"A female smells different when she's begun her cycle." Marius's eyes twinkled.
"Just how old are you anyway?" Meryn sipped the tea and sighed. It was sweet, just how she liked it. She was starting to understand what Adelaide meant by needing a squire. Marius was comforting to have around.
"Older than I look. What did you tell Master Aiden? He ran out of here a bit wild eyed." Marius raised a silver brow.
"I didn't lie." Meryn said quickly.
"Of course not. I think it will do him some good to think about the more practical things in life. He's a mated man now, these things come with that responsibility."
Meryn felt her eyes grow heavy.
"You rock, did you know that?"
He smiled."Yes."
When a yawn caught her off guard she became suspicious.
"Did you put something in my tea?"
He nodded. "Yes little miss. You've had a very exciting past couple of days, plus your cycle started today. You need a good night's rest." He pulled the covers up to her ears.
"Sneaky squire." Meryn yawned again.
"Of course. Goodnight, sweet Meryn."
"Goodnight Marius, thank you." Meryn felt his warm hand push back her hair in a fatherly gesture before she surrendered to the darkness.
*****
When Meryn woke the next morning she sat up and glanced around the room in shock. Boxes of tampons, cakes and brownies covered the surfaces of the nightstands and dresser. She hopped out of bed, grabbed a box and headed to the shower. After washing up, she opened up a suitcase and almost danced in delight at being able to put on different clothes. Today was that sewing circle thing. She held up her tee-shirts and sighed. She didn't have anything even remotely feminine. Nothing like the exquisite dresses Adelaide wore. She put a hand over her lower stomach as her cramps started back up. Fuck it. She was going to be comfortable. She pulled on her socks, jeans and boots. Instead of a pretty lace bra she put on her favorite white cotton one. When she reached for her tee-shirt she hesitated. Thinking of how welcoming Adelaide had been she chose the pink Strawberry Shortcake shirt. It was at least pink. She fixed her hair in a spike or two and used her pressed powder compact to take down the shine of her nose. She checked the mirror and shrugged. This was as good as it was going to get.
When she walked into the dining room for breakfast everyone looked at her in horror.
"What are you doing out of bed?" Aiden jumped up.
"I was hungry and wanted breakfast. Can't I have breakfast?" She asked confused.
"Of course you can. Come sit next to me, dear. I don't think Aiden fully appreciates how strong women can be." Meryn sat between Adelaide and Aiden. She noticed that Aiden watched her very carefully. Maybe she had laid it on too thick last night.
"I got you cake." Aiden leaned in and kissed her cheek.
"I saw. I totally plan on eating it later."
"Which one?"
"All of them."
"All?" Aiden asked.
"Yup, I don't know how you knew I was craving chocolate, but I swear last night I would have killed for some."
She saw Colton give Aiden a thumbs up. What on earth had they gotten into last night?
"We can delay introducing you to the sewing circle if you're feeling unwell. As a shifter, I only get my cycle once a year, I can't imagine getting it every month." Adelaide shuddered.
"It's not so bad when you get used to it." Marius set a full plate of eggs, bacon, toast and fried potatoes in front of her, she smiled her thanks.
"You can't have been getting it for very long. You're barely in your childbearing years." Adelaide sounded confused.
"I've been getting my cycle for about ... twenty two years now." Meryn took a huge bite of toast.
"Twenty two years? How old are you Meryn?" Adelaide asked.
"Thirty four. Why?"
"That means you started your cycle at the age of twelve? Every month for the past twenty two years." Adelaide looked ill.
"Yeah. So?"
"Do humans have babies that young? You're practically babies yourselves at that age." Adelaide asked.
Meryn shrugged. "Depends. Kids are having sex younger and younger these days. It's not unheard of to read about a twelve or thirteen year old having kids." Meryn carefully lifted her egg onto her toast. Her favorite part was biting into the yolk.
"That's barbaric. These girls' fathers, do they seek retribution for their daughters?" Byron demanded.
"Sometimes, sometimes the girls just get kicked out."
"Kicked out. What do you mean?" Keelan asked, getting pulled into the conversation.
"In some families if you do something like get pregnant young or come out as homosexual the parents kick them out of the house." Meryn explained. For all their paranormal worldly ways, she was discovering that Lycaonians were quite sheltered about the harsh truths outside their city.