Three Days Until Christmas
Eden
Her heat has finally broken, and she knows that because she wakes up with an ache in her lower belly that is very reminiscent of her heat cramping except that this one has teeth, and it feels like it's gnawing on her and hollowing out her insides.
For the first time in days, she's not thinking about which of her mates’ cocks is closest to her that she can demand they put it in her.
She grits her teeth as another cramp rolls through, making her want to curl up tightly in a ball under the blankets.
Except that the sheets beneath her are damp and they smell so strongly like cum and slick and sweat and who knew what else that she kind of wants to burn them now that her heat isn't addling her brain into thinking it's some sort of gourmet perfume.
She's disoriented and tired and boneless and deliriously happy.
Her feet are sticky and, when she peeks under the blankets, she sees that they're covered in yellow sap and pine needles.
When she shifts, she feels a gush of fluid escape her, but quickly realizes it's not just cum when the tangy iron scent of blood accompanies the rush.
Another cramp radiates through her hips, the pressure threatening to tear her joints apart, and a groan escapes her lips. She almost wishes she were still in heat, because then at least she'd know exactly how to assuage this pain.
Tenor opens his eyes next to her in bed, one cheek reddened from laying on top of a crispy cum encrusted blanket. His voice is thick with sleep. "Hey baby, you okay?" He takes a deep inhale. "I think your heat's broken, and...oh."
She already knows what he's going to say. Her cheeks are already burning with embarassment. "I-I think I'm bleeding," she finishes what he was about to say, her voice anxious. "I think I got my period."
"Hey, that's okay, baby," Luke's voice comes from behind her as his arms wrap around her. "We'll get you to the shower and get you some clean jammies and a hot water bottle. Julius can change the sheets."
Before she can even respond, he's already moving, pulling her with him out of the nest that has been her entire world for days.
It feels weird to be in the bathroom, and when he sits her on the toilet and tells her to try to go while he gets the hot water going, she tries to force herself to pee. She can only manage a little trickle of dark coloured urine, and when she wipes, she sees a mess of red.
Her first period. It's surreal.
Tenor appears in the doorway after them, politely averting his eyes from her on the toilet.
But considering they've only ever had one bathroom, which in the prison was right next to their beds, they're pretty used to sharing at this point.
It doesn't even feel weird, except when Luke makes it weird.
When she stands up, he's right there next to her, running his hands over her like checking her for injuries. "Julius is fixing up the nest, as soon as we're done you can go right back to bed. Here, you want some Tylenol, ma?"
When she nods, he rifles around in the cupboard below the sink and pulls out two red pills and then fills the glass there with water.
After she finishes swallowing, the steam from the hot water is already filling the room. It's exactly what she needed. She leans against her mates under the hot water, letting their hands wash the remnants of her heat off her before towel drying her skin gently like she's made of breakable glass.
She feels marginally more human with the crust washed off, and when they slide clean panties with a massive white pad stuck to it over her legs and then ease her into another pair of flannel pajamas, she feels even better.
She hadn't bought pads, hadn't even thought about the aftermath of her heat.
One of them must have done it. The thoughtfulness of it brings tears to her eyes.
The cramps are duller after the hot water and the pain killer, and when they tuck her back into the nest with clean blankets and fluffy pillows with a hot water bottle and her mates around her, she's never felt less alone in her life.
It's her, and Julius, and Luke, and Tenor. The four of them have never felt more like one.
As the sun turns golden in the late afternoon and more snow falls outside, they finally finish decorating the tree. Well, Luke does, with Eden seated on the couch between Tenor and Julius with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her shoulders, directing him exactly where she wanted everything.
She's achy and that makes her irritable, but not as much as she was before her heat, so the tree does eventually get fully laden with the garlands, ornaments, and lights.
When Luke finally places a polaroid photograph of her at the top of the tree–since she was their star, he claimed, making her blush a bright red–she feels the warmth in her chest eclipse the ache in her belly.
When they tuck her into bed later, after feeding her a few cups of broth and some toast, the only thing she can imagine keeping down after the days of fasting during her heat, she can't keep her eyes off the tree.
The colours blend together as her eyes drift shut, red and green and blue lights twinkling against the silver tinsel.
She's going to have to change the pad again soon, but she can't resist the heavy pull of her eyelids.
She burrows between her pack, their arms draped over her, their legs tangled together.
Outside, snow continues to drift down, muffling and cocooning them from the rest of the world in this safe little bubble.
Even as she continues to bleed, even as she notices Tenor is walking with a limp, probably from an overexerted muscle, and even as Julius is covered in bite marks and Luke looks exhausted, it all seems perfect.
Sleep welcomes her like an old friend.