It was noon before I woke up, and still, I couldn't really shake the sleepiness until I'd had two cups of coffee while we got ready to head back to Oceanport.

“I knew you weren't a morning person, but this in a new height even for you,” Zander teased, loading his bag into the car.

“I guess you wore me out,” I shot back. It was only after the words were out of my mouth that I realized we weren't alone. My brother and his so-called husband had come out onto the porch to see us off. Oh well. So what if Zander and I were bantering like a married couple? That's what they expected from us, wasn't it?

Not that I could imagine my brother exchanging banter with his husband.

Once I had my meager possessions in the car, I turned to look at Rhys. “I'll call you tonight and you'd better answer the phone or we'll come back here.”

Rhys laughed, although something about it sounded forced. “Is that a threat?”

I shook my head. “Only if you want it to be.”

Zander stepped up beside me and took my hand as if he could tell how uncomfortable I was on the inside. Maybe he could. He'd always been good at just knowing what was going on, even when I struggled to find the words. I sighed. Part of me actually thought it might not be so bad to be married to Zander.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. How had I fallen so hard so fast?

No time to worry about that now. I had to say goodbye to my brother. Letting go of Zander's hand, I gave Rhys a hug. “Take care,” I said. “You know you can always come to me if anything happens, right? To any of us.” We had so many siblings and they would all welcome him with open arms.

“I know,” Rhys said, and then his husband spoke up.

“I can take care of my mate, thank you.”

I only shot him a look before climbing into the car. Jeremiah was about the last person I was going to trust with my twin. Too bad the choice wasn't up to me and there was nothing more I could do here. When Zander got into the car beside me and put us back on the road, I wasn’t too sad to be leaving this town behind me.

My hands needed something to do, so I pulled my phone out of my bag.

“When are you going back to LA?” Zander asked, suddenly.

I looked up. “The day after tomorrow.” And I'd totally forgotten about it, but Zander was right. My life wasn't in Oceanport right now. What was I doing with him? What had we done last night?

“That's soon.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I leaned back in my seat, looking at the road outside. The sky was gray and seemed to promise more snow. I was going to miss snow when I was back in LA.

And not only snow. I couldn't deny that now.

“Last night...” Zander started after a moment of silence. “Did you...Was that...?”

“Can't find the words? You're usually so eloquent.”

He shot me a look and cleared his throat. “You said you'd never experienced a heat before.”

“Yeah, that's true.” I smiled at Zander. Did he not want to talk about heats? “I guess last night was the first time. It's weird, isn't it? For an adult to go into heat like that.” When I passed my teens without going into heat, I kind of figured it was never going to happen to me.

“I suppose it's a bit weird, but it's not unheard of. At least not entirely. I've read about it. Usually it happens to virgins, though, and you're not...” Zander's eyes snapped to me. “Are you? I mean, were you?”

The shocked expression on his face made me laugh. “No, I'm not and I wasn't. Don't worry about that. Sorry to say you were not the one to pop my cherry.”

“Fine by me,” Zander claimed, but I swore I could detect just a tiny hint of regret in his tone. Or maybe I just wanted it to be there. “But if you were not a virgin...” Zander shook his head. “I wonder what triggered it?”

“I don't know. I guess it's because things are different with you.” And again, I said something without really thinking it through. How was Zander supposed to take that? “I just mean, I'm not usually interested in sex. Like, at all. I told you I was different from other omegas that way. I can't say why, but with you, I wasn't just going through the motions. I wanted it.” Wanted you.

“That's... good to know.” Zander gave me a small smile before focusing his eyes back on the road. “Last night was definitely intense.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” I rubbed my face with the heel of my hand. Finally, I could understand what other omegas were talking about when they mentioned their teenage heats. “I wouldn't mind doing that again some time,” I dropped an off-hand comment just to see how he would react. He'd basically told me that he loved me, so surely he couldn't be opposed?

I watched his fingers tighten around the steering wheel. I liked his fingers. They felt good on me. “Whenever you're in town again,” he said eventually. Something about his smile looked forced.

“You don't want me to leave,” I concluded.

“No,” he admitted. “But I'm not selfish enough to ask you to stay, either.”

“I see.” I fiddled with my phone again, not really sure what to say. I didn't want to leave either. But wasn't that madness? I had a life in LA. Well, no job, right now, but I had friends there. A place to live. Freedom. On the other hand, no one would try to order me around in Oceanport either, and I had friends and family there too. And snow. And Zander.

But we had only spent one night together, even if that was the most amazing night ever. This feeling was so new to me, who could guarantee that it was going to last?

* * *

By the time we made it back to Oceanport, I was about ready to fall into bed, but there was one more thing I needed to do before I could find any sleep.

