A stinging pain inflamed his cheek and suddenly woke him up. Glen stood up and looked around. A first glance left him unsettled. The elements of the room were familiar, but he had no memory of being there recently. Standing next to him, a man with a smile that meant nothing good was staring at him, a mug in his hand. He had just put away his other hand after slapping the sleeper in the face.
Glen looked around the room and searched his memory for a clue that never came.
"Hello," the man said, a Cheshire smile on his lips. His eyes were twinkling as if he was savoring the moment and the fact didn't bode well for the werewolf. He reached out to accept the still-hot mug and the man raised an eyebrow before bringing the cup to his mouth and taking a loud gulp.
"Are you serious?"
"What? I never said it was for you. "
Glen pulled the sheet over him, annoyed, and stood up. He left the bedroom and went into the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator with a familiarity that didn't seem to bother the owner.
"How did I get here?"
"Cassy ordered me to come and get rid of you."
"Get rid of? What the ... What happened? I blacked out and my body ... I feel good, weirdly good even, but I have a weird feeling ... What? What's wrong?"
The man stared at the face of his friend, Connor Everett, who was staring at him with a hurt look he didn't believe for a second.
"You mean…" His voice broke and Glen frowned, this time concerned. "You don't remember anything?"
"No, why? What did I do at Cassy's yesterday and why did she call you to pick me up? "
"Pick up is far too kind of a word to describe what she asked me to do. By the way, you are ordered to erase her number and never try to contact her again. Last but not least, today it's Thursday and not Tuesday as you seem to think. "
"Wait! What? Connor, explain to me what's going on? "
Connor, cup in hand, walked over to Glen. Their faces were just inches away and the werewolf scrutinized the gestures of his best and oldest friend, every muscle in his body tensed. The man turned away slightly and brought his ear closer and whispered in a low, mellow voice.
"Congratulation. You went into rut for the first time and it was fantastic. "
He took a step back, eyes shining to watch Glen's reaction as his face went through several phases. The first emotion that arose was disbelief which made him immediately reject what his friend had just said. Then it was the turn of utter panic that paralyzed even his brain. He couldn't process what he just heard, let alone move. He was frozen like a statue. The werewolf tried to dismiss the idea again and noticed an unfamiliar expression on Connor's face, his confidence starting to crack. Then, his eye caught the trail of purplish-red marks down the neck of the man standing in front of him. Kiss marks. So much evidence he couldn't refute. His smile faded and all color left her face.
"Fuck. Connor, listen I'm sor… "
The corners of the lips of the man with the light brown hair and dimples on either side of his cheeks quivered. Less than a second later, he burst into a loud laugh.
"Dude, your face is priceless."
"What, was that a joke?"
"Of course yes that was a joke, and I can't believe you bought it."
"But you got those marks on your neck and you looked so ..."
"Ah!" Connor raised his hand to his neck, his cheeks suddenly pink, and looked away. "Greg came last night."
Glen's body relaxed and in relief, he staggered slightly and leaned on the kitchen counter behind him.
"Never do this to me again. "
"Dude, I might be into men, but I rather die than fool around with you, rut or not. Plus, I don't want to add my name at the bottom of a manwhore's fucklist. I'd knock you down if you ever come near me in this state, and try to screw me. "
"I'm a werewolf, human."
"I'm a WIA agent, I got wolfsbane." Connor shrugged, unfazed.
"That's harsh!" Glen said with a falsely hurt look.
"Better kill you than you kill my ass."
"I thought we were friends!"
"Yeah, friends! Nothing more. My ass is off-limits! "
Glen laughed heartily before resuming more seriously. "Ok, I got it. So, explain. What the hell happened for Cassy to call you and, did I go into a rut? "
"Yes, I called a doctor from the WIA and he came to examine you, the poor man almost passed out from your pheromones. You always told me that you were pretty unique and I never asked more questions, but Glen, you were… " He paused, suddenly unsure of the werewolf's reaction. "Your wolf is really…"
"Did I hurt Cassy?" The alpha cut him off, uncomfortable having a conversation about his condition. He didn't want to wake up with painful memories and he was also worried about the woman. For a human unaware of the existence of werewolves, suddenly being with a wolf in rut must have been a traumatic experience. However, the fact that he was at his friend's house and not in a WIA cell, told him he hadn't done anything serious. In any case, he hadn't done anything that broke the rules that guarantee the safety of humans, or that endangered the secrecy of his kind.
"Cassy called me Monday in the afternoon. She was hysterical and kept saying my man was asking for me and that she had better things to do than take care of someone else's 'lovesick' boyfriend."
