Amber

I still didn't know why Sarah was worked up, but I couldn't really focus on it since something seemed seriously wrong with me.

She paused, her brow furrowing and her posture relaxing as she spoke. "Oh. Yeah. Yes, I'll do that. I know. Sorry, Devon. Yeah, right now."

She dropped her phone back into her pocket and wrapped her arm around me as she helped me to my feet.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"You're going to the clinic."

Anxiety filled me at the thought. I didn't want to see any doctors, not even the one with the dazzling smile who I only remembered as being kind to me. Before I could get really nervous, my fear was washed away by more pain. I doubled over, and Sarah picked me up with her ridiculous strength and practically ran me the whole way there.

That unpleasant clinical medical scent hit my nose as she pushed in through the door, and a woman who I guessed was probably a nurse showed Sarah where to put me, on a bed in an examination room. I gave Sarah permission to stay while the nurse gave me some pain medication in pill form, before asking me for a bunch of information.

Once she was finished, the doctor who checked my ankle when I had been locked up came in and glanced at my file. "So, you're experiencing pain in your abdomen?"

I nodded.

"Now, I haven't really dealt with a lot of humans before, but I have to ask, could this pain be related to your menstrual cycle, Luna?"

"My...what?"

He looked confused by my response. Sarah shrugged at me, providing absolutely no help.

"As a human woman, your body should have a roughly monthly cycle. Your period, in common vernacular? That is, if I'm remembering correctly. I did only take one semester of human biology, so my memory might be failing me here. Let me double check."

"I don't think I've ever had this period thing you speak of." Another wave of cramping pain hit me and I tried to hold back my whimper.

He logged into a computer in the corner of the room. "Yes, your body should build up and shed the lining of your uterus. A bloody discharge, expelled almost monthly, and there may be cramping associated, which very well may be what you're currently experiencing." He pointed to a diagram of a female abdomen on the wall next to him to help explain as he spoke.

If I hadn't been in so much pain, I probably would have been completely mortified by the topic. Then a memory of blood occasionally in the bathroom garbages I had emptied while at the Lyndons came back to me. Was that what it had been? At the time I'd assumed Jasper had been torturing animals or something for fun, but I'd never dared ask.

"I think hunter women might have one? You sure you're not confusing the two kinds of creatures?"

"I don't believe so. I'm actually looking at human medical sources here. And your biology isn't that much different than from werewolves."

I groaned at another pain, but at least the edge was coming off from whatever the nurse had given me. "Also, uh, there's no blood."

"Then I must be wrong. It was short-sighted of me not to have studied human biology further, but I'll remedy that in the future, Luna. For now, Nurse Rene will keep you as comfortable as we can, and we'll find and fix the problem soon."

I nodded. My head was getting a bit dizzy from the medication, but the pain was almost gone. I was moved to a more comfortable bed in a patient room and I fell into a shallow sleep.

—————

When I woke up again, the pain was back, along with the aggravating ache I'd come to associate with Devon's presence, even though he wasn't there. Dr. Mansard, whose actual name I finally caught, had a list of possible ailments to work through, and he systematically ruled them out one by one. I was still nervous, but he didn't do anything too bad to me. He was very thorough in his explanations before he or the nurse did anything, which made me feel far more comfortable than the cold dismissiveness of the hunter doctors I had seen in the past.

By the next morning, we still had no idea what was going on. Sarah had slept in the chair in the room, and she woke with a start when Dan returned for a visit.

"Seriously, vampire, some warning would be nice!" she snapped, and then muttered something about "unnatural silence".

Dan just laughed as he sat on the edge of my bed before giving me a sympathetic smile. "Morning, Amber. I heard you're not feeling too well."

"I'll live." I hoped. "How did the search go?" I wanted to be distracted from the pain. My latest round of meds was wearing off.

He frowned. "We've got a couple of hopeful leads."

I nodded. "I hope you find her...well, really, all of them."

"Yes," he agreed, looking far away. I didn't want to pry further, so I searched for something else to ask him.

There was a knock on my half-closed door. "May I come in?" Oliver asked.

"Sure," I said. Apparently it was visitor hour for me. I didn't mind. Devon's brother made me comfortable now, probably because he was the first person who had ever really been kind to me.

Oliver's brow furrowed as he glanced around the room and then he looked at Sarah. "Are you in heat?"

"What? No, of course not. Have you heard I found the one? And also, gross, you're my cousin."

A pause, and then they exchanged a weird look, and I assumed they were mind linking each other before Sarah hit the call buzzer beside my bed. Dan looked as confused as I felt.

"What is it?" I demanded.

