The shower hissed softly, steam curling off pale tile, and for the first time that morning, Elias was alone. No humming ether, no sharp commands, no crimson eyes following every tremor in his pulse. Just the sound of water against skin.
He braced a hand against the wall, head bowed under the spray. The heat made his muscles loosen, but it didn't slow the thoughts crawling up from where he'd been keeping them buried.
He knew his body was changing.
It had started with the last heat, the one that burned hotter, deeper, and longer than any before. The scent had turned heavier, his skin hypersensitive, his body responding to Victor's pheromones in ways he couldn't fight or rationalize. What frightened him most wasn't how helpless it had made him, but how right it had felt.
