Chapter Six - The Heat

"It is irresponsible and cruel for an alpha to leave their mated omega alone during their heat. This used to be a punishable crime at the beginning of the New Age, and it is my intention to make it one again should I take office."

— Clip from Senator Steven's campaign speech, twenty-four years post Collapse

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Daisy whimpered, burying her face in the fabric of Din's sweatshirt, clinging to the fading scent of him as she pushed her trembling hand past the waistband of her panties for the fifth time since she woke up.

There was a fire raging inside of her, leaving her feverish, too sensitive, everything that touched her hurt— the soft pillows and blankets she'd constructed into a nest in front of the fireplace felt like sandpaper against her skin. Her own hand felt rough and foreign as it slid down her pelvis. Everything itched and burned and then hurt and ached and she couldn't seem to find relief in anything, anything apart from the fading scent of him.

Her body had rejected her suppressants last night, she swallowed the pill with a glass of water then immediately retched, running to the bathroom just in time to vomit into the basin of the toilet. Jeremy hadn't come home last night, but she didn't possess the energy to worry, because without the suppressants in her system, this was the most agonizing heat she'd ever had in her life.

It felt like the need in her core had taken form, morphed into some violent and brutal creature that was ripping her apart from the inside out. She needed relief like she needed oxygen, like she needed water, and neither her hand nor the toys piled up next to her nest were providing it. She needed an alpha, she needed a knot, she needed Din.

She needed him so vitally that even the thought of him, the whisper of his name sweeping through her head, made her keen and writhe and ache in a manner so agonizing it felt like she might die if he did not touch her. Her pussy wept and clenched at the memory of last night, of him tugging her onto his lap, of his hot mouth on hers, and she fluttered through a weak orgasm that did not do anything to ease the fire in her core.

She pulled her hand out of her panties, her fingers leaving a trail of wet, sticky slick along her lower belly, and she buried her face further into the fabric of his sweatshirt and wailed— this trembling, wet sound that seemed to shake the walls of her apartment.

Daisy didn't know if she could survive this alone. Her heats were always painful, always left her feeling empty and wanting, but not like this. This was pure agony. This was bone-deep pain, a need that seemed to intertwine itself with the fabric of her soul, an ache that seemed to flood through her veins.

She was need, now, she was desire, everything that constructed her fell away to make room for the weight of it.

"Din," she whimpered his name into his sweatshirt and her cunt clenched painfully at just the utterance of it.

She could not feel guilt, could not feel shame when all that she was now was a desperate creature of need. So, she reached over and grabbed her phone from where it lay next to the pile of her toys, and pulled up his contact.

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Din had not slept last night.

When he made it home after nearly devouring her in his car, he'd paced his apartment, growled as he took his cock in his hand and came in his fist to the smell of her, to the sweet taste of her that still lingered on his tongue. But it was not enough, not when he knew— when the beast knew— that she was miles away, in heat, without him, his mate, his mate, his mate.

In some desperate, needy haze he'd picked up a lamp from the side table next to his couch, ripped the cord from the outlet and heaved the thing against the wall, where it shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor.

The ceramic pieces of the base still littered his living room floor over twelve hours later, but he did not possess the patience to clean them up, because all he could do was pace his apartment, cage the beast inside of him so that he would not race back to her.

The tug had never been more brutal, it felt like it was slicing him in half, like it had taken a cleaver to his form, like half of him was still with her.

It felt like he was fighting the beginning of another rut, like just being around her in heat for the duration of an hour yesterday was enough to send him into another premature one. He knew, if he let the baser, weaker side of him win, and he went to see her, even another minute in her presence would pull his rut out in full force.

He would not be able to muster any restraint should that happen, he would be held at the mercy of the beast, and the beast did not possess any restraint. The beast just knew how to claim, how to devour.

And that terrified Din.

Being entirely out of control was not something he could handle.

When Din's phone rang, he thought— for a moment— that it was some piercing sound echoing in the confines of his head, some strange symptom from a lack of sleep, from trying to fight against the baser part of him all night. But then his eyes snapped over to the kitchen, where his phone was buzzing on the island, and he stepped toward it, his heart lodging itself in his throat when he saw her contact on the screen.

