The moment I tried to stand up a cramp rippled down my lower half, taking my hind legs out from under me. My mind cried out as the heat in my core expanded yet further. Ginger was either worried about my ovement or my silent cry wasn’t so sileher way, she reached me in moments.

  Hands around me, she picked me up as if I weighed nothing more than a small dog. Her fingers scratched beh the fur as her voice ed. “It will be okay.” As she walked toward where I assumed the bathroom was, she tinued. “It will get easier soon.”

  The bathroom came into sight right then as she rouhe doorframe. The pce was massive. It was nearly as rge as the room behind me and most of the floor space was taken up by the massive bathtub. I almost wondered just hoeople were expected to live in and use these rooms.

  Ginger didn’t hesitate as she made her way across the room and to the edge of the tub. Her voice was soft as she set me on the edge. “While I know you don’t want to, you o shift back to your other form.” I let out a soft whine as the steam started to wet my fur. That water had to be hot enough to burn someone, let alone feel fortable. She must have misuood why I had whined because her words were filled with sorrow. “I know it hurts but trust me.”

  The pain I could hear was enough to push me to at least try. With an effort of will, I pulled up the window and tried to select the human option. To my horror, the window fshed red as a text box popped up and stole my attention.

  The Human form option is not avaible during your heat.

  What the fuck did that mean? Another ripple of pain reminded me that there was more to worry about than what forms I could and could not use. Seleg the only other option I quickly found myself dropping over the edge and into the water as the shift of weight and size caused me to lose my bance.

  While I had been feeling hot before, it had nothing oer around me. Hell, I retty sure that this little ke was on the verge of boiling. Yet it didn’t hurt. If anything it felt amazing. Within moments the heat peed through my skin and into the muscles below. Slowly the muscles released and rexed. For the first time in however long it had been, I was free of pain.

  A pair rabbed my armpits and pulled me toward the surface. “I got you,” Ginger said as she pulled me toward the wall and into a seat. “Better?” Instead of answering, I nodded. “Good because we have to go over a few things before your heat gets too far along. Before the heat no longer helps.”

  While I knew I should have been panig over the fact that the heat would stop w, that something else might happen, I was just too worn out. “Why?”

  Ginger’s hand caressed my right ear. I leaned into the pleasant touch as she spoke. “Because your body will demand that you find someoo sate yourself against. Likely driving you so far as to try and make them your mate.” I groaned as I realized what she was insinuating.

  “And if I don’t?” I asked even though I could probably guess what she was going to say.

  “The need will build until either it is sated, at which it will force you two to do the deed as many times as possible, or until your heat ends.” I should thank whatever god was out there that had decided to take it easy on me and limit this to twelve hours.

  “What if I found someone willing to help me and we refrained from making it perma?” I asked, curious but not willing to think about what that would mean. What I would have to do with a random guy all in the hopes of avoiding some pain.

  Her hand paused for a moment showing how much my question had surprised her. “The problem is I have no clue how Kitsue for life. While wolves and most shifters mark their mates to make the bond perma, there are a few species that form a bond from the moment they look into each other's eyes or exge blood.”

  I could tell that the heat was w and I was rexing because my voice wasn’t as clipped and almost sounded zy. “ecies exges blood to form a bond?”

  “Vampires for the most part. Though there are a few demons.” At the word demon, my body instantly stiffened as my heart rate tried to bst off. “Natural SoulStone ged demons, not those ged by tracts or born.” Ginger quickly added.

  I almost waue that there was nothing natural about the SoulStone and that all demons were evil and should be killed but the mention of the stone reminded me of my own transformation. It reminded me of what had happened. Of what I had ged into. I wasn’t simply a Kitsune, I was a Demonic Kitsune, whatever that meant.

  Thankfully the foxkin was a talker because she didn’t notice my ck of a response or my face as she tinued. “Though, it's pretty funny that most of those demons and vampires were politis or ran some of the biggest businesses.” Okay, that retty funny. Fitting in a way. “But, where was I? Ah, we don’t know what will bond you to someone else. Given that you don’t want to just make such a perma decision on a whim or simply to ease your pain, we will keep you separated from all temptation until after your heat has passed. Hopefully ime…”

  “ime?!” I cried out at the very thought that there would be a ime.

  “Well, you didn’t think it was a one-off thing, did you? Most animals gh this at least once a year. Most of us are assuming that we are the same. Though, in the case of beastman like me, we simply ask those that live here.”

  For the st minute, a soft ache had started in my stomach but I mao ig. That is until it decided to pulse in time with my heart. To distract myself, I asked her a question that had been bugging me since Xander had brought me to this building the first time. “How did you and Pendrago?” Her hand paused in their ministrations. Whether it was from shobarrassment, I had no clue.

  A couple dozen pulses ter, her hand resumed rubbing at my ear. Ginger’s voice was a bit whistful as she recalled something. “We met otlefield. I was on my own, cut off from anyone as a handful of creatures attacked me. Which wouldn’t have been an issue except for the pair of demons that were supp and the creatures around. They anticipated everything I would cast, every attack I would use, and acted accly. Hell, they were pying with me because we all knew I stood no ce.”

  “Where was your brother?” I asked, curious as I doubted the guy would let his sister get into so much trouble.

  “He was with a group of people that had crossed the battlefield in an attempt to cut off the demon’s reinforts areat.” She stopped talking as she switched hands and started to rub my left ear. I leaned into the touch as I waited for her to resume talking. “When it looked like the demons were done pying with me, they had their creatures hold me down. Likely so they could do something to me.”

