Crimson Moon

Twenty-Two

Cain's vision was red until that single word left his lips. His wolf continued to growl at the male that dare look at Lou, who was flushed with heat and embarrassment, but Cain the man felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over his head. He released Vince and forced himself to take a step back, all while avoiding eye contact with his pack. What was wrong with him? Lou didn't belong to him or his wolf. The beast in question growled his disagreement, but Cain shoved him back into his place. He wasn't in charge right now, Cain was, and Cain knew they needed to get out of there before they humiliated themselves any more.

"What's going on here?" Riley asked as he and Caroline entered the kitchen, having heard the commotion. His sharp, intelligent eyes surveyed the room, landing on the warriors and Cain, whose eyes were still glowing in lust for the female in heat. Riley's nostrils twitched and his eyes widened as he understood what was going on. What position Lou was suddenly in.

"Lou," his voice was gentle and comforting. Fatherly. "Perhaps you should come with me to my office? We'll get you something to take care of that."

Lou nodded slowly, her eyes wide in fear of the large males who were all focused entirely on her. But, although she was scared now, Cain recalled easily how her gaze had darkened in lust when she'd been looking at him only moments ago. Before she'd realized her heat had come upon her. She hadn't looked at any of the other males like that.

Lou stood up slowly, her gaze focused on the warriors that continued to stare at her, completely taken over by their baser instincts. All except Cain, who was using every ounce of willpower he had as an Alpha to keep himself from staring after Lou.

Each warrior's gaze followed her as she stepped across the kitchen toward Riley and Caroline. The older woman carefully wrapped an arm around Lou's shoulders and began to lead her from the kitchen. Riley remained behind them to make sure that none of the lusting males dared to follow them out, snarling at them in warning. Each of the males tensed in response to the doctor, but they managed to remain in the kitchen. They all stood frozen, staring after her, until she was down the hallway and they heard Riley's office door close.

Once her scent was sealed away in another room, it was like a spell had been lifted and each male relaxed to their normal posture.

And each one looked thoroughly embarrassed.

"Shit," Vince said, rubbing his neck and looking over at Cain. "Sorry about that, man. I forgot what having a female in heat around does to us."

"Yeah, Cain," Darryl agreed. "We didn't mean anything by it."
Cain glanced up at him. Why were they apologizing to him? He was the one who'd acted like a brute and went after one of them.

His confusion was obviously written clear on his face, because all of the adults in the kitchen smirked. "You're going to act like that didn't mean anything?" Vince smirked.
"It didn't. It was just my wolf going feral and being possessive, that's all." Fortunately, he had a great poker face, so the lie just slipped from his lips.

Eyes around the room began to twinkle. Will chuckled. "Sure, that's all."

Okay, maybe his poker face wasn't as good as he thought.

Cain growled at him. "If I say that's all it was, then that's all that was." He wasn't about to admit to his pack how infatuated both he and his wolf were with Luana Black. At least not until he understood it himself.

The smirk on Will's mouth remained, but he averted his gaze in submission with a small nod of agreement. Cain was incredibly patient when it came to his pack's teasing, but this was a topic he wasn't comfortable with, mostly because it hit so close to home.