A Pack of Misfits

Chapter Three - The Birds and the Bees and Pancakes makes Three

My alarm smashed against the wall. I wasn't too concerned with it breaking, because one way or another it would wind up back on my bedside table in one piece. Why I even had an alarm I could not fathom in that moment, especially why I had an alarm on during the weekend. I growled as I glared at the light coming in through my curtains. I listened carefully for signs of light in my room, then again downstairs. I could hear someone stepping around, and judging from their weight, they had to be of light build. Considering how early it was – seven in the morning – it was most likely dear Sunny wandering around.

I shifted out of my bed, shivering as the cold air touched my skin. I looked around out of habit more than fear, but I could not shake the feeling that someone was watching me. It was probably Artemis or Annabelle, though, as those two had no solid sense of boundaries except when it came to their own stuff. I resolutely kicked my blankets off me and jumped out of bed, thankful that I had been wearing socks as my feet touched the cold wooden floor. I stretched my arms above my head and yawned, blinking the sleep from my eyes. I really enjoyed sleeping, I really did. There was something so nice about wrapping myself in warm blankets and closing my eyes, and just letting my mind slip away into pleasant nothingness. Well, perhaps it would be more pleasant if I did not have nightmares almost all the time. Constant dreams of scary things did make the scary things less scary over time though, so it did little to deter me or my love of a good snooze.

Well, love of sleep or whatever, the smell of heat and food that drifted throughout the house pulled me out of my room with curiosity in my mind and hunger in my stomach. I could breathe deeper and use my inhuman senses to identify what was being made, but where was the fun in spoiling the pancake surprise that our dear Sunny was cooking up in the kitchen.

Well ok, so much for that.

I grabbed bra and sweatpants from my dresser as I walked out of my room, closing the door behind me – in a house this full I would rather my room stay shut. On my way to the bathroom, I decided to take a detour to my brother's bedroom. Thor was most likely still asleep, but I could not blame her. In the past month, a few of the girls in the pack had started getting weaker, comparatively speaking, and more and more tired. Thor, Annabelle, and Jalex. While I was certain this would not be particularly harmful to any of them, it was a concerning time, because what was awaiting them was an event that I would not want to experience, at all.

You see, the thing I was talking about was something most creature-type supernatural experienced exclusively. The mating heat. A horrible experience, if you asked me, although I had never been through one myself, despite being part werewolf. I attributed it to my magical half, though, as the likely reason why I did not go through this 'reproduction overdrive' period. On the other hand, Thor, also a werewolf, went through them occasionally, perhaps not as often as a normal werewolf would, but more than me in any case. This was probably since she was a warrior class, and therefor did not have magical wish-powers to act as antibodies to the mating hormones, so to speak. I know that it makes little to no sense, but much about our powers didn't, like why Thor could not use her demi-god given abilities, unlike myself. Maybe that was why her werewolf half played up stronger than the other? Regardless of that, the approaching event was affecting the resident werewolves, and the single vampire. It was a rare – very rare – golden moon eclipse, that coincided with a supermoon, leading to a gold, glowing ring in the sky for a moment in the night. Because of how rare it was – as in, once every thousands of year kind of rare – it did something strange to many creature-class monsters. Werewolves and other animal-based supernatural, demons and monsters that could reproduce, and even vampires due to their animalistic link to bats, all went through a simultaneous heat. All across the world, on this night, supernatural creatures of all shapes and sizes would be undergoing a burning and intense desire to mate and connect with another creature – preferably their mate or someone they felt a magnetic attraction to, so Annabelle, Jalex, and Thor, would not be going after each other, thank goodness, because they were unto each other like same-pole magnets. Annabelle would cling to someone like Fenrir Silvermoon though, to provide an example of what I mean. In this night, and possibly the next day, the three of them would lose their minds to their heats, and it would be left up to Artemis and myself to defend them, in case any crazy creatures nearby did find us – some werewolves found it better to wander and seek out their heat partner, whether willing or not, and it was those disgusting freaks that we needed to protect them from. While we had not actually encountered any in these woods since moving here, it was never wrong to be cautious. It was just as well I was not feeling the flu-like effects of this heat, as two defenders is always better than one. The symptoms had already begun building at the beginning of the week, but had only really worsened yesterday afternoon, when the Thor had collapsed, Jalex had complained about a headache, and Annabelle had started shouting and snapping at us. Right now the vampire was in her room across the hall, either sleeping or ripping up yet another pillow or duvet, while Jalex was likely in her room downstairs. They all had to rest and gather as much strength as they needed to make it through the night.