"Do humans go into heat?" Sarah asked.

I shrugged. "Hunters don't. I think. It's not like anyone ever explained any of this stuff. Anything I know I figured out on my own from stuff I'd overheard."

Dr. Mansard came in and shone his dazzling teeth at me. "Did you need something? I was coming to talk to you anyway." He looked at the crowd. "Go wait outside, and close the door behind you."

Once everyone was gone, he pulled the chair over and focused on me. "So, I came across some information that some forms of birth control can stop a human female from experiencing her menstrual cycle, and I began to wonder if you'd been on any. It said in your file you were."

"Well, I did regularly get needles that made sure I couldn't accidentally 'pollute the hunter genetics'. Could that do it? I don't know exactly what they were giving me, though."

His genial face fell for a moment in stern disapproval. It made me uncomfortable, even though I figured his anger was directed at the hunters, not at me. He confirmed my assumption when he gathered himself and smiled at me kindly before continuing. "Well, my theory is that your birth control is wearing off and you're just falling back into your natural rhythm. If you decide you'd like to, I can look into getting you back on such medication."

"Maybe later," I said. Sometime when I was sure none of my friends were outside the door with their hyper-sensitive supernatural hearing sounded like a much better time to talk about the topic than right now.

He smiled. "Sarah informed me of her and Oliver's theory that you might be going into heat. Of course, it had already crossed my mind as a possibility, but my professors were absolutely certain this was not something that humans experience, even when mated to werewolves. Your biology remains your own."

I nodded. The idea that I could be in heat really was a crazy thought.

He paused. "Before I go, do you need any more pain medication or anything?"

"I think I'm still okay for a little while." I didn't want to be groggy while I had visitors.

"Nurse Rene will come in and check on you in a while. Should I let everyone back in, Luna?"

I nodded and tried to smile as he left and everyone else returned. Dan and Sarah took their places again, and Oliver stood looking unusually uncomfortable by the door.

"Sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusion, Luna," he said. "My nose must really be off."

"You don't need to call me that. You can just call me Amber."

"I really shouldn't—"

"It'll be like old times when you were warning me about being tortured for information if I didn't cooperate," I teased lightly.

Dan's head snapped towards Oliver. "Tortured?"

Oliver held up his hands in surrender. "It was an empty threat, and besides, we thought she was one of the hunters who abducted Silvia and Arthur. And that was before we knew she was an innocent victim too."

Dan frowned and shot an accusatory glare at him. "Maybe if your Alpha Assembly had taken my queen's warnings more seriously earlier..."

Oliver just shrugged. "Above my pay grade. Anyways, uh, Amber, besides seeing how you were feeling I came to let you know that Devon left early and he's on his way home. Should be here soon."

I was happy. The pain was unpleasant, but I knew seeing him would make me feel better. We said goodbye to Oliver as he left.

Dan stayed a bit longer since he had time before the next scouting party, and Sarah played on her phone, apparently reading online articles about human medical issues—which was a different form of torture than the pains in my abdomen. "Ugh, you poor humans, if it wasn't bad enough that you're super weak, getting your period so frequently sounds like torture. I mean, our cycle is unpleasant, and heat is no joke—I hear—but it only really starts after our mate's proximity sets it off, and there's a fun and easy solution for that. But this! It sounds way more messy and painful. And what? This cycle thing also can also affect your emotions? And skin breakouts? And bloating? Oh, I had no idea. I just feel terrible for humans. And how do they even survive as a species if they're bleeding all the time?"

Dan shrugged. "There's very little blood involved, it's mostly other fluids."

Sarah scrunched her face as she looked at him. "Ew."

"What? My nose is fine-tuned to detect blood, like a shark. I'd know if someone was bleeding out. They're not."

"Poor, poor little humans," Sarah repeated, before shooting a glare at our friend. "Oblivious to the sharks in their midst."

"There're a whole lot of wolves in sheep's clothing they don't notice, either."

She scoffed. "Werewolves are harmless."

To get them completely off the excruciating topic of human periods, I interjected, "Before I came here I thought werewolves killed humans to eat them, since that's what the hunters taught me."

Sarah's disgusted face was amusing. "Ew, that's truly disgusting."

Dan shrugged. "Werewolves sometimes do once they go feral."

"Not true," she argued.

"How many feral wolves have you ever met living in a pack?" he shot back. "I've seen—"

The door opened and the conversation came to a halt. Devon strode in, his brow furrowed in concern. His eyes met mine, and he said, "Everyone out."

Sarah jumped to obey, and even Dan quickly left the room with a hurried goodbye—although I suspected he did it for me rather than because of the order—and I was alone with the alpha.