As it turns out, almost being destroyed by a legion of soldiers wasn't considered a good reason to end classes early, so it took a few more hours before everyone could leave, which Luz personally called bullshit on. At least she would, if not for another problem she and Amity were having.

As they last moments of their last class ticked down. Luz found herself fidgeting in her seat. She really, really, wanted to go and see Hunter. Her own reaction surprised her though. Just that morning, she'd been too terrified to even talk to female Alphas and now she was all but jumping out of her skin to see him. Maybe she was just grateful for his efforts to save them. She adjusted her collar. For some reason, she felt hot. Maybe it was all the steam.

As classes let out, Luz all but ran out the door. She stopped as soon as she was a few steps out. She needed to get Amity from her own class and get the others. She turned towards where she knew Amity's last class of the day was, only to run into what felt like a wall of muscle.

"What the…?" She looked up. "Boscha?" She scrambled back, putting distance between herself and the Grudgby player.

"Pick her up too."

"Wha-?" Luz's question was interrupted by a vine wrapping around her and suspending her in the air. "What the-?"

She looked at the source of the vine. A walking flowerpot, being controlled by…

"Willow?"

"Sorry," The plant mage said. Gus looked like he didn't approve, but he wasn't doing anything to stop it.

"I expect a good explanation for this." Amity said startling Luz.

The Blight was hanging next to her.

"Let's move to a more private place." Boscha said as she walked into a nearby empty classroom.

Once they were inside, Boscha looked at the hanging Omegas.

"Oh don't look at me like that," She said dismissively. "You'll thanking you in a moment."

"Boscha!" Luz said, her patience thinning. "Let us go. We need to get back to Eda's."

"And you will." Boscha said. "But before that, I should ask… do you guys feel strange."

"Strange?" Luz asked.

"Yeah, subtlety isn't my thing. Do you feel a sudden and uncontrollable urge to mate with the Golden Guard?"

Amity, Luz, Willow and Gus stared at her.

"What?" Gus asked.

"I'm serious." Boscha said. "How do you feel?"

"Look." Amity said, feeling annoyed. "If this is another ploy-"

"It's his water stunt." Boscha interrupted. "It was a stupidly reckless move that surely must have injured him. And as his mates, watching him being in danger would have triggered a reproductive desire in you. You know, in case he's dying and needs to," she took a moment to shudder, "spread his seed. Basically, you've both gone into heat. And I can fucking smell it."

"What?" Gus asked.

Boscha rolled all three eyes. "They really should teach this more. It's part of Alpha education when we're being taught about how to handle ourselves. A possible side-effect of our overprotectiveness. Though it seems that it's missing from Omega education."

Luz took a moment to take stock of her feelings. She was really worried about Hunter. He had just fought several very powerful Abomatons. And there was no way his boiling bird trick had been easy. And he'd sent an illusion to address everyone. Why hadn't he come himself?

But now that she took Boscha's words into account, she realized that there was something else there with her desire to see him again. Something new.

It wasn't the same urge to mate from hours of breathing his scent from just a couple hours ago. And it wasn't what she felt that one time Amity had poured a pail of water on herself and her dress began sticking to her body. But undeniably…

"What's happening to me?" Amity asked, on the verge of a panic attack. This was too much. She didn't like guys. She'd never liked guys. But now, completely unconnected to being immersed in his scent, she had the undeniable urge to sleep with one. It was too much. Did her sexuality really not matter? In the face of her body's reproductive norm, did what she wanted really not matter?

"Amity!" Luz said, drawing her out of her internal meltdown.

Amity stopped before glancing at her girlfriend. Right her girlfriend. Her girlfriend who also wanted to sleep with some guy. Again. The two of them hadn't even gotten past second base with each other.

"I know this is strange." Luz said. "But it's not that bad."

Amity opened her mouth to retort.

"On second thought." Luz said. "I don't know how bad it is for you."

That gave Amity pause.

"I'm not gay." Luz said. "I'm bisexual. And that means I don't know how it feels to suddenly be attracted to someone I'm not usually attracted to."

Amity said nothing.

"But I do know one thing." Luz said. "I know that your instincts don't define you. These… feelings, don't define us. Remember what you told Hunter."

"Yeah…" Amity said. "His instincts told him to remove his hand from the fire. He was wise to listen to them. Resisting was futile."

