Posey
It’s an overcast, drizzling day. I watch raindrops trickle down the circular windows of the one-room cabin in Aris’s sailboat, tracing their trails with my index finger. My stomach is tied in multiple tight knots as the boat rocks on the choppy water. Fog hugs the horizon as far as I can see. I have no idea where we’re going. I packed for two days but nothing for this kind of weather.
I met Aris at the edge of the dock, and he put me down here, alone, while sending us into the storm.
The door to the cabin opens, and Aris steps down into the warm, dry air. Rain drips from his hair onto his shoulders, soaking into the soft fabric of his worn-out flannel. His silver eyes meet mine briefly, hooded, lined with dark circles, before he shrugs out of the shirt and drapes it over the couch. “How are you?”
“Don’t,” I croak, sniffling as I tear my gaze away from his shoulders, bare in his cut-off T-shirt. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re far from fine.”
“Which is why you’re taking us into the eye of a storm in the center of the lake?” My voice is thick, my mouth syrupy with the fever that just won’t break.
He sighs and bends to dig through the duffle bag he packed. “I need to set something straight.”
“What?”
“Us.” He meets my eyes and straightens with a little plastic box in his hands. He sits beside me but keeps his distance as he opens it, thumbing through the little vials of… potions.
My spine feels like lead. I lean against the couch, unable to swallow past the knot in my throat.
“Do you trust me, Posey, even after I kissed you?”
“Of course.” I’m slightly taken aback by the question.
“It didn’t… It didn’t mean anything, you know. It shouldn’t mean anything.” He rolls a vial between his fingers. “I shouldn’t have done it. The first kiss was innocent. It was something we both agreed on, but the second and third…”
“I don’t–I’m not upset with you about that.”
“I’m upset with myself about it.” He hands me the vial. “I need you to take this.”
“What is it?”
“A contraceptive draft. It’s potent, meant to be taken when needed for… immediate effect.” His words are thick. “You’ll take one now and one tonight. It might make you feel a little lightheaded, but otherwise–”
“Why do I need this?” A rush of unbridled heat burrows deep in my belly, expanding into something so damning and irrational I find it hard not to squirm.
Aris looks at me, his eyes scanning my expression, the blush fanning across my cheeks, and his eyes darken. “Because you’re going into your first heat. That’s why… why you have a fever. Why you’ve been building a nest in your room. Why you’re so sick unless you’re with me.”
I blink at him, trying to form some kind of rational reaction to the news. “But I can’t–”
“It doesn’t matter if you can’t shift. Your parents are wolves. You’re still… a wolf.”
I’m not. I wish I could make him understand. I wish I could just tell him, but he’d… hurt me. It’s in his nature. All of their natures.
I look down at the little vial in my hands. “Why do I need to take this?”
“Because every symptom you’re having aligns with a first heat, which… according to who I spoke to, is very intense and going to get worse unless we do something about it.”
“Who did you speak to?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shifts his weight beside me, obviously uncomfortable.
“Do I have other options?”
“Riding it out. Which is why we’re going to a hunting cabin my family owns. It’s secluded, on its own island. You’ll have… two miles of shoreline to yourself if you want to go through this without help. It’s up to you.”
“I don't know anything about heats. I was never taught.”
“I figured as much.” He runs his fingers through his air. “I did some research while you were packing.”
“Oh?” I let out a rough, wet laugh. “Thank the Goddess you’re more competent in the matters of women than I am.”
“I wanted to make sure I knew what to do for you.” His voice is so soft I almost miss it.
I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing, curling into myself until my knees are pressed to my chest and the vial of contraceptives is warm in my clenched fist.
I try to focus on his voice as he explains what a heat is. How I’ll be fevered and out of my mind for days, doing things I normally wouldn’t do–like building a nest, staying up all night in a fever induced delirium, and I’ll lose my appetite completely… hungry for only one thing. Because… Mm wolf, if I had one, wants only one thing.
A mate. Or, at the very least, someone who can appease the gnawing, feral desire bound to bloom that has one reason. A baby.
Aris explaining all of this to me should be driving me out of my mind with embarrassment, but he’s speaking so softly. Calm. Collected. He doesn’t patronize or tease me. It’s like he’s giving a lecture, and I’m a willing student.
For whatever reason, I’m thankful it’s him enlightening me.
“You’ve been stealing my shirts out of the laundry,” he says after a moment of sucking silence. I wince, but he continues lightly, “It makes sense now. You think I smell nice. I should bottle up my essence and sell it to the masses.”
My mouth quirks into a small, tight smile.
He shrugs, trying to lighten the mood and make me feel better. “You can build as many nests as you want at the cabin. I’ll dirty up a few shirts for you.”
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“I mean, I kind of built you one in my bed without realizing it. It’s a wolf thing.”
“It sounds more like a bird thing.”
“Maybe we’re closer to our winged cousins than we realize.”
“It’s a totally different clade–” I bite my tongue. “We are not related to birds.”
