<h4>Chapter 491: Runaway Mate</h4>


    <strong>LYCANTHROPIC MEDICAL ARCHIVES, VOL. III</strong>


    <i>"Bondfire Fever: Understanding and Surviving the Mating Fever"</i>


    <i>Filed under: Mating Bonds, Instinctual Disorders, Pack Reproductive Health</i>


    <i>—ssified Text Reserved for Advanced Healers and Pack Medics Only—</i>


    <i>---</i>


    <i>There were stages to the mating fever—or the Bondfire as some called it—the best cruel gift from the goddess.</i>


    <i>The first was the Spark, also referred to as the initial trigger. It begins the moment fated matese into proximity or lock eyes.</i>


    <i>Then their heart races, and the scent of the other bes intoxicating. Mates could literally feel each other like a low hum across their skin, as though their nerves were reaching out.</i>


    <i>This particr stage is quite seductive but easy to ignore until it isn’t anymore.</i>


    <i>The second stage bes the Pull, or heightened craving. It is the point where the fever begins to settle beneath your skin, and every thought bes obsessive.</i>


    <i>At this point, there’s the deep, relentless throb between your thighs. It’s as if your body is starving for one specific touch—and not just any—but your mate’s. Nothing else will do.</i>


    <i>This is usually followed by the Scent Madness, where everything smells like him even when he’s clearly not around. Then there’s the trembling hands, hypersensitivity, and the possessive instinct that starts to form.</i>


    <i>Many people fold at the second stage. It is resistible with discipline, but difficult if emotionally vulnerable.</i>


    <i>Do note: The intensity of the mating fever differs from person to person. Hence, some might experience the first and second stages instantly, or one at a time.</i>


    <i>The third bes the Burn, or Physical Onset, and ny percent give up at this point. It is due to the fact that the body begins to overheat, and the need for physical contact bes near unbearable.</i>


    <i>At this point, it’s no longer just attraction but raging need. The wolf in her whines for release, desperate to be filled, marked, and bred.</i>


    <i>There’s body sensitivity such that a simple shirt brushing across the nipples is enough to cause tremors of desire, or actual pain from resisting. Then fever cramps in the gut or between the legs, involuntary slickness, mental fog, and enhanced aggression.</i>


    <i>The danger level is high at this stage, as forced separation may cause emotional outbursts or physical breakdown.</i>


    <i>The fourth stage is poprly known as the Frenzy, or Instinct Override. It is the peak of the Bondfire when reason bes non-existent. The wolfpletely takes over. They hunt, bite, rut, im—and would not be stopped. It is a primal, desperate, and dangerous stage that only mating and marking can curepletely.</i>


    <i>Symptoms associated with this stage are possessive mania, loss of control, full-body tremors, near-constant arousal, and hallucinations of the mate.</i>


    <i>At this stage, unmated wolves have been known to go feral, or worse, die from the stress if rejected for too long. No one has been known to ovee this stage.</i>


    <i>Then thest and final stage is the Crash, or Post-Frenzy Copse.</i>


    <i>Since no one escapes the Frenzy stage, this is considered the sessful stage when mating ispleted and the fever melts into euphoric calm. At this point, the wolves are settled, and the bond seals.</i>


    <i>The symptoms of this stage are weakness, soreness, confusion, and intense emotional vulnerability.</i>


    <i>There’s no known danger level with this, as no wolf has been recorded to have reached this point withoutpleting the bond.</i>


    <i>However, in some rare cases where the bond is partially activated but not fulfilled, the fever may recede temporarily. But it alwayses back stronger and more violent.</i>


    <i>Note: There have been no recorded cases of a wolf riding out a mating fever. You don’t. You only crawl through it, wing your sanity back inch by inch—and pray you don’t fuck around and beg for the very mate you ran from.</i>


    —----------


    It was safe to conclude that Adele was in the fourth stage. The only reason she hadn’t gone feral was the Suppressor pills she’d taken—they had dampened her connection to her wolf, giving her more control. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling the effects physically.


    Adele looked like a wreck even while fast asleep. She was drenched in sweat, burning from the inside out, her hair clinging to her flushed face. She gripped the sheets in clenched fists, grinding her teeth as if in pain even in unconsciousness.


    The dreaming began...


    Adele found herself wading through darkness so thick she couldn’t even see her own hands. She didn’t know why, but the hairs on her arms stood on edge, and her instincts screamed for her to get away.


    But where could she go? There was nothing but darkness.


    Then, as if someone had been in control of this y all along, the light suddenly came alive and Adele winced, shielding her face.


    When Adele finally opened her eyes, she found herself standing beneath a single beam of golden light, the spotlight illuminating the round circus stage in pale gold. The rest of the sagging circus tent remained drowned in darkness. Not just that, the wooden bleachers stretched outward into the darkness, the audience seats eerily empty.


    A tangle of tightropes crisscrossed above the stage, and the rusting frame of a wire cage hung just beyond the spotlight’s edge. Adele stood barefoot in the center of the ring, her breath catching in her throat. She did not like this.


    Then a voice broke the stillness.


    "I knew you would eventually fall asleep."


    Adele whirled around.


    That voice.


    Micah stood just outside the circle of light, his silhouette barely visible.


    Of course. She should have known. Incubi were famous for their maniption of dreams. It just hadn’t crossed her mind. She was so hell-bent on sleeping through the mating fever, she had practically delivered herself to him on a tter of gold.


    She had to leave. Now.


    Adele had no idea how his powers worked, but something deep inside warned her that if he could find her through a dream, then he could very well track her in reality.


    She tried to wake up, but how?


    "Going somewhere?"


    Micah finally stepped into view.


    The moment Adele’s eyesnded on him, the breath fled her lungs in a single, aching rush.


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