Chasing My Luna

REBECCA That morning, when I opened my eyes, the first thing I did was smile. And how could I have done otherwise? Waking up in a nice warm bed, in the arms of the man I loved, and with the smell of breakfast hovering in the air was as close to heaven as I could get. The fact that Sundays were always like this didn't change the fact that they were wonderful. "You awake?" Reiner's deep voice rumbled in his chest, and I felt his arms tighten around me. I nodded, turning over in his embrace so I could see his face: and like every time since the first, he managed to take my breath away. His strong, chiseled features, his warm, sweet brown eyes, his messy blond hair ... and that smile. I'd never get used to being greeted by that smile, so sweet and in love - even though we'd been married for four years now. "Morning," I murmured, wrapping my arms around his neck. Slowly and gently, Reiner brought his face closer to mine, and his lips captured mine in a kiss. Relaxed. Calm. Like we had all the time in the world. "Hello, Becks," he whispered against my lips. Slowly, his mouth left mine and began to roam along my jaw and my neck, leaving a sweet trail of kisses. "Babe..." I giggled. "Babe, I don't know if we should ..." His tongue quickly darted out to caress me between my neck and shoulder, where he had placed his crescent-shaped mark, making me shiver with pleasure. "Why?" "Because we're busy, that's why. And because if ... if we get into it ... we'll never get out of this bed," I murmured. Reiner chuckled. "As if it'd be such a bad thing," he commented, but gave up and let himself fall back on the bed, pulling me on top of him and giving me another kiss. "I don't want to fight like last night anymore." I swallowed, returning the kiss. Lately, we'd been hitting a sort of rough patch: our pack was dealing with some tension with the neighboring one, and inevitably those problems and worries had spilled over into our relationship. We'd been fighting a lot in the last few weeks, and harshly too: the fact that we were having a terrible time conceiving didn't help. Both of us wanted a puppy - not only to give the pack an heir, but because we wanted to become parents: until now, though, the Goddess had seemed deaf to our prayers. The night before, after days of accumulated tension, we had both broken down - we had yelled horrible things at each other, and we had both come this close to picking up and leaving the house: the only thing that had made us stop hurting each other had been when we had both been unable to hold back our tears any longer because of each other's insults and venom. Only seeing the pain we had caused each other had managed to make us see how cruel we'd been - and over trifles. We had spent the rest of the night snuggled in front of the fireplace, talking calmly about everything that was nagging at us and trying to ... unravel that situation. "Me neither." Reiner intensified his grip on me, burying his face in the hollow of my neck. "It's a complicated time," he murmured. "But we'll get out of it. We always do." I nodded, basking in his embrace - and we stayed that way until it was really time to get up. It might have been Sunday, but there was no such thing as a day off if you were Alpha and Luna of a pack. As always, Reiner was the first one out: after all, it took him much less time to get ready. "See you around lunchtime," he said: his voice came muffled to me through the bathroom door. "Meet me down in the foyer, we're eating out." The prospect immediately lifted my mood even more, as well as the corners of my mouth: it had been weeks since we had indulged in a date, a moment just for us outside of normal daily life. "Really?!" I exclaimed. "Yeah, really" his voice was suddenly much closer, and Reiner snapped a kiss on my cheek. "See you later, baby." "See you later, my love." Reiner darted out of the house, already running late, and I continued to get ready: I had a lot of stuff to do that day - and if I wanted to make it back home for our date in time, I had to get a move on. I began mentally going through the day's list of appointments, but I stopped halfway through, caught by a sudden dizziness: at the same moment my stomach began to move, and I barely made it to the toilet before I threw what was left of the previous dinner up. Once the vomit ended, I sat on the floor, my sweaty back pressed against the cold tiled wall of the bathroom, breathing deeply. I hadn't been sick like this for years - and I couldn't understand the reason why. I didn't remember the food from the night before having any strange aftertaste, so I doubted it could be food poisoning: being a wolf, I could smell whether there was anything strange in the food from a mile away - and always for that reason, my healing skills should have prevented such an ailment. But then what ... My gaze was drawn to the sink cabinet - and in particular to the second drawer, in which I kept an unused pregnancy test. Reiner and I always kept one, in case there was a possibility of such a miracle ... But it couldn't be. Considering our constant fighting, intimacy had been rare in the last few weeks: if we had failed to conceive by trying hard and regularly, we certainly couldn't have succeeded with a few moments of angry s*x. Yet I kept feeling a nudge inside me, like a little voice telling me to try for that test. Finally, I sighed and got up from the floor, marched to the sink and grabbed the box. It costs nothing, anyway, I thought. And the result will always be the same. I left the test to develop on the counter and finished my make-up, then went to my room to get dressed. My mind was back to clear and cold, so I went back over that day's list of appointments, choosing which ones to move and which to cancel to make room for my date with my husband. I was almost out of the house by the time I suddenly remembered the test. Oh, right. I reluctantly went back to the bathroom, already knowing the result: I really didn't want to start my morning with that plastic stick telling me that the Sahara desert was still more fertile than my womb. I picked up the test from the counter, lifted it ... And stopped breathing. It ... It can't be. In the little window where, for two years, I had only ever faced one line ... Now there were two.