"What? What's this bullshit? Connor, stop the teasing and tell me what the fuck happened. "
"I didn't get it either at first, but I understood when I brought you back here. What's the last thing you remember? "
"I remember I was with Cassy, we were about to… I won't draw you a picture. Anyway, things were getting serious and... blackout. "
Connor listened attentively, his index finger bent and resting across his lips as his thumb supported his chin. He had a crease on his forehead that formed whenever he thought about something intensely.
"Nothing more?"
"No. Total black until I wake up earlier. "
The WIA agent welcomed his response with a sigh and spoke again, this time with a serious expression. "I know it was the first time you got in rut, but even if it's in theory you know the symptoms, or are you going to make me believe it happened without you realizing it? "
Glen's reaction answered his question. The man had nothing to say in his defense, as he knew that he should have recognized the signs. However, despite his age, he had never experienced a rut, unlike other alpha werewolves who got into rut two to three times a year.
"I know I fucked up. I can't believe I went through my first rut. But wait, you still haven't explained to me what happened to Cassy and why she told you all this. "
A smirk lit back Connor's face and he leaned on the kitchen island facing Glen before starting to fill the gaps in his friend's memory.
"When Cassy called me, it was a flood of insults and nonsense. Between two incomprehensible sentences, she finally told me that you were sick, impossible to wake up and that alerted me immediately. As you know, given your constitution, you can't get sick. I immediately got that you were in rut and that it was an urgent situation with a human probably in danger. I asked my boss to pick you up. I arrived with Bradley and she was waiting for me on the porch. She kept saying that we made fun of her. "
"I still don't understand what happened to make her say that."
"I didn't understand either. I let her vent without worrying about it anymore. You were calm and asleep with a huge fever, but I wasn't sure if this was going to last. My priority was to get you out of there as quickly as possible. We picked you up with Brad and put you in the car. I chose to take you to my house since obviously, I'm prepared to face a wolf in rut if I have to and I know you would be pissed off if I had driven you to Alpha Carter's. "
The glare when he said Glen's father's name confirmed his guesses and Connor chuckled.
"Anyway, I brought you home and I put you in the room where you woke up earlier and that's where I heard you sleep talking."
"And it was that much of a deal because ...", Glen retorted, much likely disappointed that it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"You kept looking for someone. It was like you wanted him to be with you during your rut. "
"Did you just say 'him'?"
"Yup! Him! Like in a person with a stick and two… "
"Cut the crap, why would I spend my first rut with a guy? Why would I want to be with a dude at all? No offense, but I've never been on that side. "
"Well, there's always a beginning for everything." Connor wriggled his eyebrows, a perverted smile plastered on his lips. "When I heard that you kept looking for him, moaning and panting covered in sweat, I got why Cassy was so mad at me. She probably thought I was the 'him' you wanted to screw that much in your delirium state, and she accused us. So... Who is he? "
His eyes were sparkling with anticipation. Glen on the other side was in shock at what his friend had just told him and wasn't in the mood for joking at all. His mind kept looping the moment he started losing control.
He remembered when he left his uncle's office. He had walked through the waiting room and when he walked through the door he had smelled that scent that had him. Excited? Realization hit him like a hammer. The scent of this person, probably an omega, had turned him on. It had never happened to him before. All of his partners were human and as far as he could remember he had never reacted to an omega's pheromones. The fact that it affected him to the point of making him go into his first rut scared him even though he would never admit it. He remembered the honey-colored eyes with a hint of amber he had sneaked past before running away and ran a hand across his face, troubled.
His heartbeat had picked up slightly at the thought of the stranger and his wolf, who had been calm since waking up, began to stomp again. Connor watched with amusement the expressions on his best friend's face. An even richer and more intense panel than when he threw his little joke. His smile widened as Glen stared at him in near despair.
"I think I met an omega in my uncle's office. The day I got into rut. I went to see him because of something, and when I came out there was this person. I barely saw him, but his eyes looked like ... "
The sound of something being munched caught his attention. He looked up to find Connor, a packet of crackers in his hand, eating as he looked at him.
"No, don't mind me. I'm enjoying this moment to the fullest. I want to remember this forever. "
"Sometimes I wonder why the hell I'm friends with you," Glen said, glaring at him.
"Anw! I like you too! But for your information, it's the other way around. I am the one who honors you with my friendship. Oh, and while I'm at it ... " Connor slowly slid a cracker into his mouth and chewed it meticulously.
"What?" Glen barked, annoyed. He reluctantly looked at the face of the WIA agent who relished his dismay.
"Welcome to the gay side of the force."