They were still standing like that when Ginny popped into the living room.
“So, what has the two love puppies upset?” she asked.
“How do you know we’re upset?” Meg asked.
“I could smell it!” Ginny said exasperated. “Did you run into some Sierra people up in the mountains? Guns fired at you? What?” she asked. They all sat down, and Meg looked at Luc. Neither one of them wanted to broach the subject.
“Um,… my cycle is late,” Meg said.
Ginny looked at the two of them, sized up the situation and thought for a moment before she opened her mouth. “And neither one of you knows whether to be happy or upset?” she asked.
“Yeah,” said Luc.
“Well, to be honest, don’t worry until you are or aren’t. Fretting about it right now will just make things worse. If your cycle is late due to stress, you aren’t helping it. So, get some sleep, take that test you probably bought and then decide what you want to do when you know for sure,” she said. Standing up, she went to Meg and hugged her.
“We’ve all been there,” Ginny said. “Not everyone is cut out to be a mom. I know I wasn’t. Didn’t make it easier though. I thought I should be happy I was pregnant, and when I lost baby after baby, I just figured it wasn’t meant to be. So, I love my brother’s kids as mine.”
Meg looked at her and hugged her tight. “I… I didn’t know,” she said.
“I don’t exactly announce it to the world. However, it does mean I can have a great time and not worry,” she said trying to lighten the mood.
Luc smiled and wrapped his arms around both women.
Meg came out of the bathroom around 5am. Luc rolled over and tried to wake up. It was probably the first night in ages he hadn’t shifted. Instead, he’d held her all night and finally fell asleep about 3am.
“It says I’m not pregnant,” she said holding up the tester.
“Okay, and how do you feel?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I think I want to sleep on it,” she said and crawled back into bed. “I read all the early symptoms of pregnancy, and they are the same as your cycle almost. That didn’t help.”
“No, can’t see that it would. Well, we have the day off, what do you want to do?” he asked.
“For the moment, sleep,” she said and snuggled up to him.
Luc held her and they slept.
They spent a quiet day trying not to talk about it. The next morning, they headed to work. It was a busy day. Luc swore that for every day he took off, the work piled up twice as deep. He was beginning to curse Ginny for arranging the day off. “No, can’t think like that. It wasn’t her fault that Meg noticed her cycle was late up in the mountains. Nor is it her fault we suddenly have so much work,” he thought.
Coming back from a short trip out for a consultation, he noticed that Meg’s car was gone. He hunted Ginny down when he got into the office. She was dispatching drivers and he had to wait a minute for her to finish.
“Where’s Meg?” he asked after Ginny hung up the phone.
“She said she had to go home for a bit,” Ginny said. “I’ve cleared your afternoon. Go home and see what’s happened.”
“I’m out of here,” he said and headed for the door.
Thirty minutes later he was pulling into the driveway of the house and heading into the house.
“Meg, where are you?” he called.
“In the bedroom,” came her voice.
Luc headed to the bedroom where Meg was curled up on the bed. “Ginny said you left work and would be back later. What’s the matter” he asked as he sat down on the bed.
Meg wrapped around him and put her nose to his chest. Luc put his hand under her chin and tilted her head up. “Meg?” he asked.
“My cycle started at work, and I just couldn’t cope, so I came home,” she said. Tears were welling up in the corner of her eyes.
Luc felt confused. First she was upset that she might be pregnant. Now she was upset that her cycle started. “Um… Meg, I’m confused. Why are you crying? I thought you were upset about the idea of being pregnant,” he said.
“I was. Then I sort of wrapped my brain around it and decided that if it was going to happen, I’d go with it. So, I wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t upset either. Then this afternoon when I discovered that my cycle had started, I was upset again,” she explained.
“Is it alright that I think I get this?” he asked.
“Yes, just hold me. This is a really crampy one and I feel horrid on top of everything else,” she said.
“Holding I can do,” he said. “Well, I guess we dodged that issue. For the moment. Not sure I’m happy or upset either. Damn!” he thought.
Meg couldn’t seem to get comfortable. Luc tried to figure out what she wanted. Finally, he gave up. “Meg, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t get comfortable. I don’t know what I want,” she said at last.
Luc smiled. He stood up and took off his clothes and then crawled back into bed.
“Luc, my cycle started, and the last thing I want is sex,” she said misunderstanding his intentions.
“Meg, just relax. I’m going to shift and didn’t want to shred my clothes,” he said with a smile. He realized that for the last few nights he hadn’t shifted. She missed the wolf and just didn’t realize it.
“Oh,” she said.
Luc shifted and curled around Meg. She snuggled down and was asleep in minutes. “Soft one worry too much,” the wolf thought. “No pup this time. We play more. Still time,” the wolf rolled the thoughts over as he too fell asleep with his mate.
A week later, Luc and Meg headed up into the mountains for the last camping trip before hunting season really kicked in. Right now it was just the bow hunters and black powder muzzle loaders out there in the woods. Luc was confident that he’d scent them before they got too close.