“Crazier things have happened… like me helping my best friend's little sister through her first heat.”
Guilt rumbles through me, settling in my heated, fevered bones. I unfurl my fingers and look at the vial, at the milky liquid dappled with flakes of herbs. “I have my own, you know. I brought some for Willow.”
“This is much stronger. Again, it’s up to you.”
“You said I had options. Is it just this or riding it out? There has to be something better.”
I’ve never seen Aris blush before. It suits him. His sun-tanned skin goes ruddy, and he looks down at his lap, letting out an exasperated laugh. “Uh, actually. There’s one more thing, but it’s not–it’s not even worth talking about.”
“What is it?”
A rhythmic beeping noise cuts through the cabin, and he rises, relief washing over his features and cutting through the blush. “We’re close to the cabin. I have to go back up to the deck. It might be rough for the next twenty minutes or so, but I’d… take the draft. Just my opinion. If it were me… I wouldn’t want to go through it.” He squeezes my shoulder. The touch ignites like a striking match against my skin. It burns through me, twisting into something hot and unavoidable. I shift away from him. He doesn’t notice; he’s too busy pulling his arms through his damp flannel. I bet it smells amazing. Like rain and him.
What’s wrong with me? Oh, right, I’m in heat.
I smooth my hand over my face before popping the cork of the vial and downing the bitter contents. I nearly throw it up, my body recoiling and trying to reject the draft the second it touches my esophagus.
***
It’s pouring rain when Aris opens the door to the hunting cabin. I step into the shadows, and the smell of dust hits me, washing over me like the sheets of rain pounding the metal roof.
“The last time I came here I was a kid,” he admits, looking around with a skeptical expression. “In fact, I don’t think anyone has been here in at least ten years.”
I step deeper into the space. Aris drags in our luggage and closes the door, shrouding us in near-total darkness for a few seconds, but then several sconces flicker, swirling at first with silver mist before turning a deep gold. I turn to him and notice he’s wearing a bracelet on his left wrist. The band is thick, made of iron, I believe, inlaid with gems that have no name because they’re not natural. They glow with his powers.
“Did my father make that for you?” I ask as the house hums to life, Aris’s powers igniting every sconce and even the woodstove, which rumbles into a blaze, warming the lower level of the A-frame structure with nothing but embers and ash.
“I doubt it. It’s over three thousand years old. Unless your dad is one of those vampires Arthur keeps rambling about, it probably wasn’t him.”
I cock my head, unsure who he’s talking about, Arthur-wise, but he moves past me into the kitchen. There’s not even a refrigerator. Everything is as bare-bones as possible.
“I’ll hunt for us. That’s kind of the whole point of this place, but I did bring some snacks. Water. A bottle of wine.” He sighs as he looks up at the ceiling. It drips, and rain pings off the wood floor, warped in a few spots. “I didn’t think this through.”
“I kind of like it. It’s rustic.”
“It’s likely the ceiling will cave in if the rain gets worse.”
I look up again, following the trails of water and rusted metal. There’s a loft above us, which I believe is where we’re meant to sleep. A single bathroom on the first floor. A small kitchen, a work table, a few wooden chairs… that’s it. “I can fix the holes in the roof. I wouldn’t need any new material. Maybe just a… ladder?”
“You’re not getting on the roof to do alchemy while going through heat, no less.”
“Then we’ll be wet and cold,” I reply with a shrug, and he narrows his eyes.
“I’ll think about it.” He looks around and then settles his gaze on me again. “I’m going to hunt for dinner.”
“I’m not hungry. You don’t have to do that.”
“Well, I still need to eat, and you should, as well, especially if you’re going to ride this out.”
“I took the draft.” My head, however, still aches, and my body feels like it’s held together by craft glue. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel now.”
He seems… disappointed, which I wasn’t expecting. “All right. We’ll know if it worked tonight.”
“Why does night have any effect?”
“Because of the moon, of course. I think.” He shrugs, running his fingers through his damp hair like the conversation is uncomfortable, which it is.
I am, however, grateful it’s him. I can’t explain why. I feel safe. I’ve always had to rely on myself, but now?
“I’m sorry this is happening. I didn’t mean to–to ruin your summer vacation.”
Silver eyes gleam in the sconce light. “You haven’t ruined anything. I wanted an adventure. I got one. You… wanted to check things off your list, and now you can put a strike through your first heat and spending it at a dilapidated hunting cabin during the worst storm of the summer. What else could you possibly want to experience after this?”
I bite my lip before I say something I’ll regret for the rest of my life, and instead reach for him, stepping closer until I close the distance between us. “Can I see it?”
He extends his wrist. I smooth my fingers over the bracelet. It’s thick, masculine, obviously made to fit a man–a large one. Someone with strength and a whole lot of power, based on the validity of the gems–moonstone derived, I believe, based on how my powers flare to existence. “You’re right. This is very old.”
“Do you know about the caves beneath Veiled Valley?”
I shake my head.
“Well, seeing as we have shit else to do, how about a story?”