When Cycles Collide

 It wasn’t an ordinary night. It was one of those nights. One of those cursed, damned, bad nights. Yes, it was the full moon, but that wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was how the moon’s cycle sometimes – albeit very rarely – coincided with her own. And how much worse it made everything.

As if the overly excited werewolf on the other side of the bond wasn’t enough, now she had her own emotions to take care of. It was early morning when she looked at one of the dogs, Auri, and almost burst into tears when she remembered how she came to be. And then there were the hormones.

The slight sexual tension on both sides that she could do nothing about. And dammit, of course it was a Saturday and she had to spend the day at home, as did he. She felt like she was avoiding him, and to be perfectly honest, she probably was. She couldn’t see that cheeky smile without wanting to do something about it. She hated him, then loved him, then wanted to simply take him, gods damn the consequences. Fortunately, she kept quiet, but even that was too hard.

She almost kicked him out of the door herself that evening. Be it with a kiss, but still a bit more aggressively than usually. And, finally, when he was out, safely out of her reach behind the city walls, she could settle in and hope that things would get better.

They didn’t.

At first, the pain got worse. The slight panic that always came with the transformation – exactly the one that she got perfectly used to and knew it was nothing to panic about – made her own body react differently. Thankfully, she could help herself, use her healing powers on her own stomach and soothe the pain. It took a while, but she was okay. Well, physically okay. Her hormones still needed relief.

She walked out of the kitchen with a bottle of expensive rosé, a wine glass, and some chocolate-covered strawberries. Maybe a bit too romantic for a lonely woman on her period spending the night in a blanket while being watched by three dogs and a cat… but necessary.

She plopped on the couch and immediately three huge fluffy heads were by her from every side, trying to get a piece of whatever she was having.

“Sorry, darlings, I can’t let you die. It’s chocolate, shoo!” she gestured them away, but, unsurprisingly, it had no effect. Great pyrenees – even if mixed with gods know what breed – were simply too stubborn. “No, go away. Don’t- Oh, come on. This has been the longest day of my life!” she moaned and got up. “Come on!” In this case, the dogs listened and followed her to the garden, probably expecting some bigger treat. No, the treat was only hers – when she came back inside, there was only one dog and one cat.

“Fine, you can stay,” she pointed at the oldest one, Lucy, and got back to her seat. Lucy was the calmest of them all and while she still had her moments of insane happiness and excitement, she was simply a mum. A mum of two crazy pups. Sometimes Gemina thought that Lucy was simply tired. That’s why she took her with them on some of the occasional trips, leaving Auri and Nero with someone to take care of them.

It seemed that Lucy appreciated her efforts.

She finally got to pouring some wine and wrapping herself in a nice fluffy blanket. No suspiciously big shirt on her that night. She made a habit of wearing something of his – and felt a but stupid for it for the first few times – because she simply missed him. And on that night when that bond between them was so raw, so open and raging, she missed him even more, because she couldn’t feel the human part.

But that particular night, she just couldn’t. Wasn’t it enough that she almost got him out of that shirt while he was still there?!

“Ah, cheers,” she groaned silently and moved the glass towards the cat, Tiawyn, sitting at the end of the couch, then towards Lucy laying in front of the fireplace. Her gaze stayed on Lucy for a few seconds while sipping on the wine. Thinking. They weren’t very healthy thoughts.

“I mean… just imagine if I got pregnant,” she started talking to her as if the white ball of fluff was her oldest friend. “None of this for nine months, can you believe?” Her thoughtful expression spoke for itself. Was she really thinking about that? Seriously? She swirled the wine in the glass before taking another sip.

“Well, of course, then there would be a child, but… we can handle a child, can’t we? Oh, we can. We can handle a child like no one. The best child handling. Have you seen him with kids – psh. Even with your own kids. Do you remember that night?” Gemina asked and stayed quiet for a while as if expecting the dog to answer her. Then a wide grin appeared on her lips. “Oh, I remember that night very well. I was so embarrassed about that dream… Eh, I guess… I’m sorry… it happened in front of your kids…? In my defence, I was told they were blind and deaf.” She shrugged and Lucy simply looked up to her as the designated sober friend trying to make sense of her drunk companion’s blabber.

“Okay,” Gemina continued, obviously not ready to let the topic of children go, “maybe there are some minor complications. For example… if my crazy family found out, we wouldn’t be safe anymore. Or if his crazy family found out, they would… disown him? That’s a different sort of crazy. And you wouldn’t get as much attention, I guess. And my work would have to go aside, but I’d get used to that. And- ouch!” She was stopped by a sudden sharp pain, but took care of it fairly quickly. At that point, she was tired. Tired of battling the pain and all those emotions for a full day. And as per usual, full moon meant no sleep at night.

“Oh gods… why today? Don’t you look at me like that, Lucy, you don’t have to go through any of this. No full moons, no periods, no hormones…” she sighed and Lucy decided to look away. She wasn’t ready to be guilted into something she couldn’t control. “Okay, maybe you let hormones take over once and we somehow ended up with five pups. Do you miss the rest?“

She stayed quiet after that, thinking about how much it would break her heart if anyone tried to take away a child of hers. How much she would fight and how dead someone would end up being. She didn’t have children, but she could imagine a bit too well how much she’d fight for their safety. But dogs weren’t people, were they?

“I’m sorry you can’t see them anymore. I’m afraid that’s my fault as well,” she smiled, but now it was a very sad – and a slightly tipsy – smile. “At least we still have the pyromaniac and the heavy eater over there,” she laughed a little and let her body slide to the couch completely so now she was lying down with eyes fixed to the ceiling.

“Ugh, I really hope he’s at least having the night of his life…”

And when, in the morning, the door opened and in walked probably the most innocent element who could have done nothing to help, she was sitting in an armchair with a cat in her lap like a villain from a movie she had never seen.

“You’re going to make up for this,” she uttered.