The sun was up when you woke.

Woke?

The morning after the start of Winter's Moon?

You didn't sleep the first night of Winter's Moon. Not since you were a child. You curled in a ball and shook and cried and fought for control against the wolf all night. It was a hard, hard battle every year.

You opened your eyes quickly, scared of what could have happened to change the routine, and found yourself curled around your Loki. Of course, that's what had changed. And it was just like so many mornings that you woke up with him because you were an incorrigible cuddler...except for the distinct lack of clothing all around. You flushed as the events of the previous night finally came back to you. "Stop that," Loki scolded lightly, bopping your nose with a long finger. "No need for embarrassment or shame. We had an enjoyable evening, one that I would gladly repeat, and I am quite glad I got to share it with you, my darling." You relaxed at his open honest, his straightforwardness was reassuing.

You kissed him lightly. "I love you," you told him softly and laid your head on his chest for another minute until you realized that you really did need to get up. "As much as I love cuddles, I need a shower." You licked his nose as you climbed over him to get out of the bed.

"Annoying puppy," he grumbled, rubbing the wet spot on his nose indignantly. You were laughing as you slowly, sorely made your way to find your nice hot shower. He chuckled, knowing exactly why you were sore. You turned around and stuck your tongue out at him.

"Annoying god," you grumbled right back at him. He laughed harder.

*

The hot shower helped and you carefully dressed in a pair of flannel pajama pants and a soft black shirt that had originally been Loki's. A messy bun and fuzzy socks and you were comfortable to lounge around the tower for a lazy Sunday. Your clothing choice and disheveled hair were also carefully calculated to tell your boyfriend that you were very much not interested in partaking in more of last night's activity. At least not right now. Loki was smart enough to get the message and wouldn't press or pry. The hot shower hadn't removed the smell of Loki from your skin. That wasn't going away anytime soon. Jareth had been able to smell that you hadn't had sex with Loki yet. Well, he'd be able to tell now that you had, any wolf would...

Loki was waiting in the hall for you, leaning against the wall next to your bedroom door, his nose buried in a book as per usual. You smiled at how adorable he was. You also noted that he was freshly showered as well, wearing black lounge pants and a green shirt. He had his hair tied back, except for the lovelock which hung loose. He was dressed just as comfortably and casually as you were. He looked over at you and smiled warmly, snapping his book shut and vanishing it as he did. You stood up on your toes to give him a light kiss.

"So, what are we up to today, little wolf?" he asked, though he looked you over as if sensing the difference in you, but not quite being able to put his finger on what it was. You couldn't help him figure it out either.

"A nice lazy Sunday," you replied with a smile. "I was thinking Harry Potter movie marathon," you took his hand and started toward the elevator.

"Books, Harry Potter, tea, and my darling's company? Sounds like a wonderful Sunday indeed," he said warmly. He then looked down at your joined hands, concerned, then touched your forehead. "Are you alright? You're...cold,"

You laughed. "Compared to you? I'm not cold," you teased him. His hand was still cold compared to yours.

He frowned, obviously wanting a direct answer. "Very well, you're less warm than usual," he conceded.

"I'm fine," you finally told him. His frown deepened. You sighed heavily, damn human-shaped lie detector. "Fine. I can't tell you. Is that better?"

"No, but I respect that answer better than you trying to sneak a lie past me," he replied, his tone teasing. You huffed and stuck your tongue out at him.

"Annoying god," you grumbled at him, but laughed.

You stiffened when you walked into the dining room to find the team eating breakfast. You didn't want them to comment on last night. "Not one word, Stark," you heard Nat threaten when she caught sight of you and Loki getting off the elevator.

"Shellhead, if you say anything to upset my lady, I will not stop her from throwing you out of the window," Loki warned, though his tone was pleasant, daring so he could watch Tony get defenestrated.

"Sorry, Lo. If he does anything stupid, you'll have to throw him yourself," you replied, then immediately bit back a curse at the sudden pain behind your eyes. Your hand went to your head and you pulled the bottle of ibuprofen from your pocket. You'd had a feeling that you would have to answer questions today. "Seriously, that was enough to trigger the geas?" you growled as you threw back some of the pills, desperate for the sudden headache to go away. Loki gave you a concerned look and took a step closer, wanting to help, but not knowing how. You shook your head. You'd be ok.

He turned his attention back to Tony. "Very well, I will throw you myself. It would be my absolute pleasure," Loki added that last part with a mischievous grin over at you. You gave him a small smile in return and took your place at the table, pulling a couple of pancakes off the stack for yourself.

Tony thought it over. You were a little Omega wolf and could be reasoned with as long as the wolf wasn't in control. Loki couldn't be reasoned with or distracted if he was upset. Tony was actually lucky he was getting a warning at all. Tony opened his mouth anyway. "So, what's it like to be with a god? Is it true what the say about the endowment?" He asked, holding his hands like a foot apart, clearly asking about the size of certain piece of Loki's anatomy. Like you'd tell him.

Loki had a malicious malevolent glare on his face for an instant before it turned to a mischievous glint. "Brother..." Thor warned, catching the exact mood of Loki's. Whatever he was up to, there was worse than the normal defenestration in store for Tony. Tony realized it too late.

Loki ignored Thor and glided over to Tony with a predator's grace. He was suddenly standing over Tony, who was leaning back in his chair, unsure of what Loki was up to. Loki moved, his face an inch from Tony's. "If you would really like to know..." Loki purred in a seductive tone as he ran one finger down Tony's cheek and jaw. "I am sure I could be convinced to give you a demonstration." Tony blanched as this joke went in the exact opposite direction of where he had wanted it to. He didn't know how to deal with it either.

"I-I think I'd rather just throw myself out the window," Tony pushed his chair back away from Loki, somehow blanched and flushed at the same time. This joke was really not going his way.

"You were so eager a moment ago," Loki moved forward again, seductive, maliciously teasing, and predatory, angry glint in his eyes.

"Lo, just throw him out the window and be done with it. You've made your point and tortured the tin man enough," you told Loki, laughing at the display. You weren't threatened by Loki's actions, he was playing, however maliciously. Tony wouldn't make any stupid comments about this topic again in front of Loki.

"As you wish, darling," Loki was instantly back to normal. He lifted Tony from his chair easily and walked straight for the defenestration window. Instead of throwing Tony out, holding him by the throat and throwing him from that angle, he shifted Tony and threw him headfirst out the window like a javelin.

"Impressive throw," Nat commented.

"That may be a new record," Bruce added as he made the tallymark on the dry erase board next to the window.

Loki nodded, accepting their praise and kissed the top of your head on his way to his chair next to yours. You'd gotten him a stack of pancakes while he was torturing Tony. He looked at your plate. "Love, that's not enough, you eat like us," Loki prodded you.

"It's plenty," you replied carefully. Loki looked unhappy, but didn't argue anymore. Tony rejoined you a few minutes later, stripping off the Ironman suit as he returned to the table.

"I do have an actual question," Cap started, hesitantly, directing the question to you.

You nodded. "I'll answer it if I can,"

"Should we be expecting a repeat of last night?" Cap finally figured out how he wanted to word his question.

It was a legitimate concern. You shook your head. "Not until next year," you told him firmly. "I swear. I would have figured out how to warn you better, but I wasn't sure you'd be affected. You're not werewolves," you added apologetically. You hadn't meant to affect them all like that.

"That's a relief at least," Nat commented. "I thought I was going to have to kick all of their asses last night. Which would have been fun, but they get so whiny when I hurt them," she pouted and you laughed. The team promised that it was ok and they weren't mad. There would just be precautions taken next year.

*

"C'mon, Sunday sparring," Cap told everyone when breakfast was over. You all groaned.

"Cap, I can't-" you started.

"Can't shift?" he asked before you could finish the sentence and potentially trigger another stupid migraine. You nodded. That wasn't all of it, but you couldn't clarify. "That's fine. Hand-to-hand today. C'mon," he ordered.

Groaning and grumbling, everyone headed down to the training room. Tony had had locker rooms built down here, so you had somewhere to change and leave your gross workout clothes after the training, which somehow were cleaned again before Cap called the next sparring day or training event. You were hesitant for this, but couldn't argue, so you changed and made your way nervously to the training room.

"Nat, Y/N, you're up first," Cap ordered.

"Cap-" you started, but he didn't seem to notice. So you stepped onto the mats. This was a terrible idea. You couldn't tell them either. Stupid werewolf laws. You bowed to Nat, too many years of training ingrained in you to do otherwise, and settled into a stance. She settled into her own stance. She was on you in a flurry of movement and speed the second Cap called the match. It was speed you couldn't hope to match today. You still had hard earned skill, though your punches lacked strength and your body just wouldn't move like it was supposed to.

Cap watched, observed, critiqued. After a short respite where Tony and Clint tried to take down Thor, you were called up again with daggers to spar Loki. This was a stupid idea, but Loki had been watching too. He knew something was wrong. He moved much slower than usual, letting you actually keep up with him, until Cap kept barking at you both that you were much faster than this and to move. You usually were much faster than this and much stronger than this. You couldn't keep up, though you tried, you really, really tried.

You fell hard on your ass to avoid getting sliced open by a dagger.

"Yield!" you called desperately. You couldn't keep trying to do this. You were going to get hurt.

"What's wrong with you today?" Cap asked. You glared at him for pressing the issue. You had just wanted to curl up with your Loki and watch Harry Potter. Was that too much to ask?

"Fuck it, it's worth the migraine for the rest of the day to have you all stop trying to figure out what's going on and just torturing us all about it," you grumbled as you got to your feet. You bit back the pain as the geas knew you were planning on breaking it. "I'm human. Until the next full moon," you spat the words out. "That is Winter's Moon. All of the female wolves are human and mortal, with none of the strength, speed, healing ability, or shifting ability of the wolf," you told them all quickly, your hands going to your temples, as you fought back the black spots and whimpers of pain. Loki was there in an instant, his cold hands on your temples, magic soothing some of the pain, but only some. There was only so much even he could do.

"That is why female wolves are not usually seen out in the world?" Cap asked, noting words you'd told them months ago. You nodded.

"Biologically that's impossible," Tony protested.

"It's magic tincan, it doesn't have to be possible," you growled, pain making your temper sharp. "Biologically, I'm a werewolf of course, but for all intents and purposes, I'm human. The old stories say that our Lady, the moon, turns her back on her daughters for their sin of lust during Winter's Heat, aka last night. I'm pretty sure it was old Catholic men who wrote those particular tales. The point remains, this is why I told you I can't go on any missions for the next two weeks. It's dangerous enough just to be out in public. I still smell like a werewolf to other wolves, I still am a werewolf, except without any of my abilities." You whimpered, placing your forehead against Loki's cool chest as the pain started radiating from your head down your neck, black splotches would have been overtaking your vision had you dared open your eyes. You had to stop talking before this got worse, but there was one more thing that had to be said.

"The male wolves aren't affected."