My alarm clock showed the time to be 5:36 a.m. when I finally gave up on getting any more sleep and decided to get out of bed to take a shower. The pain relief spell that Dr. Diaz had used on me before I headed to bed allowed me to get a couple of hours of sleep before the cramps from hell woke me up again, but I was just too uncomfortable to get back to sleep. Seriously, this was the worst I had felt in my whole life, and the thought of going through this every month only served to make me want to scream.

Not only did I have the cramps and bloating to deal with, but having to sleep in panties to keep my pad and tampon in place was constantly twigging at my brain. Unfortunately, that piece of clothing was necessary at the moment, no matter how mentally uncomfortable it was making me, at least, it was necessary if I didn’t want my bed to be a bloody mess. I was also hornier than I had ever been, and that is saying something, but last night that had been tempered by feeling gross, dirty, and completely undesirable in my current state.

The combination of all of these factors was enough for me to want to just crawl out of bed and into the shower to see if Dr. Diaz was right about orgasms helping ease the discomfort in addition to getting some satisfaction. If they also helped to somehow end this hell sooner, well, that would be wonderful. Melody had offered to help before bed last night with her magic fingers, but I had begged off for the night and probably ended up worrying her in the process.

Yeah, I know. I, a freaking Nymph, turned down sex with the girl I’m in love/lust with? What was I thinking? The truth was that I was feeling very gross and unattractive, and it was giving my Nymph vanity a real beating. How could even Melody find me attractive like this, and why would she want to do anything sex-related with me when I was this disgusting and would only end up getting blood all over her, myself, and the sheets? Talk about a mood killer, unless you were into that kind of thing, but I was pretty sure that Melody wasn’t.

Okay, yeah, it wasn’t like she’d be giving me oral, just a little finger action, but she would be doing it for my sake and not because she wanted to. Maybe she did want to, and maybe I was just blowing this all out of proportion in my head, but as much as I kept trying to convince myself of that, there was that nasty voice in the back of my mind telling me otherwise. It kept telling me that I was unattractive, that nobody could possibly want me like this, and that Melody was just offering a pity fuck.

That struck right at my ego because I was a Nymph, and I didn’t want to be anyone’s pity fuck. Usually, I was beautiful and desirable, and I could probably have anyone I wanted in my bed. The thought of my own girlfriend only offering to have sex with me because she felt sorry for me hurt, even if it was just some dark thought haunting the back of my mind that probably wasn’t even true. It felt true, and that was enough.

These thoughts and doubts had been running around in my mind in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail, since I first woke up in agony two hours earlier. Between them and the physical discomfort of my period, I had gotten a pretty good bout of depression and self-loathing going by this point, so it took a herculean mental effort to drag myself out of bed and make my way to the shower. It wasn’t like I was going to get back to sleep like this anyway.

The bed was empty except for me, something that had become unusual over the past couple of weeks. Since I had taken responsibility for Selina becoming a Paranormal and imprinting on me as a mother figure, I was getting used to waking up with someone else joining me in bed. Selina still had nightmares about the night we found her and her life before she ran away from her normie family, and likely would for a long time to come, so she would often come in to get some comfort and reassurance from ‘Momma’ and climb in bed with me. Melody often slept with me after several rounds of glorious sex before bed, so usually I ended up sandwiched between them in the morning.

Even if Melody did honestly want to do anything with me last night when I told her I wasn’t feeling up to it, why would she want to stick around knowing that I was probably going to wake up irritable, in pain, and likely to snap at her for no good reason. I knew I brought this on myself by pushing her away last night, but I wanted to be held and comforted right now as much as Selina usually did when she came into my room after a nightmare. That thought only made me feel worse.

Not only had I pushed my girlfriend away over something that was probably stupid, but I was now worried that Selina wasn’t in my bed because she didn’t want to bother me when I wasn’t feeling well. She had been worrying and hovering around me last night until I put her to bed, obviously concerned about me. What if she had a nightmare but didn’t come into my room because of that?

As much as I wanted to be there for her whenever she needed me, like a good parent, did I give off signals last night that I wasn’t ‘available’ to her right now? “Fuck, I’m a terrible mother,” I thought miserably as I made my way into the bathroom. “And a terrible sister, a terrible girlfriend, just… everything. I can’t even handle some stupid period, like a normal girl.”

I peeled off my panties and, after disposing of the disgusting tampon and pad, stepped into the shower. I managed to get the water started before the tears that I felt coming hit me and I practically collapsed to the floor in a sobbing mess. I’m not sure how long I was there, just crying and hugging my knees, as the water washed over me and doubts and fears that would later seem stupid gnawed at my mind. After I had cried myself out, it was the unfamiliar thoughts that brought me out of my downward spiral.