  With the fact that this had to have been a while ago, I had to assume it was before we had received the SoulStones. Still, I had to be sure. I coughed as I interrupted her. “Was this before the spriival?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  I didn’t answer her as I closed my eyes and asked one of my own. “Did it look like they were going to give you their blood?”

  “Maybe? Does it matter?” Ginger sounded a bit ed and fused at the dire of my question.

  “Well,” I drew out the word as I tried to think about how to say what I wanted. A twinge in my gut caused me to wind I decided fuck it. My hand flicked up as I pulled up my interfad opened my logs. “How do I make it so you see my s?” As I asked that, a prompt popped up.

  Would you like to make your s visible to everyone?

  As soon as I agreed her hand stopped. My eyes sed over the informatioed as I waited for her question. It included quite a bit, but the majority of what I wanted was right there in a more teical log than what the system typically used. It wasn’t long before she asked me the question I had been expeg. “What is this?”

  “This is what happened when I used the SoulStone.” I gestured to the line referring to demonic taint. “This part is referring to the demonic blood I had been unknowingly iing.” Her nails dug into the cartige of my ear. The sharp pain was apanied by a sharp intake of breath. “From what the demon was saying, his daughter was trying to make me into something like family. Likely with the iion to gain some sort of trol over me.”

  We were both silent. I was happy to sit in this warm water as she thought about all the implications. Just as long as I was no longer in pain. Her hand shook slightly as she spoke. “The thought of them even gaining trol over one person is frightening. How would we eve such a thing?” That I had no clue nor did I care as the soft pulse turned into a deep throb.

  I moved a hand to my middle and slowly rubbed the spot. The feeling dulled but it showed that she had been right. The water would only help for so long.“I am sorry to switch topics but you finish expining how you and Pendrago.”

  “Where was I?” she asked but didn’t wait for an answer before tinuing. “That’s right, the creatures were holding me down. Well, just as the demons approached, a figure dropped out of the sky. A fsh of light cut the air parallel to him as it nded behind the first demon. It bisected the creature, killing it in an instant. The other demon sted a couple of moments longer but it did just as easily to the man. Throughout the fight, the demon only had time to call for the creatures. Free from their hold, I bsted the distracted creatures apart with magic.”

  “Let me guess, the man endragon?” I smirked, knowing the answer.

  “Even covered in blood, the man looked like a god and he had saved me.” She said in a wistful voice. “I had a crush before the guy took a sed to chee. I don’t know what came over me at the time but while he was cheg for injuries I asked him out on a date. Surprisingly enough, he agreed.”

  “So what is the problem?” I was fused as to how the two of them could go from that to what they were now.

  “Our duties caused the two of us to push the date back to the spriival.”

  “But I thought you were not in the area for the st two weeks?” The timing didn’t seem right. I knew I had been out for a few days but the spriival was during the time she had been gone.

  “Don’t tell my brother this but I came back to the city for the festival.” She sounded sheepish. “The date went perfectly. So much so that we ended up back at his pce. We both used our stoogether. I expected to be out of a for a few days given some of the effects but he used some sort of item to cel everything but the ges.”

  It sounded as though he did something simir to what the professor had done. Which made me wonder just hoeople had simir items and why. Was someone making a ton of these items and handing them out? If so where was mihen again if I had su item I wouldn’t have used it. Not when I he extra boost it gave me.

  “As soon as our ges were done, his entire demeanor ged. He went from the blissful happiness of having had a good time to nearly demanding. And, while I want to say I was much better, I wasn’t. His smell was heavenly and I had the sudden desire to bite into his flesh.” She let out a dark chuckle. “To say I was scared was an uatement. I ran as fast as I could from the city. Returning to the deep patrol and monit mission I had been assigo.”

  “Was the desire to bite him the reason you attacked him?”

  “No,” she snorted. “That was because the mororying to get me transferred from my unit to something in the back.” While I barely knew Ginger even I khat was a stupid idea.

  Recalling the ge in her demeanor between then and when I had seen her, I asked. “What happened between you two after we left?”

  “We talked. Mostly he asked what it would take for me to accept him as my mate.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told him to stop being so damned bossy. To let me be me. I am not oo hide in the back. If he wanted me to give us a ce then he would have to put up with me beio him no matter who or what we were fag.”

  “Guessing he fought you?”

  She ughed. “he man agreed without hesitation. It was almost as if he realized that there was no way he would win that argument.”

  “Smart man.” I joined in her ugh only to wince as the motion caused my nipples to slide through the surface of the water. It seemed that, since I had gotten into the water, my nipples had grown so sensitive that I could feel the water drops sliding off them. My hand lifted toward my chest but stayed a fra of an inch away as I hesitated, not knowing if my touch would make the feelier or worse.

  Ginger’s ughter stopped only a fra of a sed ter than mine had. She must have noticed where my hand was and my hesitation. “You will find that, while it isn’t perfect or even half as good as sex, masturbating will help with the pain.” My eyes squeezed shut at the idea of masturbating. I had been holding myself back out of fear that I might like it and not want to go bay male body, but it seemed like my body wasn’t giving me much of a choice.

  Her hand dropped to my shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “Your body is nothing to be ashamed of. Sure, you are not a guy anymore, but that doesn’t mean you ot live and enjoy your new body. Just…at least give it a ce.” Her words struck at something deep inside me. At a fear that I had not told her with words but my reas. With them, she stood up and started for the door.

  Before she could leave, I asked her a simple question. “How did you deal with your heat?”

  “Alone,” She sounded a bit sad. “But the cramps were just akin to a really bad period.” With those words, she left me to make up my mind. To make a decision that might ge everything or nothing.

  “Wait, did she say these were akin to a really bad period?” I asked no one. “Fuck. I fot I would get those now.”