All Of The Wrong Reasons

Chapter Ten: Need

"Thank you," Spencer said, stepping to the side and letting the officer carrying the two cases of bottled water he'd bought pass him and enter the apartment. "Just set it over there, please." He made a vague gesture towards a corner of the living that wasn't currently overrun with books.

They'd been called on the Jewell case suddenly and Spencer had been in the middle of researching some things, meaning he'd had multiple books open and spread around him on the floor. Too many to put away before heading to the office, so the books had remained where they were. There really wasn't anywhere in the living room for the officer to set the cases of water, not that it mattered; as soon as the officer left, Spencer would move the water to his bedroom along with the supply of granola bars in the bags hanging from his arms.

Bottled water and granola bars: standard Heat food. During his Heat, he wouldn't be able to focus on anything other than his body's demands for sexual relief, so cooking himself meals were out of the question. It was actually a great achievement to pull himself out of the Heat haze enough to stay hydrated and force down the granola bars. Eating and drinking would quite literally be the last thing on his mind, but going through Heat was physically demanding and he would need the nutrients.

That was another downside to going through Heat alone. If he had an alpha with him, the Alpha would take on the task of keeping him fed and hydrated so as not to do his body damage. Spencer's body was already accustomed to missing meals anyway, though, because of his tendency to throw himself into a task and forget that his body needed more than sugar and caffeine to function.

There was actually a lot of downsides to going through Heat alone, and no upsides at all. Well, there was an upside to being an FBI agent going through Heat alone. That being the security detail offered to him. To keep wayward Alphas who happened to catch a whiff of mateless Omega Heat pheromones away from him, two Beta officers were stationed outside his apartment. One of the officers was the one currently dropping the two cases of bottled water on the floor at the head of the hallway.

"Thank you," Spencer said again.

The officer nodded his head. "No problem. If you need anything else, my partner and I will be right downstairs."

Spencer gave a small smile, the only thing he could think to do other than saying 'thank you' again. The officer stepped out of the apartment and Spencer watched him head down the stairs, before closing and locking the door. There were five locks on his door, which seemed paranoid but was a necessary precaution for being mateless in Heat. He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch.

His Stage 1 Heat had already made a reappearance while he'd been in the office trying to finish as much paperwork as he could before his week away. Because he'd used suppressants already, Stage 1 had hit him without any of the subtlety as before. He'd drank nearly a gallon of water between leaving the office and getting home. His body knew it would be losing a lot of fluids soon, so it was trying to stock up.

If Spencer was right about the timing, he would be moving into the next, actual Heat, stage of his heat within the next hour. He could already feel the fever building beneath his skin and the fog settling at the corners of his mind.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and went through his usual pre-Heat routine. He checked all the windows to make sure they were secured with the blinds closed. He lifted the cases of water and placed them on one of his hard-bottomed dining chairs. He pushed the chair down the hall into his bedroom where he left it next to his bed, moving the water from the seat to the floor. All small or sharp objects were removed from the reach of the bed. His supply of granola bars was removed from their boxes and lined up on one of the bedside tables. There was one more thing he needed to prepare in the bedroom, but it could wait.