The thoughts weren’t mine, they were infantile, not completely formed, the mental equivalent of baby talk. Honestly, it was more of a bundle of emotions than anything; confusion, worry, and love being those at the forefront. Still, it was more focused and direct than anything I had sensed before from Cinder’s mind. She was awake, could sense all of the conflicting negative emotions inside me, and she was worried about me.

It snapped me out of the daze of depression as I almost thought something that I knew was untrue to the infant mind that shared my headspace. No. This was not Cinder’s fault. She was a baby, one that I had made the choice to nurture and care for. Yes, that had come with some unexpected hiccups, but she was worth it. I summoned all of the love and care that I felt for her and wrapped them around her nascent mind like a warm blanket as I tried to reassure her, and myself, that everything was okay.

“Sorry, my sweet baby,” I mentally soothed, “I’m… okay, everything is okay. I’m just not feeling so great, but that doesn’t mean that I love you, or the other people I care for, any less. I’ll… try to think happier thoughts.”

I got shakily to my feet, set the showerhead to pulse, and tried to focus on other things, like working my way up to a nice orgasm to stave off the underlying horniness I had been feeling. If Dr. Diaz was right, then maybe it would help with more than that too. Was I going to try to hide this activity from Cinder now that she was awake and seemingly starting to develop mentally? No, I was not.

For one thing, it would be stupid. She shared my body and mind, and it would be impossible to hide it from her. Secondly, my needs as a Nymph are a big part of who I am. Cinder and I would likely be bonded for a very long time, and we needed to acknowledge and respect each other’s physical and mental needs if this was going to work out.

Soon, I was so involved in the good feelings that the spray was generating between my legs that I was mostly able to tune out the discomfort. Endorphins and distraction for the win. Four wonderous orgasms later, I was leaning against the shower wall to catch my breath and support my shaking legs and feeling much better. My horniness was largely abated, for the moment, and while the discomfort from my period was still there, the pain was now down to a much more manageable level. I guess Carmen’s mom was right about that too.

As I stood there, leaning against the shower wall on trembling legs, I realized that I was being way too hard on myself, and probably everyone else too. I still wanted to check up on Selina, but I was pretty sure that Melody was just giving me my space right now because I had literally asked for it, not because she didn’t want me or find me attractive. It’s amazing what a good cry, some unconditional love, and several orgasms can do for a girl’s state of mind.

Once my legs finally stopped trembling, I started to go through my usual morning routine, though, after Dr. Diaz’s lecture yesterday, I was very careful to do a thorough job cleaning up between my legs. Soon, I was washed, dried, dressed, and sitting at my vanity to brush my hair and put on some light makeup. By this point, it was a few minutes after eight o’clock and I still had almost an hour before breakfast.

As much as I was tired, and probably could have used the sleep while the discomfort was lessened, I decided to wait to have a nap later so I wouldn’t mess up all of the work I had just done getting clean and prettied up. That, and I didn’t want to miss breakfast. Since I wouldn’t be having my lessons with the Dicken sisters today and was supposed to be taking it easy, I figured there would be plenty of time for a nap after my Divine magic lesson with Mom.

So, I wouldn’t be tempted to fall asleep by being inactive, I left my room and made my way down the hall to Selina’s to check on my daughter. I was still a little worried that she might have had a nightmare last night and not come to me because she was wary about bothering me while I wasn’t feeling well. She was still getting used to having a caring family after all, and as her mother I wanted her to know that I wasn’t going to ignore her because I wasn’t feeling up to being a proper parent.

I tapped on Selina’s door, but there was no answer, so I carefully opened it. Her bed had messed up sheets and blankets but was otherwise empty. The sound of the shower from her bathroom let me know that she was indeed already awake and why she hadn’t responded to my knock. I took a seat on her bed to wait for her and spent some time mentally snuggling with Cinder while trying to get a good start mentally communicating with the infant Salamander using more than just feelings.

The sound of running water from the bathroom stopped and shortly after I could hear Selina brushing her teeth before stepping back into her bedroom without bothering to dress yet. It was no surprise since wearing clothes made her as uncomfortable and anxious as it made me. I didn’t usually put any on until I was just about ready to leave my room either. She was so striking with that dark blue skin covered in gold freckles, those glowing translucent azure butterfly wings with veins of gold, and her turquoise-streaked honey-blonde hair. My girl was going to be a heartbreaker someday.