He shouldn't answer it, she would still be under the spell of her heat for the next five days, but the tug was so brutal it felt like it was carving him open, and so he answered it, with his heart pounding against his ribs, and his bones trembling with need.

"Daisy," he breathed out her name into the phone and she immediately wailed, this agonizing sound that tunneled straight into his chest, wrapped brutally around his heart and squeezed. He let out a shaky gasp, nearly collapsing onto the floor at the sound of it, his hand shooting out to grab the edge of the island to try to aid in his balance.

"Din," she choked on his name, sounding weak, sounding out of breath, sounding pained, "I— need you— please."

The sound of her agony was repugnant to him, abhorrent, it made the beast bellow and thrash in his core, desperate to relieve her of that pain that he could hear, could feel ripping himself apart.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

"Daisy, I— I shouldn't, I won't be able to control myself while you're— I won't be myself," he uttered, self-revulsion churning in his belly.

She wailed again, the line going staticky at the sharpness of it and Din ground his teeth, grabbing at his chest, trying to ease the pain that shot through him that way, but it was no use, nothing could erase that horrific sound from his head.

"It— everything hurts so badly, I can't breathe, I can't— can't think, please Din, I feel like I'm going to die," she whimpered, her voice wet and distraught, and something in it, in her words or in the desperation he could feel radiating from the tug in his chest, broke him, and he grabbed his car keys from the little bowl on the table near his front door and exited his apartment before he could think better of it, before he could stop himself, before he could realize exactly what it was he was doing, what would come of it.

"Okay, okay sweet girl, I'm coming," he hummed, crooning low in his throat even though he knew it wouldn't have the same effect over the phone.

"Hurry," she gasped, "oh please, Din hurry." It was a desperate plea that did not allow Din to think of how horribly this would end, of how disgusting he would find himself just as soon as this was over, all he could hear was her pain, and nothing inside of him, not the beast, not whatever was left of him, could ignore it.

"I'm coming baby, I'll be there," he said as he got into his car, her pain the only demented thing on his mind as he hung up and started the engine.

Her wail echoed in his head as he drove, and he ground his teeth, gripped the steering wheel with pale knuckles as he sped around slower traffic, his car climbing far over the speed limit. This was a bad idea, a horrific idea, the worst thing he could possibly do to her, to himself, but there was no force on Earth that could have kept him from her while she made that horrible sound. It was like some demented calling card, a force he could not ignore.

The drive to her apartment should have taken fifteen minutes. Din made it in under ten, his car squealing to a stop in front of her building.

He could hear her just as soon as he exited his car, could hear her pained cries from the street, and he nearly keeled over at the sound, his heart pinching brutally in his chest as he stumbled onto the sidewalk, then raced into the building, taking the stairs three at a time.

"Daisy," he yelled her name as soon as he emerged onto the hallway that led to her apartment. "Daisy!"

He could smell her just as soon as he reached her door, could smell that heavy, ambrosial scent of her heat leaking into the hall, and he growled as he tried to open the locked door, pounding his fist against the wood.

"I can't— I can't get up," he heard her croak from inside.

His head felt foggy, dizzy with the scent of her, and the beast snarled as he stepped back, then slammed his shoulder into the door, ripping the lock clean from the frame.

The door shuddered open, and her scent slammed into him like a blow to the face.

His cock twitched and ached and he felt the crackling fire of a rut already burning through his core as he grabbed hold of the door frame to keep himself in place, to force himself to steady.

His eyes snapped to her— her little body writhing in the messy expanse of a nest she'd constructed on the floor of her living room, her face buried in the fabric of his sweatshirt. She was covered in a glowing sheen of sweat that had soaked through the little, white tank top that did very little to cover her upper half. Her lower body was only clothed in a pair of tiny, pink panties that were drenched in slick, and the vision made his cock jolt, the beast growling and thrashing inside of him.

Daisy moved her head, so it was no longer covered by his sweatshirt, and her delicate features twisted in agony, her pretty eyes were plagued by dark circles beneath them, and her golden hair was plastered to her sweaty forehead. The sight made Din's hand tighten its grip on the door frame, which groaned under the pressure.

"Help me," she whimpered, her body succumbing to a bout of tremors, her chest heaving as she tried to suck in a decent breath.

