Chapter 3 : Six months ago (2)

The music was loud. The lights were bright. Kai checked his phone. 10:52. Just over an hour left. He could make it.

His skin felt warm.

Kai frowned. Touched his neck. The warmth was spreading, settling low in his stomach, familiar in a way that made his chest tight.

No. Not possible.

He was on suppressants. Had been for three years. Took his pill every morning with his coffee, forty dollars a month he couldn't afford to skip. His heats were regular. Manageable. Three months apart, and his next one wasn't due for five more weeks.

The warmth turned into heat.

Kai's hands started shaking. He set his glass down carefully, willing his fingers to cooperate. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Not here. Not surrounded by strangers and alphas and people who would notice, who would smell him, who would—

His scent was changing.

He could feel it the way he always could, that shift from neutral to sweet, the pheromone spike that announced to every alpha in range that he was going into heat. Available. Vulnerable.

Panic cut through the fog in his head.

"Bathroom," Kai said. He stood up. Too fast. The room tilted, corrected itself. Mia looked up at him, concern flickering across her face.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just need a minute."

He walked away before she could ask anything else. His legs felt disconnected from his body, moving on autopilot while his brain tried to catch up. Heat suppressants didn't just fail. They didn't. Unless he'd missed a dose, but he hadn't, he never missed doses because missing doses meant this exact situation.

Unless.

The drink.

Kai's stomach dropped. The blue cocktail. Marcus had given it to him. Marcus who he didn't know, who was Daniel's friend, who had been friendly in that easy alpha way that Kai usually knew better than to trust.

Someone had drugged him.

The main floor was too bright, too loud, too full of people. Kai pushed through the crowd, trying to look normal, trying not to stumble. The heat was building faster than it should, faster than any heat he'd ever had. His vision blurred at the edges.

He needed to get out. Call a cab. Lock himself somewhere safe until this passed.

A hallway appeared ahead. Dark. Quiet. Away from the chaos of the dance floor.

Kai stumbled into it.

The music faded to something muted, bearable. The hallway was cooler, dim lighting, doors on either side. Bathroom signs somewhere ahead. He could make it. Just a little further.

His legs were shaking. He pressed one hand against the wall, steadied himself, kept moving.

A security guard materialized in front of him. "This area's restricted."

"I need," Kai's voice came out wrong, breathy, "bathroom."

The guard looked at him. Really looked. His expression shifted, something between concern and wariness. He could smell it. Of course he could smell it.

"Sir, you need to go back to the main floor."

"Please." Kai hated how the word sounded. Desperate. Small. "I just need—"

The heat spiked. Hard. Kai's knees buckled.

The guard caught his arm, but Kai twisted away, survival instinct overriding logic. He needed to be away from alphas, away from everyone. He lurched forward, slipped past the guard while the man was still deciding whether to chase him or call for backup.

Kai half-ran down the corridor. Doors flashed past. Private rooms. VIP lounges. Somewhere behind him, the guard was probably calling security, but Kai didn't care. He just needed somewhere quiet. Somewhere he could lock the door and wait this out.

His hand found a door handle.

The sign said PRIVATE in small silver letters.

Kai opened it anyway.

The room inside was dimmer, cooler, leather furniture and low amber lighting. And in the center of it, back turned, was a man in a dark suit.

The man turned around.

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