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I opened my mouth to tell her it was normal during stressful periods of a woman's life for their period to stop—it had happened to my mate, before we realised her body was trying to establish a heat cycle—but then the penny dropped. It wasn't that being kidnapped by Aphrodite had paused her cycles; this was her first one.
"I'm not the most informed person to help with this," I said, trying to catch her gaze. She avoided my attempts. "The last time Haley had a period, it was a hundred years ago and all she had to use were rags."
Verena wrinkled her nose. "Rags?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like. Strips of fabric to line underwear."
"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you," she muttered, throwing a quick scowl at me.
"Why? There's nothing wrong with a period, Verena." Haley had taught me that lesson swiftly when I turned my nose up at the sight of blood on her smallclothes. She kneed me in the dick and then gave me a two-hour lecture. I repeated it to Verena now, albeit abbreviated. "It's a completely natural thing, and there's no reason to be ashamed of it or to keep it secret."
She rolled her eyes. "Men can't handle periods. Everyone knows that."
"Boys can't," I corrected. "Men have grown up and they know better. If the stick scares you, use the folded thing."
The world had changed a lot since I was last alive; I had no idea what to call most things that existed now. Curiosity was the only reason I knew what was in the zippered bags at all. That, and Kai thought Wynvail was hiding snacks in them because the packaging rustled. Moron.
Verena clenched her jaw and thrust the bag of sticks at me. I closed it and put it back on the shelf, wondering if Wynvail might have been a better person to advise her. He obviously knew enough about these to buy them. But Wynvail wasn't here; I was.
Verena muttered something too quiet for me to hear.
"What? You don't need to whisper, Verena; there's no shame in having a period."
"Fuck, this is mortifying. I hate you."
I just smiled, waiting patiently until she exploded, "I don't know how to use this!"
I wanted to hug her, but I'd probably be crossing lines since we were still close to strangers. I'd hugged her once, but only because we were all grieving Haley. I was extremely conscious that I was a grown man, an adult, and she was a kid. Just the idea of anyone taking advantage of her made me want to shatter the whole world from under us. That might have been an extreme reaction; I'd been locked up for a hundred years, I couldn't tell.
"That's okay," I soothed. "I bet Haley didn't have a clue the first time she saw one." Actually, she'd been in a heat cycle the whole time we'd been resurrected so… "She probably still doesn't. Open it up; there might be instructions."
There weren't instructions, but it seemed self-explanatory. "Like a rag," I murmured. "It probably just sits in your underwear. The flaps must wrap arou—"
"Okay, out!" she snarled, only meeting my eyes to glare with the force of a thousand burning, embarrassed suns. "Get the fuck out! I'll figure it out myself. And don’t ever use the word flaps in my presence again."
I allowed her to push me out of the bathroom, a strange smile trying to form on my face. I'd given up on being a father decades ago, but this felt pretty close. It felt … good to help her. To do something useful that wasn't using my shadows to attack someone. Violence was a useful tool, but it wasn't all I was. I wanted to help too, and even though Verena slammed the door on my face and snapped the lock back into place, I got the sense I had helped her.
And strangely, I didn't feel the sharp edge of panic biting into my soul anymore. Helping her had settled me.
So I returned to the living room and plopped back into the chair, my heart going soft when I saw Haley asleep on the sofa, two knives clutched to her chest like a teddy bear.
I said nothing when Verena stalked into the room ten minutes later and thrust a cup of tea at me, but I couldn't stop my smile at the obvious thank you gesture. She didn't speak a single word, just went to sit in the window seat and stare into the darkness outside, but the drink meant far more than I could ever put into words. I swore my heart warmed by degrees as I drank it, like she'd infused it with magic and care.
I'd finally relaxed, my body weight sinking into the cushions and my chest opening up to air, when a fist hammered on the front door downstairs.
Haley jerked upright, knives pointed outward. Kai leapt off the sofa with a snarl.
"No one’s supposed to be able to find the house, right?" I asked, all my calm vanishing, replaced by spiky panic.
"No," Haley snarled, stalking across the rug, "They're not."
Which meant only one thing—the shields had broken.
CHAPTER 15
HALWEN
"There's no back door?" I demanded, my heart thumping faster. "What good is a safe house without a second exit?"