He'd done this to her.

It was known that the first heat an omega goes through after meeting their fated mate is more intense, more painful than any other, especially if that omega is forced to try to get through it without their alpha. There were documented cases of omegas dying, either by their own hand or from the magnitude of the pain when they were not able to be with their alpha through that first heat. Those cases were rare, so rare because no alpha in his right mind would ever leave their omega alone during a heat.

Except him.

The guilt that rose within him was so bitter that he was able to push the beast aside, just for a moment.

Din let go of the frame, pushing the door shut behind him as he cleared the space between them in three ground-eating strides. He crouched beside her on the ground next to her nest, then pulled her to him by her waist, pulled her feverish form to his chest, wrapping one arm around her torso, the other under her butt to keep her from sliding off his thighs.

Daisy cried out in relief, her trembling hands grabbing at him, at his shirt, at his neck, at his arms, at his hair, burying her face in his chest and desperately inhaling the scent of him, thick and woody, not faded like his sweatshirt that now lie abandoned on the ground.

"I'm sorry sweet girl, I'm so sorry," he whispered into her damp hair, then crooned, that low, rumbling sound easing some of the tension that had been wound up in her core since the moment she left his car last night.

But she needed more, needed so much more than that as her cunt ached and cried, as that fire continued to pillage her core.

"Please Din, I need you, it hurts so badly, I've never— never had a heat like this before," she stammered, trying to climb up the length of his torso, her eyes glossy and blackened by her pupils.

Din had promised himself, long ago, that he would never fuck an omega, that he would never mate, that he would never knot anyone, that he would never give the sick, twisted government that satisfaction. But as he gazed down at her, at his mate, as the pain, as the desperation inside of her flooded their bond, there was nothing that could stop him from taking her, from relieving her of that ache that he could feel in his own core.

He let the beast flood his form, he let the basest part of him— that piece of him he'd kept locked away since its inception— take control.

And he hated himself for it, for how natural it felt, for how much the beast still felt like him when he let the cage surrounding it fall.

"I've got you, little omega," he purred, dragging her further up his torso, burying his face in the swollen gland on the side of her neck and inhaling. "I'll make it stop hurting."

She whimpered, clawing at his hair, squeezing her thighs together to try to ease some of the ache.

He let his tongue out to lick a firm stripe over the side of her neck, and she squirmed in his arms, her little body writhing against the solid wall of his chest.

"Settle," he rumbled, his voice vibrating against her sensitive gland, causing another wave of slick to flood her drenched panties as she struggled to submit to his command when she needed more. She was so dizzy with his scent, with the warmth of his presence, that she felt disconnected from her body. Like it was one solid thing, and she was somewhere else, floating somewhere above them.

Din set her down on her back in her nest, his eyes hungrily drinking in each inch of her perfect form, a growl churning low in his chest as his gaze snapped down to her ruined panties.

He moved so fast she couldn't see him for a moment, until he was settled between her thighs, his big, warm hands trailing up her legs, the small touch so much more soothing than anything she'd experienced in any one of her heats.

He curled his fingers around the waistband of her panties then began slowly dragging them off, the soiled material leaving a trail of slick down her thighs until he peeled them all the way off and tossed them toward the fireplace, where they landed on the floor with a dull thud.

Her pussy was swollen and red, leaking slick from her fluttering little hole, and Din growled at the sight of it, how perfect it was, how desperately he wanted to pound into her. His cock pushed defiantly at the zipper of his jeans, snaking down the leg of his pants as he settled on his belly between her legs, crooning as he rubbed his face against the fragrant glands on the inside of her thighs, coating his stubble in her slick.

Daisy trembled beneath him, her fingers twisting around the fabric of one of the blankets beneath her as his mustache, his prominent nose rubbed against that sensitive gland, relief and thick, heavy desire twisted together in her gut.

Din pushed her legs further apart to make more room for himself, her scent so thick between her legs that he felt dizzy with it. A groan involuntarily churned from his throat as he let his tongue drag from her fluttering, leaking hole up to her swollen clit. She tasted like heaven, like some elixir created solely for him. Her slick dripped from the tip of his tongue as he licked her again, growling as he buried his nose in the golden curls above her mound and inhaled.

