Aris
Posey’s skin gleams in the midmorning light. I’ve been staring at her for the past hour while keeping watch on the back porch swing, giving her the space I can tell she wants. Classical music drifts from the kitchen where the sound of her knife against the cutting board is a rhythmic reminder of her presence, but even over the smell of whatever she’s cooking, something rich and deep with hints of maple, her scent is everywhere.
The last two nights were insane. I can’t come up with a better word for it. Gods, I thought she was dying. I think she thought she was dying. Waking up in the dark hours of early morning with her sweat-soaked body clutched against mine and her scent enveloping me had me thinking thoughts I can’t say out loud, like whatever’s happening to her has me by the balls, and I’d crawl through fire to make her feel better.
I twirl my phone over my fingers, stealing a glance through the open patio doors leading into the kitchen, and slowly rise. Posey dumps a bowl of bread dough on the counter and kneads it, her body still pink, still gleaming, like the fever remains.
It does. I can smell it. Smell her worry and confusion. She won’t meet my eyes.
“Aris! I wasn’t expecting a call from you.” Mom’s voice is lifted and girlish like usual but edged with alarm. I plop onto the end of the dock, the only place I get clear, uninterrupted phone service. “Normally, you only text me back if I ask a yes or no question. Are you all right?”
“I need some advice.” I suck in a breath of fresh air that doesn’t smell like Posey, and it feels wrong. “I’m still in Gem Lake.”
“I’m aware. Your grandpa is holding down the fort. I don’t return to Veiled Valley until tomorrow, just so you know. What’s going on?” She doesn’t like my tone. I can practically see her brows furrowing through the sound of her voice, that pinch of concern.
“I’m here with Posey Sapphire. Roman left a few days ago, and she stayed. I think she’s sick.”
“Sick how?”
“Either sick or cursed.”
“Aris, be serious. What’s going on? Her symptoms?”
I run my fingers through my hair, absently taking note of how long it’s getting. “She’s had a prolonged fever for the last three days, I think. It gets worse then better, but it never goes away entirely. She’s been short with me or…” Desperate. Clawing for my touch, like last night, when I’d held her so close, and she’d clutched me like letting go was a death sentence. And I’ve been… fuck. “Well, the last two nights she’s had these spells of fever and nausea, and it’s been extreme.”
“What about cramping?”
I wince, nodding even though Mom can’t see it. “She’s in pain. Cold water helps, but last night I tried to help her. I found her wandering around. She was delirious, trying to get outside, but I stopped her.”
“How old is Posey again? Twenty-two?”
“Yes.” I brace myself for her diagnosis, for the string of words that will send my mind into a tailspin like when she had to hurry to Moonrise to help Marianna, but they don’t come.
“Aris,” she says slowly, laughing a bit. “I need you to go to her room for me.”
“Why?”
“I just want to confirm one thing. Is she around? I could talk to her directly.”
“No,” I lie. I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling Posey would rather I not say a word to anyone about what happened, including a midwife and healer, my own mother.
“Well then, go to her room.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
“I just need you to confirm something for me. It’s not that hard.”
I grit my teeth and obey, slinking into the kitchen with my phone pressed to my ear. I hold my breath as I step past Posey. She turns her back, but I notice the way she trembles when I pass her, letting her breath out slow. It’s like a taut, vibrating string is being pulled between us, and I want to tug on it just to see what she’d do.
I’m out of my mind when I reach the shared hallway. Her door is closed, but her scent is already everywhere.
I turn the knob, and it hits me like a punch to the gut. Heady. Warm. Beautiful. It makes me hungry for things I’ve never…
“What do you see? I remember Posey being a rather organized and particular person. Is her room normally clean?”
“Yes,” I manage to say, unable to swallow. I’m looking at the beginnings of a mess. On her bed. Which is shielded by the canopy of the four-poster that’s now drawn and hiding nearly every single pillow in the house and several comforters, like she spent her entire day yesterday pilfering anything comfortable, cozy, and soft from the house. I pull back the lace canopy. “What is this?”
“If you’re seeing what I think you’re seeing, she’s trying to make herself as comfortable as possible. Her bed–”
“Mom, what is this?”
“Oh, Aris, I thought I was far more progressive with your education than I needed to be at the time, but apparently I’m wrong.” Mom’s laugh is lost to the way my heartbeat is hammering in my ears like a drum. “Describe what you’re seeing.”
“Pillows. Blankets. In a–a nest. It looks like a nest.” I did this for her in my bed last night without even realizing what I was doing. My heart skips several beats before restarting.
“I thought it might. She’s not sick, Aris. Poor thing, though. She should call her mom”
“She’s not very close to her mom.”
“Oh.” Mom’s voice lifts in surprise. “I didn’t realize. Um, well, is there another woman around–”
“No, it’s just us.”
“I see.”