"Dammit Amity." Luz said. "That's not the point. Instincts can be helpful. But they are completely undiscerning. Hunter's instincts told him to avoid the pain of fire. But he still jumped into the boiling sea and pulled off a massive spell. He was clearly having trouble controlling it. He definitely hurt himself. But he did it anyway, instincts to not be burned be damned. That's the thing about sentience. We can make choices out bodies disagree with."

Amity said nothing and continued to stare at Luz. "Willow," She said, "Can you please let us down."

Willow nodded and made the vines retract back into the pot, setting both girls down.

Luz began dusting herself off but stopped when Amity walked right up to her girlfriend and kissed her.

Willow gasped. Gus blushed and looked away. Boscha sighed at the public display of affection.

After a few seconds, Amity pulled back and put her forehead against Luz's. "Thanks." Amity said. "I think that helps."

"Anything for you."

"How sweet," Boscha said, murdering the moment in cold blood.

Amity sighed but couldn't bring herself to get that mad at the triclops. She had technically been helpful.

"Wait…" Gus said. "I thought the whole heat thing was a lot more… urgent."

"That's because they only suspect, with good reason, that he's hurt." Boscha said. "When we get to wherever he is, if he's really injured, they'll begin to feel it a lot more. Which is why it's best you're all aware of this beforehand."

"Wait…" Luz said. "Isn't the point of mating having kids. I thought we were both pregnant."

"What?" Gus, Willow and Boscha asked.

Amity looked at the three. "We'll explain on the way." She looked at her girlfriend. "That was like 12 hours ago. If we are pregnant, our bodies haven't registered it properly."

"Oh."

"Well," Boscha said, trying for a joke. "If you aren't, you might be by the end of today."

Everyone glared at her.

"Too mean?" She asked.

/

Hunter groaned as he forced himself to drink the potion Eda handed him. He leaned back onto the couch.

"Yeah," King said. "Eda's scald potion always tastes bad."

"Hey!" Eda said. "I make them taste as good as I can." She looked at Hunter. "You okay?"

Hunter rubbed his head. He felt uncomfortable, but that was too be expected. "I definitely overestimated how much boiling water I could move."

"Overestimated?" Lilith asked, walking in from the kitchen. "What you did was crazy and borderline suicidal. You're lucky you only walked away with second degree burns on, what 70% of your body?"

"And yet I did it anyway. And beat fifty Abomatons. I hope the girls are okay." At the mention of his mates, Hunter thought he felt his body get hotter. Or was that his imagination. "I can't believe the Emperor was right."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Let's nip that in the bud. Unless he expected you to do any of that, there's no way you would have beat all fifty of those things. He wanted you to fail."

Hunter stared ahead. "But I didn't…" he said with a smirk.

Eda, very gently, ruffled his hair. "Alright. Don't get a big head."

"Yeah," King said. "You should always remember who's boss here."

"And I suppose that that's you?"

"Of course it's me. King Clawthorne is the boss!" The adorable little demon crossed his legs, brimming with more pride than his little body could contain.

Before Hunter could retort, the door burst open and seven people practically tumbled into the room.

"Did you have to stick so close?" Amity asked from her position at the bottom of the pile.

"You're the one who started running." Em retorted.

"We weren't running," Luz said. "We were just tired of being left in suspense."

"Yeah." Gus said.

"Actually," Ed said. "Why were you running?"

"I wanted to meet the illustrious Golden Guard." Gus said. "I was wondering what the hype was all about."

"I didn't know we were throwing a party," King said before jumping onto the pile.

"Ow," Willow said.

"Everyone, get off!" Amity yelled.

Hunter grabbed his staff and with a wave of it, lifted all the Hexside students in the air before setting them down on their feet. King landed on his butt.

"Hunter." Luz said as she finally noticed him. Then she stopped as she took in his appearance.

He'd changed into a pair of shorts with a lot of pockets Eda has gotten from the human realm, but only for decency's sake. It hurt too much to try and put on a shirt. Most of his body, from his legs to his torso was covered in cooled bandages. He had some wrapped around his head above his eyes.

She stared at him. Amity also did the same.

"What?" Hunter asked, right before everyone lunged at him.

/

And that's a wrap.

You have no idea how betrayed I was when I looked up scald injuries and saw that you couldn't actually get beyond second degree burns from them. What happened to third degree burns from the steam of the sea Hunter?

Things are getting a lot more complicated. I actually debated whether or not to include things like being in heat but decided that it would be too disingenuous to ignore when the point of the story is having them have to deal with it. Now isn't the time to lose my nerve.

Don't forget to review your thoughts and follow me on twitter. My handle is WriterImmigrant.