Daisy keened in his grip, a warm flood of relief pouring through her lower body. It felt like his tongue, his touch had been crafted for her desire, like it was the only thing that could ever relieve her of that ache that had lived with her since the moment her designation made itself known.

"Din," she whimpered his name as she reached down to tangle her hands in the curls on his head, digging her fingers into the warm, damp roots as he growled against her cunt, the vibration making her flutter and clench, that tight knot in her pelvis that had been terrorizing her all day slowly beginning to unravel as he ate at her pussy— fucking her with his tongue, then sucking her clit into his warm mouth.

He dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her thighs, prying her even further apart, drinking her slick like it was made for him.

Because it was.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

The thought, with her smell drowning his nose and her slick coating his tongue, made his hips grind into the ground, his cock leaking down the leg of his pants. He'd never wanted anything the way he wanted her, it was all-consuming, desperate and frenzied, vital, like he might die if he did not claim her.

Daisy came with a whimper, her body folding in half as waves of relief and pleasure rolled through her pelvis, her sixth orgasm since she woke up, but the only one so far that did anything to douse the fire in her core.

Din lapped up the slick that had poured from her during her orgasm, then grunted as he pushed himself up onto his knees, reaching behind himself and tugging his shirt off over his head, tossing it next to her discarded panties.

She only had a moment to stare up at him, to drink in the wide, tanned chest towering over her, then he was pulling her to him by her waist, lifting her up and ripping off her little tank top with a growl, crushing her to his large, bare chest with one solid arm wrapped around her waist. His other hand grabbed her jaw and lifted her face to his, where he parted his lips over hers in an urgent kiss that was laced with a groan.

He tasted like her, his mustache damp with her slick as it brushed her upper lip, and she whimpered into his mouth, clinging to the solid expanse of his shoulders while he licked into her mouth in the same desperate manner he'd just been lapping at her cunt.

"Have you ever taken a knot before, Daisy?" he asked, in a growl into the cavern of her mouth.

She shook her head urgently, "No I— I— the only person I've ever slept with is Jeremy," she admitted, biting down on her bottom lip when he pulled away to stare down at her, his dark eyes bouncing over her face.

"You've only ever slept with a beta?" he breathed out, not in judgement, more in wonder...?

She nodded, feeling her cheeks heat beneath his stare. "I— I didn't want to just sleep with any alpha... I was— I was waiting for my mate."

Din felt his heart pinch in his chest, then slam against his ribs.

"Are you still waiting for them?" he asked softly.

Daisy's gaze had fallen to his chest, and at his question she seemed to shake herself back to the present, "Who?"

"Your mate."

Daisy swallowed hard.

A tug in the middle of my chest. It feels like I'm missing something when we're not together.

"No... I— I gave up a while ago," she said softly, pain lacing her voice and shooting straight into Din's chest.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

His heart pounding sorely to the rhythm of those two words while he gazed down at her beautiful face.

And maybe he should have told her then, maybe he should have finally admitted aloud, the thing that he thought she might already know, but he couldn't, didn't know how, so he just took her jaw in his hand again, and roughly parted his lips over hers.

"I've never slept with an omega," he admitted instead, nipping at her plump bottom lip. "You're going to be the first one to take this fuckin' knot."

The only one, my mate, my mate.

She whimpered against his lips at that, her cunt clenching around nothing at just the thought. She needed it, needed him in a manner so crucial she felt a lump growing hot and thick in her throat.

Din set her back down in her nest and she whimpered, trying to crawl back into his lap, but he held his hand up in a halting motion, grumbled out an order to stay, and she did, plopping onto her butt and staring up at him as he stood to his great height, his hands beginning to undo the button and zipper of his jeans. And she stared, wide-eyed as he kicked his pants off, as he freed the thick length of his cock. She'd never seen an alpha's cock in person before, and it was so much larger than she could have imagined, thick and tan, jutting out from his pelvis, leaking from the bulbous head, a throbbing vein etched itself up his length, then disappeared into the thick, loose skin near the base— his knot.

Her cunt ached and pulsed at the sight of it, while a keening whimper fell from her lips.

"I— I don't know if that— how will it fit?" Daisy asked, staring up at him with eyes so large they looked like they might burst from her skull.

