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.
“Do you think we have enough blankets?” Meg asked looking at the pile in the back of the car.
“Maybe. It gets cold this time of year and sometimes even I don’t have enough fur,” Luc said. He smiled at Meg who shot him a look of sheer disbelief.
“I didn’t think that was possible,” she said.
“Oh, it is. ODFS is just about over, and the nights are cold,” he replied.
“ODFS?” she asked.
“Out Door Fucking Season,” Luc answered.
They both broke up with giggles.
“I had never heard that term before,” admitted Meg.
“Well, now you have. Soon we will have to just hike in the woods and leave the nookie to the bedroom and lots of warm indoor heat,” said Luc.
Meg smiled. She thought about how hot and sweaty they had been most of the summer and sort of relished the idea of being cooler. She watched the scenery go by as they drove higher into the mountains. Last weekend had been upsetting and while she was glad her cycle had shown up, there was still a part of her that had really wanted to be pregnant. That was a situation she had never expected to find herself in let alone desiring. Ginny had taken her out for lunch and the two of them had had a really good girl’s night out. She found out that Ginny had been dumped by a lover when she couldn’t keep a baby. After that, Ginny had decided to just enjoy life and not worry about babies. Besides, she had Duke’s brood to worry about.
Luc looked over at Meg. She was deep in thought and he just let her be. While they hadn’t really argued this week, it was a rough one for both of them. His cousin Bert had been after him to dump Meg and find a good shifter to make babies. Luc had decked him and told him to never show his face again at the office or Luc’s home. Duke had been sympathetic. He’d explained that Penny had a rough time when they first got together. Luc hadn’t realized that. They’d had a few beers while the girls had been out and talked while waiting for them to get home.
“Meg, we’re almost there,” he said as he turned into the campground. They had decided to see how things were as this was a rather isolated area. There were maybe two campers in the whole campground.
“Are we going to camp here and hike in the morning or are we going up higher?” she asked.
“I’m all for going higher if you want,” he said.
“Let’s do that. I know I’m still in a bit of a funky mood, and I think I want to be as far from people as we can,” Meg said.
“Fine by me,” said Luc as he turned up a road at the back of the campground. The road lead to a wilderness area that had primitive camping. He noticed that the bushes were loaded with berries as they drove up to higher elevations. Five miles up the road, they stopped and pulled into a big meadow. Meg got out and stretched.