," Sebastian gasped out, his voice already wrecked and breathless. "Let's... first shower. Please. Get the campus scent off."Rhys let out a low, frustrated groan, his forehead dropping against Sebastian's shoulder as his whole body vibrated with a desperate, heavy need.

"Don't make me wait, Seb," he rasped, his voice rough as sandpaper. "I'm barely holding it together."

"I'm not making you wait," Sebastian whispered, his dark eyes pitch black with an obsessive, lingering hunger as he tangled his fingers in Rhys's hair, pulling him toward the bathroom. "Come with me."

Into the sheets, every trace of his usual composed control melting away into something needy and unguarded that Rhys had never once seen from him before."Tell me if this is too much," Rhys managed, voice already rough and low, a primal edge bleeding into every word.

His chest rose and fell in heavy, ragged gasps, his skin radiating a feverish warmth that felt like a furnace against Sebastian’s naturally cool vampire flesh."It's not," Sebastian gasped, arching his back up toward him, his eyes completely dark, pupils dilated so wide the blue was nearly gone.

"It's not enough. Rhys, please—"The plea was the final catalyst. Whatever restraint either of them had left dissolved entirely. Rhys’s usual gentleness gave way to something rawer, more consuming.

He stripped away the remaining barriers of clothes with frantic, heavy hands, his touch possessive, every instinct his rut had been building for days finally finding its outlet.

When Rhys slid between Sebastian's thighs, the friction of their skin felt like a spark hitting dry kindling. The contrast was intoxicating—Rhys was all boiling blood and alpha dominance; Sebastian was cool, sleek, but burning with a fierce, immortal hunger of his own. Sebastian met every bit of the intensity eagerly, wrapping his legs tightly around Rhys’s waist, locking them together, urging him on with soft, broken sounds that only fed the fire building between them.The heat between them built in slow, devastating waves.

Every touch was sharper than the last, each low, desperate sound pulling them both further from anything resembling careful thought. Rhys drove into him, heavy and unyielding, driven by a biological rhythm that demanded absolute closeness.

Sebastian caught his breath, his fingers digging hard into the muscles of Rhys’s back, nails scraping lightly against the heated skin, leaving faint red marks that healed almost as quickly as they appeared.Rhys growled low against his throat, the sound vibrating deep in his chest—something ancient and possessiveness finally, fully unleashed. He buried his face in the crook of Sebastian’s neck, inhaling the intoxicating scent of him, intoxicated by the taste of his skin.

"Mine," Rhys murmured against his skin, his voice wrecked, barely recognizable as his own as he pushed deeper, marking his territory with every heavy, rhythmic thrust. "All of you. Mine."

"Yours," Sebastian agreed, breathless, entirely undone, his head rolling back against the pillow as a high, tight gasp broke from his lips. "Always. Completely."The pace grew frantic, a collision of teeth and tangled limbs, driven by the absolute necessity of the rut.

Sebastian’s vampire strength showed itself not in resistance, but in the way he held onto Rhys, matching his frantic energy, pulling Rhys down harder against him, refusing to let him back away even an inch. They were drowning in the sensation, two forces of nature completely consuming one another in the dark.When the climax hit, it was seismic.

Rhys locked his jaw, a low, long growl ripping from his throat as he shuddered against Sebastian, completely spent, his energy pouring into the bond. Beneath him, Sebastian cried out, his body trembling violently as he broke under the weight of the pleasure, clinging to Rhys like a man lost at sea.

The rest of that night belonged only to the two of them — every desperate, consuming, overwhelming moment of it — a claiming built from months of longing finally given full, unrestrained voice, two people who'd spent a lifetime being taught to hate each other instead choosing, again and again through the dark hours, to belong entirely to one another.

Rhys woke late the next afternoon feeling more settled than he had in days, the restless, simmering heat finally quiet under his skin, replaced instead by a bone-deep, satisfied calm he hadn't experienced in longer than he could remember.

Sebastian was curled against his side, uncharacteristically still asleep, dark hair mussed against the pillow, looking younger and more unguarded than Rhys had ever seen him.

"You're staring," Sebastian mumbled, eyes still closed, clearly not as asleep as he'd looked.

"I'm allowed to stare. You're mine to stare at," Rhys said, echoing Sebastian's own words back at him, and got rewarded with a slow, sleepy smile in return.

"That's my line."

"I'm allowed to steal it. Mate privileges." Rhys pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, warm and content. "How are you feeling? I wasn't exactly — gentle, last night."

"I'm aware," Sebastian said, stretching lazily, entirely unbothered. "I have no complaints whatsoever. I believe I told you as much several times last night, in case you weren't paying attention."

"I was paying very close attention."

"Good. I'd hate for that to have gone unnoticed."

Rhys laughed, low and warm, pulling Sebastian closer, feeling more settled and certain about all of it than he had going into the week. "Thank you," he said quietly. "For letting me lead. For not being scared of whatever version of me showed up this week."

"There was never a version of you I was scared of," Sebastian murmured, tucking himself more comfortably against Rhys's chest. "Every part of you belongs to me exactly as much as I belong to you. Rut or otherwise. That was never in question."

Told you he wasn't going anywhere, Fenn said quietly, sounding thoroughly satisfied, uncharacteristically gentle about it. Moon goddess doesn't make mistakes. Neither, apparently, does your vampire.

Rhys smiled, keeping that particular comment to himself this time, content simply to lie there in the quiet afternoon light, Sebastian warm and settled against him, the whole overwhelming week finally, fully behind them.