The Eclipsed Life of Luna Mischa

A New Heat

Her bout of heat was over, and she got up to shower and Anthony followed her, “Why do you shower after every bout? You never used to do that,” he asked, sounding almost a bit put out. It was morning on day two now, and she’d had three bouts of heat yesterday and so three showers.

Why? She thought absently to herself as she turned the water on. She even knew why he was asking her that question. She’d once not cared to because the smell of them all riled up was nice to not only her but him.

Only now it was different to her. She’d come to realize she didn’t feel the same as she once had. He probably saw no issue with the scent lingering, maybe a part of him still liked it, even though he wasn’t really there for her inside this mate bond anymore.

He was only here she knew out of duty, that conversation they’d had yesterday that he’d not wanted to finish, where she’d wondered if she’d wake up alone at some point, had seen him realize just how much she actually thought he would get up and leave. He’d heard the pain of her words even and that was the problem, why he’d not wanted to talk anymore.

She’d spent her time between bouts reading a book or watching a movie or just napping on and off. There had been little talk go between them. He was learning right now they had nothing to talk about anymore and, yes, it was uncomfortable between bouts because his life revolved around his new and much younger Mate, and Mischa was only a passing thought to him on most days.

But she didn’t say that out loud. There was no point she’d said all she was going to say yesterday, and was trying not to fight with him, seeing as she was stuck in a room with him for the duration of her heat. Something that should bring them together and make them closer, but she felt was actually doing the opposite, and tearing them apart even more.

She felt his hands slide down her arms slowly, and she wondered if he was going to attempt to try and seduce her here in this shower, outside of her heats bout. It certainly felt like he was going to a moment later when his body was pressed up against hers.

“The bout is over, what are you doing?” she asked directly. She didn’t even think it was appropriate for him to be touching her and that spoke volumes to her, considering she was his Mate.

“Going to show you I love you, that I’m not only here because you’re in heat.” He murmured, and his lips met her neck in a soft kiss.

“Why, that is why you’re here? You don’t need to try and fool me, Anthony, I understand you’re here under the obligation of our Mate Bond, and nothing more.” She brushed his hands off her.

She heard him sigh. “I’m trying to show you I still want you.”

“But you wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t in heat in the first place, now would you. So to me, that won’t actually show me anything at all. Could be that you just don’t like the uncomfortable silence that stretches between us, between bouts where once there had never been that.”

She turned and looked at him. “That silence shows you just how much distance is actually between us, and you don’t like it. But if you’d like to finish that conversation from yesterday, we can,” she stated, and she was willing to.

She watched him just get out of the shower. “No,” he muttered. “I didn’t like where it was going.”

“Avoidance is key to you staying in the dark, is it?” She shook her head, “I think you like being blind to the goings-on of your other Mate.”

“Don’t bring her into this. I don’t want to talk about her while it’s our, your and my personal time together. There is no need of that unless you’re trying to keep the distance there between us… are you? Is that your goal in bringing her up?”

“I wasn’t the one that brought her into this suite, which started the argument, now was I?” she stated.

She saw his temper flare, and he stalked from the bathroom. She shook her head and finished showering. Walked into the bedroom to find him not there and strolled out to the living area, not there. She wondered if he’d left the suite altogether, only to hear him banging things around in the kitchen.

She walked in there to find him setting up food to be cooked. “I made you coffee,” he stated, and waved a hand at the table for her to see there was a cup sitting there. She nodded and walked over, sat down as his hand stilled on the gas burner button, and she realized he was focused upon something, his whole body was tense, and his head was tilted ever so slightly.

He frowned at first and then his eyes moved right towards her, as his hand fell away from the stove top, and even she knew something had happened out there in the pack in all likelihood, he looked worried to her.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I sense a bout of heat, but…” his eyes moved over her… You’re not looking at me to come and Mate you.”

“No, I’m not,” she stated with a frown of her own, “It’s not me,” she admitted.

“It’s… Christy.” He murmured and was headed for the door. She knew to go to his other Mate.

“And what about me?” she asked, and even she heard there was slight anger tingeing her words.

He stopped and looked at her. “I have two Mates in heat. I will have to tend to you both. I’ll be back when your next bout comes,” He told her, and was gone from the kitchen and out of her suite altogether.

Mischa sat there, her coffee untouched. She didn’t know if she believed that, was he just using it as an excuse to get out of her room between bouts? They had just had a fight, and he’d walked off. Now suddenly he was going to Christy, where she knew he wanted to be.

She thought about Christy going into heat when her last one was? Christy only had one heat a year and this she realized would be the second time this year for her to do that. It was odd to her, most would know after just 12 months how many heats they would have that first year would dictate the rest of the years to follow, and one never counted the initial going into heat that was just part of the newly formed bond.

She and Christy had also never once in two years gone into heat at the same time, they’d never even coincided a week before or after. Christy’s heat was usually smack in the middle of her two heats.

She also knew that a mate bond that had two she-wolves not bonded to each other, but were bonded to one Mate, it was not recorded to her knowledge that their heats ever lined up and came at the same time.

It was something she’d spent time reading up on when Christy had become Anthony’s second Luna, all the little quirky things that went with their type of Mate Bond. It was something she’d wanted to know, because if it happened then preparations needed to be made in advance and not just for her but for Christy as well.

Because it would see that one of them would likely suffer at times, it could well be seen that both of them would suffer not being mated at times throughout the same heat, if both she-wolves bouts came at the same time or minutes apart.

Their Goddess spared them that, from all her readings and what she had seen over the past two years was normal, the two she-wolves would have heats months apart, so there was no interference or pain for the other.

All the types of multiple mate bonds were recorded for anyone to read. It was something registered with archivists so that mates in these situations could see the best way to handle things before they happened. It was widely considered that Selena made sure those heats never crossed so that one mate wouldn’t have to suffer their heat alone or, in part, alone.

She had a while before her next bout came. She’d only had three all up yesterday, so knew she had time to think through things. She ate and Paul mind-linked to her, “Mischa, Christy is also in heat.”

“I’m aware, I saw him sense it. He went right to her,” she stated, though her mind was still ticking.

“And... you?” Paul asked, and she heard the hesitation of his words.

“He said he’d come back when he sensed my bout.” She answered the Gamma. “Nothing can be done about it. He’ll be tired at some point.” She murmured, “Just leave it, Paul.” She stated and let the link go.

Though as she thought about it with all her knowledge, she had a feeling that Christy’s heat wasn’t natural, that she had done this to herself, induced herself into having a heat. Like she’d tried to make out Mischa had done, stated she’d faked it. Which meant Christy knew it could be done and likely how.

It actually wasn’t all that hard a thing to do, were made from a she-wolf natural pheromones. Hell, that she-wolf could well have made her own or gotten someone to make them from her own pheromones at that, so it would appear natural and not drug-induced.

Mischa wouldn’t put it past her, not considering she’d had Anthony bring her into this suite after she’d claimed Mischa had lied about being in heat. She walked to her desk in the living room and opened her laptop, logged into the intranet and spent the next two hours researching inducing a heat in a mated she-wolf.

She closed it with a heavy sigh as she learned two things of high value, that there was a difference in the reaction to the Mate as well as the heat itself.

That one could be doused in heat pheromones that were natural or synthetic, their own or someone else’s. All of them would make that she-wolf scent as if she was in heat. When this happened, a Mate did not sense the heat because it wasn’t a true heat, and it was only short-lived until the pheromones wore off. A few hours was all.

But any un-mated male or a Mate that walked into a room with a she-wolf doused in heat, pheromones would react to the scent and mate her furiously as if she was in heat. This was what the black market did to stolen she-wolves.