“Could we talk?” I asked Kade almost as soon as I was through the door to his house.

Surprise flitted over his features, but he nodded. “Sure,” he said, eyes darting to the window that overlooked the road where Zander had just disappeared. He was probably wondering what happened while we were gone. “Would you like to go up to your room?” he asked. “We'll have to be quick, though. If Mary sees you she'll want to have tea with you again. She's been telling me all day about how the queen might be coming over when you're back tonight.”

I had to smile at that. Mary had a wonderful imagination, even if I wasn't in the right mood for tea. “Maybe later. Let's hide away in my room first.”

“All right. I want to know everything.”

“I expected no less.”

Kade went up the stairs and I followed. When we got to my room, we closed the door behind us and sat on the bed together. “I don't know what to do,” I confessed as soon as my butt hit the mattress.

“Why? What happened?”

“I um...” I drew my bottom lip between my teeth. “We kind of got to talking and...” Sheesh, I couldn't even really recall how one thing had led to another anymore. “He told me that he still cared about me, so I kissed him and then we... Well...” I made a motion with my hand. “You can guess what we did.”

“I have a hunch,” my friend said, resting his chin on his hands.

“I think I went into heat,” I added.

Kade's eyebrows went up. “But you're not a teen! Or are you?” He leaned forward to study me more closely. “Have you been lying to me all this time? It would explain a lot! Like remember that time you got fired from Alphamart because you stole an item from a customer?”

“I didn't steal anything. I refused to sell it to them because it was reserved.”

“For you. By you.”

“It was a squirrel piggy bank! I've never found another after that.”

Kade only looked at me as if it wasn't totally normal for an adult man to have a farm made up of several piggy banks in varying animal shapes on his desk.

“Whatever,” I said. “That's not the point here! Zander told me adults can go into heat too, sometimes.”

“I never heard of that, but I believe you. What was it like?”

“Sooo good.” I let myself fall back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “I had a lot of time to think on the car ride, though, and I think I know why it happened.”

“Yeah? What do you think?”

“Well, you know I've had sex before, but that was the first time I had sex with someone I actually...” I let the sentence hang, trying to find the right word.

“You actually...?” Kade prompted.

“Someone I actually like.” It was a stupid way to say it, like I really was still a teenager, but whatever. At least my friend wasn't laughing. He looked at me thoughtfully instead.

“He's really special to you, isn't he?”

I sighed, but at the same time I felt happy too, thinking about how special Zander truly was to me. Like there was this warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach about to bubble over and spread into every pore of me.

“You're smiling!” Kade poked my stomach with glee in his eyes. “I'm right!”

“Yes, okay, you are.” I sat up again. “But what do I do about that now?”

“Have you told him how you feel about him?”

“No, I guess not. Not really. I mean, I kissed him and all, isn't that some sort of indication?”

“It could be. Or it could just mean you were horny,” Kade pointed out.

“You know I don't do that.”

“I know.” My friend put an arm around my shoulders, as if to comfort me. “Does he know too?”

I shrugged. “What if it doesn't last, though? What if the sex was only good because I went into heat?”

“I'm sure that's not the only reason it was good. But if you want to make sure, maybe you should go over to his place tomorrow, before you leave.” He squeezed my arm as if to give me a nudge.

I chuckled. “Are you suggesting indecent activity, my friend?”

“Oh, I just want you to be totally sure of what you're feeling.”

“You're not fooling me. You want me to fall head over heels so I'll move back here.”

Kade grinned at me. “Are you saying you haven't fallen head over heels yet?”

I sighed theatrically. “I guess there's only one way to find out. At least the guy I'm falling for isn't Vinist.”

“Oh yeah, how did things go with your brother?”

“Not too well, to be honest. We kind of got into a bit of a fight? But I think he'll answer the phone now when I call, so I guess that's something, right?”

“Yeah, that's something.”

“Which reminds me, I told him I was gonna call tonight, so I better do that.”

“All right.” Kade got up from the bed. “I'll leave you to it.”

“Okay. I'll come down when I'm done.”

“You'd better. Don't forget that there's a little girl who wants to have tea with you.”

“How could I?” I was smiling as I watched Kade leave the room. After living on my own for so long, it was nice to feel like part of the family again. Which reminded me, I still had to visit my brother before I left, if only to congratulate him and his mate for getting pregnant again. Maybe I could do that after visiting Zander...

Idly, I wondered how Zander felt about babies. Was it too early in our relationship to ask? Did we even have a relationship? So many things left to settle before I could return to LA. In fact, I probably shouldn’t leave it all until tomorrow. That was like, a whole night away.

But what if I didn't have to spend this night by myself?