There are some days when no amount of violence is sufficient to placate my insatiable rage, and right now was one of the worst days in the year to aggravate me. Yet I paced back and forth in the living room, begging some idiot to knock on the front door so I could rip them apart.

Lexia cried in her room, continuing her daily streak of breaking down in tears over her decision. Although my recent comments might not have helped in that regard. An empty feeling in my gut and my instincts clawing at the back of my mind made thinking nearly impossible, something I was desperately trying to do.

How do I say I’m sorry for the fifth time this week? At some point, she isn’t going to believe those words. I know what I said was mean, and I meant it, but I didn’t mean to say it so harshly.

I grabbed my head and growled. It took a lot of willpower to keep myself from raking my claws across my face out of guilt. The guilt and the nearly irresistible urge to find Victor and beg him to impregnate me were mentally pulling me apart.

This is just another part of being a woman beastkin. Lexia is going through the same thing. There’s no reason to bite her head off about Gifford. She’s doing this of her own volition.

I stopped pacing, but my tail flicked back and forth behind me still, and I took a deep breath. Slowly, I moped to my sister’s room. Her wailing was easy to hear throughout the house before, but she had mellowed to a quiet sobbing. When I entered the room, I stared at my twin sister.

The light from the window glistened off her silver fur as she lifted her head from the pillow she held. She stared at me with shimmering blue eyes. Tears soaked the fur on her face. Her face’s beauty wasn’t marred in the slightest as she sniffled.

I watched the two triangle-shaped ears on top of her head flatten as her expression turned aggressive. She growled at me as she bared her human-looking teeth. After a few moments of me just staring at her, she threw the pillow away, stood on her digitigrade feet, and coated her hands and claws in ice.

I deserve this.

Lexia’s tail stopped for a moment before she pounced to attack me. I sidestepped her easily, stepped behind her, and pushed her to the ground—all before she realized I moved.

But I don’t deserve to be attacked. I’m going to have to beat some sense into you, aren’t I?

I jumped on her back and growled, baring my wolf-like teeth next to her ear. Lexia growled as she turned her head. Her body glowed from the magic she channeled. A pillar of ice erupted from the ground by her outstretched arm and slammed into my side.

Her attack pinned me against the wall. I clawed at the icy pillar as Lexia stood up. Lexia’s tail flicked behind her as she walked around her creation towards me. I started slamming my hands into the ice, and cracks appeared. Each time I hit the ice, more cracks appeared as the previous ones grew.

After the fifth time I struck the pillar, ice encapsulated my hands, binding them to the block. I pulled hard and shattered the ice, and I saw Lexia stumble backwards like someone punched her in the face.

Seeing her magic aura dissipate, I channeled my magic to break off the piece of ice holding me against the wall. Lexia’s eyes went wide as I threw the block of ice towards her. She ducked the projectile, but she didn’t avoid me. I tackled her and pinned her to the ground again.

This time, I noticed her using time magic, so I lifted her off the ground and threw her against a wall. She bounced off the wall and somehow stayed on her feet. I growled and pounced on her.

Lexia turned and dove for the open door. I dug my claws into the wood floor and followed her. My sister dropped to all fours and ran out of the room. When I exited the room, I halted myself as a sphere of ice missed my face by inches. I turned and glared at the culprit, Lexia. She stared at me, holding another ice ball. My vision turned red as I growled.

My sister backpedaled as she launched her icy projectiles, only to create more before sending them towards my face. I dodged each one as they flew towards me, but Lexia used them to keep me from sprinting towards her and ending it. There was eventually enough space for me to close the gap to the point where she couldn’t use her magic to throw them at me.

I took the opening, and Lexia attempted to strike me in the gut with her knee. My hand caught her attack while the other slammed into her chest. She dropped to her knees as she gasped for air. I grabbed her throat and bared my fangs at my sister.

The front door opened, and I barely had a moment to recognize who walked in. My vision returned to normal as I saw my mother, Nora Stormleaf.

“Enough!” Mom’s voice shook the world.

I grabbed my ears and fell to my knees as I noticed Lexia doing the same.

Mom stomped her way over to us and grabbed a cheek in each hand. “You two will stop it this instant. Am I clear?”

The two of us whimpered as the elven woman who adopted us curbed all aggression.

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“Yes, Mom.” Lexia’s voice was weak, but she sounded like she had mostly regained her breath.

Mom turned and glared at me.

“Yes, Mom,” I mimicked my sister.

Our adoptive mother released us and put her hands on her hips as she took a step back. “You are going to tell me what this is about. And this had better be good.” Lexia and I rubbed our cheeks as we flinched away from the woman, who sent both our instincts into flight mode. “Sit.” Mom pointed to the couch.

We’re in so much trouble.

We slinked to the couch, sitting as far away from each other as possible.

“She started it.” Lexia said as she pointed a finger at me.

I flattened my ears and pointed back. “But you started the fight.”

“Knock it off!” Mom’s tone left the two of us cowering. She sighed as she sat in a chair across from us. “Now, I know you’re both in heat right now, but you need to stop acting like children and start at the beginning.”

I started picking at my claws as I stared at the suddenly very interesting grove I gouged into the floor earlier this week. Lexia stayed silent as well. The three of us sat in silence.

There’s no way I’m getting out of this without a punishment. Maybe if I don’t talk, Mom will just give up and drop it.

