That night Julien hardly slept at all. He couldn't because he was in a state of heat. It happened suddenly and totally caught him off guard. The moment he closed his eyes, the recent kissing scene just exploded in his mind like a bomb.

In the beginning, he thought that he was too excited and aroused, because of what happened a while ago, but passing time proved him wrong.​​

The sensation of discomfort was aching, stabbing and burning, everything at once. He felt that his body needs something that will soothe it, the emptiness was demanding to be filled as soon as possible.

Julien took the medicine, but it only comforted him for a short moment.

The water didn't quench his thirst and it only deepened his desire to ease the dry month. In desperation, he found the bottle of wine and started to gulp it down.

But the wine didn't outperform his expectations. The aromatics were mindboggling though with exotic spice, black cherry compote, violets and fragrant wood. The palate was still fresh as a daisy with sweet black fruits and chunky tannins. It was obviously a great wine, but consumed liquor annoyed him, it wasn't what he wanted.

He threw the bottle against the wall and the glass smashed into pieces.

Julien's voice sounded frantic: "What is wrong with this wine?"

[System: Calm down, Host! You are in heat and sometimes this is completely a common occurrence. One of the natural omega's reactions is to find a scent that is compatible with yours, but the wine won't help, only an alpha can do it.]

[System: Did you ever thought about maybe… finding one? But I guess you already have Lucius, right?]

Julien ran his hand through his hair, the nervous habit. His head was buzzing, because of heat and the amount of alcohol he drunk: "What do you expect me to do? Just go to him and say 'my little chrysanthemum is in need'? Then it isn't happening!"

[System: Why not? Maybe he will pick up the soap, who knows?]

Why this system was so useless?

Julien's stomach twisted and curled inside. His legs became like cotton wool and he was crumbling down with weak knees. He felt like a jittering mess.

Julien whined, made a small nest from his hands on the table and laid his head down. He was slowly losing consciousness.

[System: The heat will return sooner or later anyway, like karma, it always catches up to you, no matter how far you run from it.]

Ioan was sleeping very deeply, but he woke up around sunrise, hearing things. He looked around, but his room was empty without any ghosts. Ioan thought that maybe he overheard something or his mind was playing tricks on him, that was possible.

Ioan was about to turn over to the other side of the bed, but he stopped in the midway, because another resounding sound made its way through the corridor.

Could someone break a window and go into the house?

He figured out that the sound was coming from downstairs.

Ioan went to the study first and carefully take out the home-defense shotgun. His heart jumped when he saw that the door to his little brother's room was open and nobody was inside.

What was his surprise when instead of a burglar he saw a big mess and drunken Julien in the salon.

Ioan snapped out, he quickly came up to his brother. He asked, gently shaking his arm: "What happened? Why are you drunk?"

Julien was barely conscious and said in a meek voice: "Alone, I drink wine to oblivion. In drunkenness, I would be together with my lover."

Ioan's brows squished together in a frown: "What are you talking about? About who?"

Ioan didn't get a reply, because his brother closed his eyes, visibly exhausted. When he picked Julien up, he realized that the other body is unnaturally hot.

Ioan panicked a little, he didn't have experience with the omega in heat and he didn't know how can he help.

Should he call a doctor?

Ioan decided to do that after he put Julien on the bed, but unfortunately even a specialist wasn't able to do much.

The family doctor who arrived at their house and checked on Julien's condition. The man let out a sigh and said: "Everything is slowly returning to normal. It is better to not keep alcohol at your house in this situation. Get rid of it and never don't let your brother mix it with the medication again."

Julien spent a lot of time bidding the wine at the online auction, he already got a pretty good and quite an extensive collection. But before he woke up, all of it ended up in the knacker's yard.

His grief over his loss didn't go away for the next couple of days.