“What is this?” My voice drops. I can’t even hide the edge to it at this point. I need to get out of here. I need to crawl into the blankets and inhale. I need to…
“We do, in fact, call it a nest, but there’s a perfectly reasonable biological explanation to what’s happening to her, Aris. She’s not sick. She’s just in heat.”
I close my eyes.
“It’s awfully startling and confusing. I’m guessing if she doesn’t know what’s happening to her, this is her first time. She’s around the right age for it, especially if she just came into her wolf and hasn’t found her mate yet. I don’t know if you remember how bad it was for Brie, but shortly after she met her wolf, she went through her first heat, and the first one is always the worst. Oh, she was so sick. She begged me to kill her one night, and your father nearly lost his mind, so I locked him out of the castle and told him to go to Maatua for the next week. You were probably at warrior training then, I think.”
I’m barely listening. I have tunnel vision, staring at three of my shirts that are tucked in her… nest. Worn. Likely pilfered from the laundry. Shirts that smell like me… in her bed.
“Brie ended up shifting and ran off into the woods. She was gone for three days, in her wolf form, riding out her first heat. She had such a hard time shifting, but it didn’t matter; she was out of her mind, which is normal. After that, her cycles evened out, and it didn’t bother her at all.”
I’m beyond being squeamish about the bodily functions of my sisters. Par for the course, being a brother sandwiched between two sisters.
My thoughts are on Posey. Focused. Unsteady. Trying not to fall to my knees.
“Posey cannot shift. She doesn’t have a wolf. This can’t be a heat.”
Mom’s silent for a moment, but then she sighs heavily. “Oh, that changes things.”
“How so? What is this, and what do I need to do?”
“Well, honey, she can still go into heat. Both of her parents are wolves.”
“You’ve seen this before?”
“I’m a midwife, Aris. Of course I have. But for the rare few who never develop the ability to shift, first heats can be… especially difficult to manage. You said this has been going on for how long?”
“Two or three days.”
Mom sighs, humming something under her breath. “She really needs another woman there.”
“Well, I grew up with two sisters, and none of you were quiet when it came to these things around me, so what does it matter? She’s refusing to see a healer.”
“Your typical, run-of-the-mill healer wouldn’t be able to offer much help.”
“Then what do I do?” She has to hear the bite in my voice. I back out of Posey’s room and shut the door, bracing my hand against the wall.
“She needs fresh air and distraction. Good food and comfort. It’ll pass in another two days or so. Most people will want to be in their wolf form for it because it’s much easier that way, but if she doesn’t have that ability… get her out in nature. It’s the closest thing.”
“So you’re saying take a fevered, delirious woman on a fucking camping trip?”
“Language, Aris.”
I bite my lip, shaking my head.
“In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, a heavy dose of contraceptive tonics may help ease some of the symptoms. The fevered delirium, especially. It should clear it up completely, actually, given that she doesn’t have a wolf, but I would still air on the side of caution."
“Why would a contraceptive draft help this situation at all?”
“Honey, she’s going into her first heat. What do you think is the reason for that?”
Instead of the blood rushing to my face, I feel it gathering somewhere else against my will. “Is there a reason this is happening now?”
“For her, I don’t know. Normally, it’s only this intense the first time or when a woman finds her mate, but… that’s what mates are for, you know. Some people don’t even notice what’s happening if their mate is around, but their mate sure will. In Brie’s case, she didn’t find her mate for a while after that, so her first heat came on very strong, and yes, she was just as sick. Posey doesn’t have the ability to shift, so give her the drafts I made you. I know you haven’t used them.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and force myself to swallow a groan of pure frustration. “Fine. I’ll figure this out.”
“Just keep her comfortable. It’ll pass. Don’t let her wander off on her own, either. It’s likely other people–especially men–will notice.”
Fuck. I see red. “She will not leave the house without me.”
“Good. Well, I think you have everything you need. You’ve always been such good friends with Posey, but I can see why this would be uncomfortable for you both. You–”
The call abruptly drops. I grit my teeth and scrub my fingers through my hair several times before turning on my heel and stalking toward the kitchen.
Posey is setting out a plate for me, just me, when I walk in and shut the door with a thud.
Her fevered eyes meet mine and hold. Looking at her makes me want to scream. Or crawl to her. I’m not sure which.
“Pack a bag.”
“Why?”
“We’re going on a little adventure.”
“No, I don’t feel well, Aris. I should stay in. In bed.”
“The nest you made? Do you understand what’s happening, or did your parents leave you in the dark completely?”
“The what?”
I lean over the counter, the two of us nearly nose to nose. “You and I are taking a little trip on my boat for the next two days, and when we come back, we need to have a serious conversation about… everything.” I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say. My mind is malfunctioning. Just being in her presence makes me feel unsteady. Surely, this is just the effect of being in a woman’s presence during this… time. Right? “Go pack a bag. We’re leaving in ten minutes.”
She nods, turns, and walks away without an argument.
I pull the plate toward me but find I’m not hungry in the slightest.