“Neither one of you wants to talk? Fine, you want to act like children. I’ll treat you like children.” I heard Mom stand up. “Lexia, go to your room.”

Great, there goes that plan.

I turned and saw Lexia walk towards her room with her head down and her tail wrapped around her leg. Mom stepped in front of me with her arms crossed. My instincts screamed at me to run, but I knew better.

I’m in trouble, and running will only make things worse.

“You can start at anytime,” Mom said.

I wrapped my tail around my waist and held it tight. “You don’t know what it’s like. All of my emotions are just so... so much.”

Mom sat on the couch next to me. “I’ve dealt with your mating season for three years now. While I don’t know what it feels like, I know that this is different. You and your sister were fighting, again. Why?”

I stared straight ahead. “I just wanted to apologize.”

“For?” Mom leaned forward to look me in the eye.

I closed my eyes. “For calling Gifford a useless mate who can’t do anything right and that she should never have accepted him.”

“Lucia.” Mom’s voice sounded disappointed, and when I opened my eyes, I could see the disappointment too. “You shouldn't worry about who falls in love with whom. They fell in love before you met your sister. Does Lexia criticize your choice of mate?”

I ducked my head further into my shoulders. “No.”

“And your sister could have run to Gifford at any time, gotten pregnant, and ended this. But she hasn’t.” Mom put a hand on my chin and turned my head to face her. “And why is that?”

“Because she heard about the demon king’s impending arrival and wants to help. And she agrees that if she’s pregnant or caring for an infant, she won’t be able to help.” It really is all my fault.

“Your sister only wants to help you. Nobody is making her do this. Try to be supportive of her.” She pulled me close and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I know you want to protect your sister. But maybe to protect her, you should let her help you more. You can’t do everything. Remember all those things you told Aurtour about Evalana?”

I flinched. “You just had to bring that up, didn’t you?”

“Do I need to remind you?”

I sighed. “No.”

“Are you going to behave?”

“Yes, Mom.”

Mom stood up. “How much longer is this going to be?”

I curled up on the couch as I held my tail close. “Tomorrow should be the last day.”

“Come on, get up.” She held out a hand for me to grab. I looked at her, confused. “Aren’t you going to apologize?”

I grabbed her hand and rolled off the couch to my feet. Mom gave me a smile before she turned and led me towards Lexia’s room. My padded feet didn’t make any sounds, but Mom’s boots announced our coming as we walked through the hall littered with spheres of hail.

Mom waved her hand and opened the door before we arrived. Lexia was sitting on the edge of the bed, scratching her toe-claws into the floor. She looked up at us as soon as we entered.

Mom extended an arm towards Lexia. “Well, Lucia? Aren’t you going to say something?”

I scratched my toe-claws across the floor. “Sorry, sis.”

“I’m sorry too,” Lexia replied sorrowfully. “I didn’t mean to attack you. It was just that I was so angry about the things you said about Gifford. I just couldn’t stop myself.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I know what that’s like.”

Lexia wrapped her arms around her gut. “It’s this mating season. For some reason, everything is just worse.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” I said reflexively.

A chuckle escaped my sister. “Yeah, I know.”

Mom gave me a slight shove towards my sister. “Now that mess is dealt with…” I turned to see her with her arms crossed. “You two are going to clean this mess up while I go and make lunch. The longer you take to clean this up, the more your meat is going to be cooked.”

Lexia shot to her feet. “Yes, Mom. Right away, Mom.”

“Anything but that,” I said as I held out my hands.

Mom smiled. “Then get to work.” She turned and left.

The moment I heard Mom’s footsteps enter the kitchen, I turned to face my sister. “Let’s hurry.”

Lexia nodded and immediately started channeling her magic to lift the pillar she created off the floor and shape it into a sphere. I ran out of the room into the hallway and collected the spheres, using my magic to consolidate them into one sphere with a handle. After we collected all the ice, we stared at each other with confused looks.

“So, what do we do with them?” Lexia asked. “Throw them outside like last time?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

We went to the window in her room and shaped the ice to fit through the window before dumping it outside to melt in the warm air. While we stared absently at the chunks of ice, Lexia placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Are we good?” she asked.

“Yeah, we’re good.” I gave her a smile. “This has been rough for both of us. Let’s just get through tomorrow without saying or doing anything stupid.”

“It’s not like you really hurt me.” Lexia smiled back. Oh, really? I poked her in the stomach. She doubled over, clutching the spot I touched. “Okay, maybe you got one good one in. But you have to admit, I made you work for it.”

I frowned. “Sorry, sis, again. These last couple of weeks have been like nothing I’ve ever had. All my life, I’ve been alone and had no one around who knows what it’s like. But that’s not true anymore. You’re here.” I gave my sister a hug as she straightened up. “Why have we kept fighting with each other? You’ve always been the more sensible of the two of us. Me? I’m... I am...” The words disappeared from my mind before I could say them.

Lexia chuckled. “Because my sis is an emotionally unstable ball of uncontrollable rage.” She gave me a mischievous smile and a wink. “Maybe I have a little of that uncontrollable rage in me too.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” I said as I nodded my head. “But enough fooling around. Let’s make sure Mom doesn’t cook the meat too much longer.”

We laughed as we headed for the kitchen.