TAT | MW [✔]

04. Wonwoo

There was no way it was actually happening. It couldn't be. Not only was it too early for me to go into heat, I was deeply unamused by the fact that I was trapped with an alpha I barely knew—a student at that—in an emergency situation. I didn't even like Kim Mingyu.

No, that wasn't true. I barely knew Mingyu. Yes, I'd had a reaction to the man from the moment I'd stepped into the classroom and seen him, but there was nothing unusual about having a reaction to an alpha, especially when I was so close to—

My thoughts ended abruptly as a heat cramp hit me, and I grunted, gripping my middle and crunching into a ball on the sofa.

This definitely wasn't happening.

Except it was.

"I could go out and check to see if it's just a trick of the light," Mingyu said, still standing at the window, peering out into the darkness. His voice sounded grim as he went on with, "I think it's really gone, though. That tree fell right through it."

I knew what that meant, but I fought it the same way I fought the pain from the cramp. As soon as it eased up enough for me to speak, I said, "Let me call down to my dad to see if they can, I don't know, put up a temporary bridge to get Jun up here."

Mingyu peeled away from the window and nodded. "Sounds good. Where's your phone?"

Mingyu had an entirely different air about him all of a sudden. All day, he'd been annoying the hell out of me with his attitude, like he was resisting every word that came out of my mouth just because I was an omega and he was an alpha. But all that had changed in the blink of an eye—or maybe in a flash of lightning. He was in full caretaker mode now.

"I've got it," I said, wincing as I shifted to pull my phone out of my back pocket. I didn't like how damp the seat of my pants already felt. "I'll just make the call. I wouldn't say no if you wanted to pop the heating pad I have on the table beside my bed into the microwave, though. Three minutes."

"Sure," Mingyu said, striding across the living room on his long legs and heading into my bedroom.

I got a full blast of his cedar scent as he walked past me. It was so powerful that a gush of slick leaked out of me like someone had turned on a faucet. I was mortified, especially since I felt it soak the back of my trousers, but there was no time to wallow in embarrassment. I would contemplate the implication of the fact that I'd never reacted so strongly to an alpha before in my life later.

"Wonwoo?" Dad answered after one ring. "Where are you, son? This storm came out of nowhere."

Somewhere near Dad, I heard Papa say, "It did not, Sun. The forecast was spot on. If you would just watch the weather report in the morning—"

"You can scold me all you want later, Jae," Dad said, then went on with, "I take it you and Mr. Kim made it to your cabin?"

"We did," I said, trying not to moan, "but a tree was struck by lightning, and Mingyu says it came down on the bridge, smashing the whole thing."

"Mingyu said that?" Dad asked.

I wanted to give him a piece of my mind over the way he said Mingyu's name, but there wasn't time. "Can you get some sort of replacement bridge in place, like, now?" I asked, whining in spite of myself.

Dad hummed, then said, "Let me guess. Your heat is starting. Even though you insisted it would be another week and you'd be fine teaching the class."

"Could we do this later, Dad?" I sighed heavily. "I need Jun up here, preferably an hour ago."

"I'll see what I can do," Dad said, "but honestly, it isn't safe for anyone to go outside with this storm still raging, and I doubt it's going to be easy to replace that bridge, even with something temporary, until tomorrow at the earliest."