As soon as she saw me, Selina’s turquoise and gold eyes lit up for a moment before a concerned expression settled upon her face instead. “Momma? Is everything okay?” she asked uncertainly. I suppose I couldn’t blame her since it wasn’t often that I invaded her private space except when putting her to bed or having a private talk with her.

“Everything is fine, Sweetie,” I assured her. “I’m still not feeling great, but it’s bearable for the moment. I was up early, so I just wanted to see if you slept okay. I thought that maybe I would brush and braid your hair before breakfast, and we could spend a little mother/daughter time together.”

Selina ran over to hug me, completely forgetting about her current state of undress. She was nuzzling her head against my chest as she admitted, “I didn’t sleep so good, Momma. I was worried about you, you looked like you were in so much pain yesterday.”

I wrapped her up gently in my arms and whispered softly, “I’m okay, Honey, and if you want, I’ll explain in a minute, but first I want you to listen while I tell you something very important, okay?”

Her head bobbed in a nod against my chest as she said, “Okay, Momma.”

“I’m your mother now, and I want to be a good one, Selina,” I told her gently as I held her close. “Please, don’t ever feel like you can’t come to me for anything, being there for you when you need me is part of the job. Sometimes I might not be feeling well, or in a bad mood, but that will never mean that I don’t have time for you. You’re my girl, and I will always try to be here if you have a nightmare, need a shoulder to cry on, or good advice, or even if you just need a hug. Because that’s what good moms do.”

“I… I didn’t want to bother you when you were feeling bad, Momma.”

“You are never a bother to me, Selina. And if I’m not here when you need me then there’s always Melody, your Aunt Jess, my mom and Pandora, Dr. Diaz, Aislinn, or anyone else in this big crazy family of ours until I come home and can be here for you myself,” I told her sternly before adding, and there’s no reason to worry about me. This is just… my time of the month, and bonding with Cinder has made it a little more complicated, but Dr. Diaz says that while it might be more uncomfortable, it should be over quicker.”

I didn’t see any reason to hide it from her now that Sorcha wasn’t around since she’d likely be experiencing it herself soon, though hopefully not as bad as this. I could feel her heave a heavy sigh of relief before asking in a slightly confused tone, “Your time of the month?”

Right, she grew up as a boy, had barely hit puberty before I changed her, and her memories of her time before she came to live with us were like Swiss cheese. This resulted in me having to give my new daughter ‘the talk’. The very same talk that I had received not even two weeks ago. Giving this talk to my daughter and having some very painful experience now to back it up, was not something that I would have considered back when I was still a guy a few weeks ago.

So, I explained things to her from my new perspective and assured her that things shouldn’t be nearly as bad when it happened to her unless she bonded with a Salamander. In that case, at least it wouldn’t be a surprise for her like it was for me. I actually managed to get through the whole conversation without feeling completely mortified. I was only about ninety percent mortified, but this was something that she needed to learn about and now it was my job to teach her.

On that note, I also warned her that we couldn’t be absolutely certain about anything where her biology was concerned, and we could only really wait and see what happened. Selina was an entirely new species of Paranormal after all, and I didn’t want to take anything for granted regarding normal development for her kind. No matter what came I would be there to help her through it though.

My sister briefly poked her head in to see if Selina needed any help with her hair and stuff, but once she heard what I was talking to Selina about, the traitorous bunny promptly ignored my pleading look and ducked back out into the hallway to leave us alone. After I made sure to cover all of the bases and we were both blushing up a storm, I took a hairdryer to her hair and then brushed and braided it for her. It was nice and relaxing for us both after such an awkward conversation.

The talk had taken so long that by the time she got dressed, we were a few minutes late for breakfast, and Jess and the others had gone downstairs without us. Of course, the brief relief that I had managed to get during my shower was slowly receding and by the time breakfast was over, I had once again arrived at Agony Central. Thankfully, Mom was able to keep her promise and teach me a pain relief spell.

Feeling so much more comfortable after casting that spell on myself the first time, and still exhausted from not getting near enough sleep, once my magic lesson with Mom was done, I took Selina back to my room so we could both have a nice nap while Jess and Melody went through their hand-to-hand combat lessons. We had a nice mother-daughter cuddle session and quickly fell asleep.

I was glad that I set an alarm to wake us up for lunch because I was completely zonked out until it woke us. The pain and discomfort from my period were starting to return by that point, so when I went to use the bathroom, I cast the pain relief spell on myself again. I was going to get a lot of practice with that particular spell over the next couple of days.

