Twenty-four

I awoke in a limo. This felt awfully familiar. My mind brought me back to the limo that drove me to my doom. It had the exact same design, just not full of innocent girls.

Only one thought and one thought only was on my mind.

My mother.

I sat up and immediately a headache crashed down on me. I winced in pain and a familiar hand stroke my hair. "You should really stay down and get some sleep, we have an hour left until we get back to pack grounds."

I frowned. A part of me wanted to return, but the logical side of me knew it wasn't safe for me to be there. It would be even harder to escape this time since I already escaped under their noses once.

"Where's my mother?" I whispered. My throat was parched and felt scratchy as if I had just screamed for hours straight.

Levi pointed forward and my eyes landed on my sleeping mother. She slept so elegantly and peacefully like she wasn't in a car with a werewolf.

"Levi…" my cracky voice spoke out. He looked down at me and said, "yes, my love?" That was a new nickname. I liked it.

"What's wrong with me? Am I sick? What's going on? I need to know," I sternly said. He opened his mouth to answer my question but stopped himself. "Get some rest. We'll talk about this later I promise. No secrets."

I nodded and laid my head down on his lap. In front of me sat my mother and next to me sat my mate. I almost felt complete. I drifted back into my sleep quicker than I expected.

By the time my eyes opened again I was back in the cabin. I scanned the area and shuddered as old memories creeped up in the back of my brain.

I hated this cabin. I didn't want to be here. I should've just lef-

"Naomi?" Levi called out to me from the doorway. "What am I doing here? I don't want to be in this cabin, Levi." I replied back while quickly pushing my body up from the pillows and lifting myself up off the bed.

Black dots covered my vision and I shook my head. The effects were still here but luckily the overwhelming heat was not. Levi rushed over to me and helped me stand straight, which I lightly nudged him away to let him know I didn't need his help.

He brushed it off and replied, "I know, one of the pack members are setting up the new house we're going to stay in. This is temporary, I promise."

"Your mom is downstairs cooking," he answered before I could ask, "you can go to her, but I have to explain what happened to you back there first."

I nodded and Levi sat down on the bed, nervously rubbing one hand on his thigh and patting the other on the bed, "could you sit?" He asked.

"I'm not sitting on that bed." I replied.

He nodded and gulped in response, "Naomi, what you were experiencing back in your hometown was called a heat."

No. No, no, no. I remembered the meaning of the word 'heat' all too quickly. I covered my face with my hands and mumbled the words, "no, this can't be happening."

"I can tell that you're stressed.. this is a tough situation for us both, trust me."

"You shut up!" I yelled and his head recoiled in shock. "This is all your fault! None of this would've happened if you would've just left me alone!"

I pointed the finger at him. This was his fault. If he really did love me he wouldn't have brought me back here.

"In fact, you're probably happy about this. This was apart of your little plan huh? You couldn't seduce or talk me into completing the mate bond so you decided to force me into it by marking me!"

He shook his head in disagreement, "No, Naomi, listen-"

"No YOU listen to ME! I will not be completing this mate bond no matter how hard it is! I won't let you pressure me into this trap, Levi."

He stood up from the bed, immediately towering over me. I didn't cower down though. He gripped my arms with both of his hands and held me steady.

"It is true, I did forcefully mark you but I wasn't thinking, ok? I marked you out of anger and aggression and I regret it everyday but, I didn't think about the heat, I didn't think it would happen this fast… I-I thought we had more time to figure stuff out. So just calm down and listen to me for once so we can figure out how to slow it down!" He growled out.

We stood there in silence staring at each other for a couple seconds that felt like decades.

"Fuck. You." I replied with a straight face. Levi rolled his eyes and let go of my arms. "My mother is on her way. She experienced this so maybe she knows ways to slow it down." He said.

I crossed my arms and looked at him as if he was crazy. "Slow it down? I don't want it slowed down, I want it stopped forever!"

"You can't stop a heat Naomi. Either we mate or the heat eats you from the inside out. It will collectively get worse and worse every time you try to deny it." Sadness filled his eyes as the words came out of his mouth.

Death. If I don't mate with Levi I will die. I let that thought spin around in my mind for awhile.

"No. You're lying.." I mumbled. He through his hands up in the air and spoke, "why would I lie about this?"

I scoffed. "I could name a few reasons."

"I know I made mistakes in the past but, I truly want you to trust me Naomi. I don't care if it takes me an entire lifetime, I want to earn your trust and your love fairly."

"Sorry to break the news to you but, you lost my trust and any possibility to get my love when you snatched me from my family." I replied.

He opened his mouth to speak once again before he stopped and walked over to the window, looking through the blinds.

"My mother is here. We'll finish this conversation later. For now, we have to focus on getting information about this heat."

I sighed and nodded. It was time to put my grudge on Levi behind me and focus on more important things.

Like this undeniable heat.