"It's made to fit, sweet girl," he crooned, his statement meaning so much more than what was on the surface. She was an omega, he was an alpha, they were built to be with each other... but she was his mate, so she was created to be, not with any alpha, but with him.

His cock throbbed at the thought.

Din knelt back down on the ground in front of her, taking her face in his large hands, his dark eyes gazing straight into hers.

"This is your last chance to change your mind, Daisy," he said urgently, "my rut has already started, but as soon as I fuck you, I'm not going to be able to stop until you're through your heat."

She whimpered, her cunt flooding with slick.

"Please, Din," she choked out, a tear carving itself down the pink apple of her cheek. 

He growled, dropping his hands from her face and grabbing her waist, flipping her onto her stomach so fast she lost all the air in her lungs at the motion, her knees struggling for purchase when his hands slid down to her hips and began pulling them up so she was on display for him.

"Perfect," he husked, watching as her cunt drooled for him, "so perfect, Daisy," he mused, while one of his hands left her hip to thrust two thick fingers into her, scissoring them to make room for himself while her slick coated his palm.

Daisy wailed, pressing back against his hand, she needed more, needed him deeper, needed all of him.

"I don't want your fingers, Din, I want your cock, want your knot, please alpha, please."

Din growled, fucking his fingers into her harder, until he was hammering against that spongy spot at the end of her. "Have to make room for myself inside this tiny pussy," he grunted.

She grabbed onto the blankets beneath her to cope while he hammered his fingers against that mind-numbing spot at the end of her that she could never quite reach on her own, she could feel her pussy clenching around him, a fluttering starting deep in her pelvis, but before she could come, he took his fingers out, and she whined, throwing her head over her shoulder to watch him as he stuck those same fingers into his mouth.

"You taste like heaven," he breathed out, his eyes fluttering, then settling on her as they opened, seeming to darken in that instant, then he was grabbing her hips, digging his thick fingers into that plush skin, and notching the head of his cock at her entrance.

Din was shaking as he pushed himself inside of her, just enough so the head of his cock was enveloped in her warmth, so wet and tight that a moan crawled out of his chest. He tried to stay there for a moment, tried to restrain himself enough that he wouldn't fuck into her immediately, but when his gaze dropped, and he saw himself disappearing into her wet, swollen cunt, he lost it, his restraint died in one crushing blow and he tugged her toward him just as he hammered into her.

"Fuck Daisy," he spat out as his cockhead hit the very end of her, as her pussy stretched to take him all just like she was made to do. "Fuck that's so good, you feel perfect, you're perfect, I'm going to fuck you so full, knot you like a good— little— omega," the end of his sentence was punctuated by three brutal thrusts and Din groaned as her warmth flooded him, as a tidal wave of need crashed into his chest.

The urge to mark her, to claim her was so immense Din felt dizzy with it, and he clenched his teeth together, grinding them, his molars aching to dig into that soft spot where her shoulder met her neck.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

His eyes snapped up to her, her little body taking all of him, her golden hair pouring down the milky skin on her back, her fingers twisted into the blanket beneath her. And he growled, low in his throat as his eyes caught on that diamond band on her left hand, that physical proof that she belonged to another man. He fucked into her harder, her warm, tight cunt squeezing his length, while a chorus of mine, mine, mine echoed in his head.

Daisy wailed beneath him, her fingers strangling the blanket underneath her. He was everywhere, filling her so deliciously, the pressure such a resounding relief that she cried out, tears trailing down her temples and nestling into her hair. The moment he had pushed inside of her felt like an explosion, fate and pleasure crashing over her in an audible burst that made her head feel light, made something loud and buzzing ring in her head.

When that sound dissolved, everything felt so clear, like she'd been unknowingly living in a fog before that moment, and there was a thread— a thick, glowing thread somewhere behind her eyes, living deep within her head, tunneling through her chest. And tumbling down that thread was Din's voice— so deep within her it sounded like he was speaking inside her rather than aloud.

"You were made for me, Daisy. God, you feel so good, feel like home, never going to be able to leave you."

Daisy choked, her eyes pinching as she glanced over her shoulder, to catch his eyes, to watch him as he spoke those words.