Once I was feeling relief, in more ways than one, I quickly replaced my tampon and pad, washed up, and then Selina and I went downstairs to join the rest of the family for lunch. Since New Year's Day fell on a Saturday, and the club would be closed both today and tomorrow, everyone was pretty happy to have another weekend completely off and spend some family time today. The Dicken Sisters were a little disappointed that we couldn’t use most of the weekend to get me ready to start performing after my upcoming birthday, but they understood why.

The four of us did hang out with Rhissa during the afternoon and go over a few things that wouldn’t be too physically demanding for me though, while Selina was playing with Sorcha and my sister and girlfriend were putting their training to the test by sparring. We discussed the three dance numbers that Stella had choreographed for me and that I had been practicing over the past week and Adora went more into how to work a crowd and make men putty in my hands, both on the stage and in the bedroom.

I was blushing quite a bit during that conversation, especially since her sisters and Rhissa joined in, and the conversation got very raunchy. The four of them were fun to hang out with, were the closest dancers in the club to my own age, and they all had the same needs and desires as I did. So, despite my embarrassment and inexperience, it was nice to spend time with them not just as a part of my strange new family, but as friends as well. If I could learn from their experiences too, all the better.

Carmen had spent the afternoon getting Healing lessons from her mom and learning the same kind of pain relief spell that I was learning for when her own time of the month came. When she, Melody, and Jess were finished with their lessons though, they came to hang out with us, and the conversation was quickly toned down for Carmen’s sake. Since we were hanging out in the club and it was currently closed though, Anita asked if the three of them wanted to give pole dancing a try, just for the fun of it.

What followed, when they took her up on the offer of lessons, was hilarious. Jess was pretty good, but that wasn’t a surprise since she was pretty limber and had taken both dance and voice lessons in preparation for her future acting career. Melody was not a dancer though, and by the time her lesson was over I was starting to think she might just be hamming it up for the entertainment value. Carmen wasn’t terrible, but the exaggerated expressions on her face when she tried to look all sultry and mature had us all laughing our asses off.

It also got Adora giving Carmen pointers on how to be properly sultry, which had both the fifteen-year-old Healer and my sister taking mental notes. Carmen was actually kind of self-conscious about living with so many beautiful women and not having any idea about how to flirt or get boys to take an interest in her. She wasn’t interested in working at the club as anything but a Healer and doctor someday, but she sometimes compared herself unkindly to the beautiful women who worked at the club.

“You’re very pretty, Carmen,” Rhissa told her gently at one point. “Don’t compare yourself to us, with the right makeup and clothes, you’ll be a boy magnet, and we can teach you how to flirt and even turn a guy down if you’re not interested.”

“I’m pretty sure my mom would kill me if I tried dressing like most of you do outside of the club,” Carmen countered. “Lessons on not being a total spaz around cute boys would be nice though.”

“We wouldn’t let you dress like us either, Carmen,” Adora pointed out. “We’re all pretty focused on sex, but you’re too young to be trying to attract boys that way. You can be modest and still get a boy’s attention, just look at Rhissa. She has to wear long skirts all the time to hide her tail, so her style is more modest than ours, but she knows how to make that work in her favor.”

The conversation turned to various styles that could work for Carmen without being too slutty, and how she could flirt with boys without being awkward or coming on too strong. We kept chatting away until dinner and then the rest of the night was devoted to everyone in the club watching movies and playing board games together until it was time to put Sorcha, and later Selina to bed. Around eleven o’clock, Melody and I decided to call it a night and went to my room together.

As soon as we were both inside and getting out of our clothes, I awkwardly offered, “I’m sorry… about last night, Melody. I was feeling kind of miserable and unattractive, and I pushed you away because I was afraid that you wouldn’t be interested in… well, me when I’m like this and bleeding all over the place. I didn’t want you forcing yourself for my sake.”

By the time I finished my awkward apology, I was down to my panties and Melody firmly pushed me onto the bed where she kissed me so passionately that fireworks were going off in my brain and my body started to heat up from my pent-up desire for her. When she finally released me from the lip lock to come up for air, she gasped out. “Babe… you are never… unattractive. You are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met, and I love you, and desire you, no matter what.”

She leaned down, raining kisses upon my face, neck, and breasts as the fingers of her right hand slipped inside my panties to deftly press, rub, and flick at my love button until I exploded in orgasm. After that, she spent the next couple of hours showing me exactly how much pleasure she could give me without ever having to take my panties off. She didn’t take hers off either since it seemed that she had started her period earlier today as well. