Dani eased the door open slowly with her foot, careful not to disturb anyone who might be asleep in the early morning. What she didn’t expect was the sound of cheers that erupted in her face as soon as she stepped into her apartment. All four of her roommates were still awake sitting on the couch cheering and clapping. She turned to them eyes on fire. “Shhh. If you wake anyone up we’ll get in trouble.”

“Oh who cares about that. Who’s the person that left their smell all over you?” Blake called out leaning over the back of the couch. He sniffed the air, smirking. His shaved head reflected the light of the television off of it.

“Stop it all of you. Leave her alone. She’ll tell us on her own time.” Easing themselves off of the couch, Andy walked over grabbing her arm. “More importantly, what happened to your clothes. This is a travesty.” They gestured to the messy outfit comprised of athletic shorts and a tourist shirt that read “Everything is Better Down South”.

“She thought it might be funny.” Dani murmured under her breath to a roaring cheer of oohs and aahs. Dani turned away walking towards her room. 

She walked into the messy room and threw the door around behind her closed. The hand stopping it with a thud caught her turning her around. “Hey. What’s going on with you? You go out tonight for the first time, hook up with a girl, and then just not share suddenly?” Andy said closing the door behind them with a click.

“It’s complicated.”

“What’s so complicated? Did you enjoy it? Did she?”

Dani turned around gripping her head. “Yes. Gods yes. She was something else entirely.”

“So then what’s the problem. You weren’t too big for her were you?”

Her head shook side to side. “She took all of me. Knot and all.” 

“Really? And she didn’t freak?”

“She took my knot while I was transformed.” Dani said softly her voice cracking.

Andy shook her head eyes wide. “You didn’t mate with her did you?”

“No. No. I didn’t but I- I think I made a mistake.” Dani said eyes growing blurry with tears.

Andy ran up hugging her. “No honey. Whatever you did, whatever it was, it can’t be that bad.”

“I think she mated with me.” Dani trembled in the smaller grasp of Andy. 

“So you found yourself a cute little werewolf girl. What’s so bad about that?”

“She’s a vampire.”

Andy stopped and slowly placed her arms on Dani’s elbows holding her tightly her eyes flashing golden brown. “What do you mean you mated with a fucking vampire? How could you mate with a leech? What was she looking like that made you-“

“Don’t speak about Victoria like that!” Dani screamed teeth growing just barely into fangs.

Andy stopped and shuddered slightly. It was an unspoken rule in the house not to piss of Dani and in turn Dani kept herself in check. Even living in a house full of werewolves, there was always some social hierarchy, even when everyone tried to pretend there wasn’t.

“I’m sorry.” Dani tucked her arms into her sides shrinking in on herself.

Andy walked back against the wall and leaned her shoulder against it. “Dani, you know she could kill you.”

“I don’t think she could. And I don’t think I could kill her either. Andy I don’t know what it is, but the two of us. It was intoxicating. She came over and I knew immediately and I still let her feed off of me. Then- And then, she, she smelled incredible. Andy I’ve never smelled anything so good in my life.”

“It felt like home with her didn’t it. You couldn’t stop yourself even if you wanted to.”

“Andy it was like everything that was missing in my life was whole. But the thing is, even before she drank from me, even just seeing her-“

“It was like you needed to know her. It was the same with-“

Dani looked up and walked over to them, hands outstretched. “Hey.” Andy reached out taking her hands. “I didn’t mean to drag up anything uncomfortable. I know it’s still tender.”

Andy squeezed her hands. “Dani don’t you dare lose her. If she’s your everything you do anything it takes to keep her around.”

“But she’s a vampire.”

“And you’re a werewolf. So stop being a scared child who didn’t just knot a perfectly good vampire at her place.”

“Actually it was the roof of the night club.” Dani said burying her face inside of her chest.

“On the rooftop of the night club! You better be seeing her again.”

Dani nodded keeping her chin tightly pressed into her chest. “We’re supposed to meet up tomorrow night. At a park, for park things.”

“If you shag her in a park I’m going to scream.”

Victoria had spent the better part of an hour crying on the floor of her apartment ever since she had arrived home. Since separating from Dani on the rooftop, every step away felt like a knife in her chest. She even stopped to feed off a random passerby and all it did was help her feel less needy. Still needy, just, less. When she closed her eyes, she could see Dani’s golden brown eyes staring back at her. When she breathed, she could smell the earthy scent that still clung to her.

Being apart was agony.

No Victoria wasn’t stupid. She knew very well what had happened. Sure she had only read about it. It wasn’t even a vampire thing, but werewolves, werewolves mated with other werewolves. It shouldn’t have even been possible to gain traits like that. Victoria had fed from humans, demons, even a mermaid and nothing, not even a partial bit of a trait, but the first werewolf and there she was begging to mate with the wolf. That damned beautiful woman.

The worst part was she wasn’t even mad.

The front door clicked. “Love, I’m in town and I got bored so I figured I’d come hang out with you.” Victoria’s sister walked through the door wrinkling her nose. She could be the spitting image of Victoria only taller and more fashionable, and with the unmistakable look of being ten years older. She looked over the mess of her sister crying on the floor. “What are you doing on the floor, and why do you smell like a wet dog.”

“Phoenix, what are you doing here? I thought you were in Paris.” Victoria wiped her eyes and pushed herself to her feet.

Her sister closed the door, dropping a very large duffle bag onto the wooden floor with a loud thud. “I was in Paris, it was phenomenal, you must come back sometime. But I was seeing this guy, he was, fine, and then he was boring, and then his brother was delicious. But on my latest escapade, he wanted to come back home, introduce me to his family, so I had to escape. I fly out on Friday but in the meantime I figured I’d spend the week with my favorite sister!”

“I’m your only sister.”

“You’re my sister who smells like she just slept with a bunch of wild animals. And from the looks at the mess of you, you’re either getting over a breakup, or about to get into one.” Phoenix walked over and gripped her sister by the arms. “So which is it.”

“I had sex with a werewolf.” Victoria said eyes welling up with tears again.

The rings on Phoenix’s fingers hands clanged against each other as her hands fell to her hips. “Yeah that was painfully obvious. Was it at least good?”

Victoria’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean was it good? I said I had sex with a werewolf and you merely ask if it was good?”

Phoenix looked her over. “Yeah was it good. You act as though nobody has ever slept with a werewolf before. I’ve slept with at least two, maybe three. Do half werewolves count?” 

Her butt hit the back of the couch as Victoria stumbled backwards, her legs suddenly unstable. “What do you mean you slept with three werewolves?”

“Two and a half.” Phoenix picked at a chipped fingernail. “You get bored after some amount of time and think ‘Hey what if I just decided to take a risk on something crazy.’ It’s not that bad once you get past the smell.”

“She smelled amazing.”

“She? Always knew you’d be the one to make mommy and daddy roll in their graves. Tell me all about her.”

Victoria rubbed the back of her neck. “We met tonight at a bar. Things got heated, and on the roof we umm-“

“Oh I love it. But then, what is it that’s got you so…” Phoenix rushed over grabbing her sister’s face roughly and turning it side to side in her hands. “Oh love. You absolute fool. You fed on her first didn’t you? Rule number one, never feed off of a werewolf before sex. We’re like putty in their hands. You didn’t think that myth of us being enemies was just for show did you?”

Victoria ripped her head away from her sister’s grip. “I didn’t know. I didn’t have a clue when I fed from her. But by then it was too late and I couldn’t control myself.”

“She’s not like anything you expected is she?”

“She’s…incredible.” The breath left her lips like a tangled mess of emotion. Her shoulders slumped as she fell back over the couch onto her back. “Even before feeding, just the way she looked at me, the way she spoke. It was as if she was so strong yet kept all that bottled up. She was so gentle, careful and tender, even after knowing what I was. The way she spoke, it wasn’t rough or abrasive, it was sensitive and filled with emotion. She let me lead everything even when it took every ounce of willpower to hold back.” Her hands covered her face. “Oh god I sound like a thirty year old again don’t I.”

“It’s cute love. Haven’t seen you this choked up in, well, ever. So then what’s the problem, besides that you need a bath and a fresh pair of underwear.”

“I don’t think she wants me.” Victoria said muffled through the palms of her hands.

“Where is she now?”

“Halfway across town, that direction.” Victoria pointed with one hand, the other moving to cover her entire face from view. Even behind it the blush that creeped across her cheeks caused her sister to chuckle.

“You could just go to her, you lovesick little mated pup.”

“We’re meeting up in a park tomorrow. And please don’t call me that. I’m embarrassed enough as it is.”

Phoenix grabbed her sister’s hands pulling them away from her face. Her necklaces dangled between them swinging back and forth like a pendulum. “If you really like this girl, don’t blow it then. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?”

She dropped her wrists letting them slam into Victoria’s chest with a thud. She rose up walking off to the far side of the room. “I’ll draw you a bath. Heaven knows you need it.” She paused looking back over her shoulder. “Actually a shower. You’ve got a lot of cleaning out to do for someone mated to a werewolf that doesn’t want them.”

Victoria looked down at her still slightly swollen stomach, a bright red blush creeping across her cheeks and over the brow of her nose. She squeezed her legs together tightly, knees rubbing against each other. I’m never going to hear the end of this from her.