I’d opened my mouth to answer when a strange feeling swept through me. My vision swam for a moment and my head spun before tingles crept up my spine.
“Are you okay, highness?” Calia asked, her smile slipping.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I cleared my throat and sat up a little straighter as goosebumps pebbled my skin. My face flushed, and then my body. My nipples hardened under my clothes.
I reached for my wine as Nyfain turned toward me slowly, looking confused, his nostrils flaring.
“What’s happening?” Hadriel asked, drawing eyes to us.
“No, no, it’s fine, really.” I finished reaching for my wine while pressing the back of my hand to my cheek, needing to be grounded by the coolness of my fingers.
The tingles intensified and spread, coursing through me like my blood had been aerated, and then they sank low. My chest tightened as an aching need stole over me. It rose through me like its own entity, searching.
A gush of wetness flooded my panties. My breath came out in pants, my breasts pushing against their confinement, wanting to be released. Wanting to be touched and sucked.
I bit back a moan as my vision swam again. I tried to push the feeling away. It would’ve helped if I could leave, but I wasn’t sure I could get myself out of here and to a washroom without staggering.
Should’ve let me fuck the dragon in the air, my dragon said smugly.
Oh no. Not here.
The heat.
In horror, I looked up at all the people crowding the room, eating, laughing, enjoying their dinners. At the people serving and those lingering around the perimeter, excited to be a part of it all. I remembered what happened when I’d gone into heat before, how long it took, how crazy and loud we were. If we left to do that now, we wouldn’t come back before the dinner was over.
We couldn’t leave our own coronation dinner!
Breathing deeply, I tried to regain my sense of composure. I took a sip of wine and smiled at a swimming Calia and Dessia across the way, their expressions serious. Hannon seemed uncomfortable.
“My love, what is happening?” Hadriel asked in a low voice.
Nyfain tensed beside me, and a shock of power flowed over us. I groaned within the feeling, fluttering my eyes closed and swaying toward him.
Hadriel grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back. “Oh fuck, is this what I think it is? Vemar, look. I wasn’t in the library for the heat-fucking that other time.”
“It’s fine,” I said, waving them away, fighting back the urge to melt against Nyfain’s side. “It’s good.”
Vemar studied me from behind Hadriel. After a beat, his eyes widened.
“Fuck,” Vemar said, all signs of joking gone. “Tamara!”
Nyfain ran his hand up the back of my chair and curled his arm around me. He pressed toward me possessively, and I couldn’t help another groan. Only Hadriel was keeping me from leaning into him.
“Don’t give in to it, Nyfain,” I said through my teeth. “I can hold off until the dinner is done. We can—”
Another huge swell of power rolled from Nyfain, slowing and then stopping conversation in the large room. Weston and Micah popped up from their chairs farther down the table, and Tamara appeared by my side.
She took one look at me, and then she was all action.
“C’mon, highness. Let’s get you up. Here we go. Micah, Vemar, Weston,” she barked, “secure the king until I can get his mate out of here.”
Delaney pulled Hadriel’s chair away—with him in it—before reaching for my arm.
“Son, listen to me,” Arleth said from behind me. I belatedly realized her hands were on Nyfain’s arm along the back of the chair. “You need to let go. Let her get to another location, and then you can join her.”
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “I can hang on until after dinner. I’ve ignored my arousal before.”
“It’s not you that’s the problem, highness,” Delaney said as Arleth tried to pry Nyfain’s arm off the chair. “It’s him. He is a very powerful alpha, which means he is very possessive, and if you go into heat around all these males and you smell like any of them, his dragon will assume control and try to kill them to defend his right to you. I’ve heard being true mates makes it that much more intense. We need to get you away from all these males—from everyone—and get you cleaned up. He can have you then.”
Ready to see him in a possessive rage? my dragon thought gleefully.
“This is nuts,” I said, pushing to stand and then staggering into Delaney. “We did this in the library, and it was fine.”
“Everyone stayed well away from you in the library,” Tamara said. “And it sounded like you were already making love when it came upon you, right? That’s the start of it. This is…”