Chapter Seventeen

December 25th. Christmas Day. This was a very special day for Kyoko for two reasons, 1) it was her birthday, which she usually celebrated alone and 2) Little Maria-chan had finally been convinced last night to accept her father again. Kyoko and Maria had spent an entire month planning the Happy Grateful Party, which was a disguise for Maria's birthday, and last night it was a success. Strangely enough Ren knew that December 25th was Kyoko's birthday. How he knew was beyond her. No one knew except for Lory Takarada and only because she had to put it on her employee profile for him, otherwise it was definitely not public knowledge.

Ren had given her an enormous rose and hidden a pear-cut pink diamond in the center of it. At the end of the evening he escorted her home so that she could drop them off and he could also take her to the large forested area outside of Tokyo to hunt freely. Undeniably the best birthday ever, but something seemed different and she knew exactly what it was. She was falling and falling hard. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or, a bad thing. Reino would have told her it was very good. She shuddered at the thought. As far as love was concerned he was pretty close to on par with Takarada-san. Not to the point of interfering though. That isn't what had been bothering her though these past few weeks. The thing that had been bothering her, really digging under her fur, was all of the men in her life had started behaving strangely around her. Nii-san's were overprotective and clingy, Ren seemed to be everywhere she went, Sho decided to make it a point of always being in the same place at the same time and even men that she didn't know started staring at her as if she had two heads or, something. (Not exactly) They all seemed to have this strange hungry look whenever they were around her. It was a bit unnerving.

Never once did it cross her mind that perhaps female werewolves may have the same winter cycle of coming into heat as natural wolves did. The pheromones she was exuding was staggering to all males between the ages of 15 and 30, within a 12 meter radius. The fact that Ren and her Nii-san's were able to control themselves around her, bordered on miraculous. Her best friend Kanae was beside herself when they resumed their LoveMe duties a few days after the party.

"Mo! Kyoko stop doing that! You're attracting too much attention." Kanae snapped at her. She just couldn't understand how the girl could be so clueless as to what she was doing.

"Moko-san, I don't understand what you think I'm doing." She told her in confusion.

"It's that perfume you're wearing! It's attracting men." Kanae explained.

Kyoko looked at her incredulously. "Pfft. Kanae, I'm not wearing any perfume and I'm not attracting men. They're probably all looking at you." She giggled. Even though her Nii-san's and Ren had told her time and again that she was not anything close to plain and boring, occasionally she would have a relapse when she was around her equally pretty friends.

"Yeah, that's why that last director you spoke to begged for your phone number and drew little hearts on your palm when he wrote his on your hand." Kanae said dryly.

"They aren't hearts. They're doodles. They just accidentally look like hearts." She claimed with indignance.

Kanae shook her head. "Whatever. If you aren't wearing perfume... Just don't go anywhere without me, your brothers or, Tsuruga-san. Got it?" She told her poking her shoulder with her index finger.

Poor Ren... He was in hell. He was in a perpetual state of the Emperor. He could not get her out of his mind. Her scent and the memory of it followed him everywhere and poor Yashiro would hightail it out of there whenever they encountered her. He really wasn't sure what was going on. All he knew is every time he was around her, it took every fiber of his being not to touch her or, lose to the desire of putting his mouth all over her body. Images of her perfect naked visage had been dancing through his mind for the past couple of weeks. Ever since her scent got stronger and more... erotic? His uncharacteristic bathroom breaks were starting to worry him. Was he turning into some kind of pervert or, something? This was why he was going to do something that he hadn't done in years... call his father. He would most certainly know what was going on.

Kuon sat in the silence of his living room as the phone many miles away rang, then answered.

"Hello?" Kuu answered, lips smacking and teeth crunching on the potato chips that he had pilfered from the cupboard without Julie's knowledge.

"Dad?" Kuon answered.

"Kuon? Is that you?" He asked in a low excited voice.

"Yeah. Hey Dad... I have a little problem and I'm not sure what to do or, what's causing it." Kuon started.

Kuu was excited but, a bit worried. It had to be pretty serious if his son was breaking radio silence to speak to him after 5 years. "What do you need son. Whatever it is, I'm here for you."

"Well, there's this girl and I just can't seem to stay away. Something just keeps pulling me in and I just can't quit thinking about her. It's driving me insane. I can't seem to get her smell out of my mind. Every time I'm near her I want to scoop her up and run off with her." He confessed.

Kuu raised an eyebrow in interest. "Really.. tell me more."

"Well, she's an actress. A scary good one at that. She can sing, she has the voice of an angel and I think if she put her mind to it, she could do just about anything. She's a great hunter. She has hair as soft as silk. Her skin is flawless, she smells like heaven and her eyes are like pools of liquid gold." Kuon went on and on about the virtues of Kyoko and his father silently snickered.

Wait... What? Hunter? "Kuon? Is she one of us?"

Kuon sighed. "Yeah.. She's an alpha with her own pack."

"Kuon.. If she's a pack alpha you know she probably has a mate already. You really need to stay away for your own health right now... She's in season." His father warned.

Kuon laughed. "No Dad. She doesn't have a mate. Wait... What do you mean in season?" The last question was asked a little more seriously.

"Female alphas of our kind are extremely rare but, those that I know about go into season once a year in the winter. It's when their fertility is at its absolute peak and their pheromones are off the chart. If you don't plan on taking your place in the pack with her and fighting for it, you need to stay away." Kuu explained. "I guess it's too late for that kind of warning though isn't it. From what it sounds like. You love her don't you?"

Kuon was quiet for a moment. "Yeah." He sighed.

Kuu's smile spread widely. "Well son, good luck then."

"Thank's Dad. I'm going to need all the luck I can get. I don't even think she sees me in that light." His voice was filled with disappointment.

"Why not? You're pretty easy on the eyes, you know." Kuu comforted.

Kuon chuckled. "Judging from her past experiences, that may be a big strike against me. I guess me being a male, period, would be."

"Why is that? Does she not like men?" Kuu asked.

"No! Nothing like that. It's just she's been burned pretty badly in the past before and she's a bit blind when it comes to advances like that. Not to mention she's only 17." He explained.

"Kuon... She can get married at 17. If she's a singer and an actress, I would guess she's probably emancipated and she's pretty much considered an adult now too. So the only 17 thing is just an excuse." Kuu knew what was going on here with the age thing. "I'm not saying bed her on the first date or, anything like that, but just don't use that as an excuse to stay away." Kuu wished with all his heart he could do more than just listen to his son lament. He really needed to find out who this girl was and how on Earth she had been able to tie his son up in knots like this. Lory would know. Kuu would need to call him tomorrow and get the details.

Kuon sighed. "Thanks Dad."

"No problem son." They said their goodbyes and ended the call.

Kuon sighed deeply and made his way to bed, tomorrow was going to be a long day. He had scenes with Kyoko in Dark Moon tomorrow and he would have Yashiro tailing him the whole time. It was going to be exhausting to be Ren. He needed all the rest he could get.