But Din's lips weren't moving. His brow was furled and his teeth were clenched, and his wide, tanned torso was gleaming with sweat. But he wasn't speaking, even as his voice echoed in her head.

Surely, she was going insane, his cock had driven her mad.

But she kept her eyes locked on him, while he pounded into her, while her pussy fluttered and clenched around him, so close to coming undone on his cock, and she poured her own words down that golden thread.

"I've been waiting my whole life for you, Din."

She watched as Din's eyes went wide, then snapped to her face, his gaze flickering from her mouth to her eyes and back.

And Daisy came then, with a wailing cry as her cunt squeezed his cock, as the pressure in her lower belly finally dissolved enough that she felt like she could breathe again, breathe for the first time all day.

"Fuck," Din grunted, blinking, the surprise melting from his features as thick pleasure flooded through that glowing bond that had carved itself into his head. He didn't have time to try to dissect why it had felt like she'd been speaking into his head, because just as soon as her cunt started milking his cock, he was coming, hard, his body folding over her as he fucked his cum up into her womb, his knot already swelling, the feeling so foreign, but so natural at the same time, like an itch he'd never quite been able to scratch, an ache he'd never been able to cast off, finally relived of its torment.

Daisy was so full, satiated in a way she never could have imagined as Din's knot swelled inside her, keeping them locked together as he hoisted her up, crushing her to his wide, damp chest and collapsing onto his side, keeping her locked in his embrace, his hulking form curling around her, his face burying itself in her hair, his warm breath heating the top of her head.

And she felt so safe there, so small, protected and content in a manner so resounding it felt like she was drowning in it.

And as he kept her locked against him, his wide chest rattling her on each heavy exhale, his knot still keeping the two of them intertwined, she thought, with a kind of grounding finality, that she loved him.

She loved Din, even if he wasn't her mate, because he was safe, and he was kind, and being wrapped up against him like this felt like home.

And so perhaps she had never really loved Jeremy... because never before had she felt this kind of peace, the kind that seemed to tunnel into her very bones, with anyone before Din.

"I— it hurts when I'm not with you, even when I'm not in heat," Daisy whispered, instead of telling him that she loved him, because she would not say those words while they were essentially stuck together.

Din tensed, his heart squeezing brutally in his chest.

It hurts when I'm not with you.

Oh, god, his sweet girl.

How selfish he'd been, how disgustingly self-involved and blind. He'd been so wrapped up in his own repulsion— at what he was, at his lack of restraint, his flimsy, breakable morals— that he hadn't even stopped to think that the bond between them would hurt her just as badly as it had been hurting him.

The thought that she'd been in even half the amount of pain he had was agonizing, abhorrent in the most detrimental of ways.

He wrapped his arms tighter around her, burying his face further into her soft, silky hair and crooning, deep and low in his chest.

"I'm right here, sweet girl," he whispered, as her little form melted against him. "I've got you."

"Don't leave, Din, please," she whimpered, turning her face so she could nuzzle into the side of his warm neck, his woody scent tunneling into her, and easing more of that tension that had been swirling around her gut.

He crooned again, lifting his chin, giving her better access to scent herself on him.

"I'm not going anywhere, baby, gonna take care of you, I promise."

She finally seemed to truly settle at that, a little purr churning out of her as she dropped her head onto the thick expanse of his arm that he'd moved beneath her neck, falling into a light slumber that Din knew would not last long with her heat still in full force. But he let her sleep while his knot slowly deflated, those words he'd heard erupt in his head still rattling around there.

"I've been waiting my whole life for you, Din."

His heart ached in his chest as he stared down at her. He traced the pattern of freckles on her nose with his eyes, watched in awe as her long lashes fluttered on the pink apples of her cheeks, her plump lips were just barely parted, breathing out warm, damp air onto his bicep. The thought that he'd caused this perfect creature any pain was horrifically ugly to him.

More disgusting even, than his own revulsion with himself— with what he was.

He didn't want to belong to the brutal, pillaging designation that had gotten his parents killed.

And he didn't want Daisy to be with him just because she had to, because there was some thread that connected the two of them, because the universe had decided it so.

But he couldn't leave her.

He didn't want to leave her.

And so Din stayed.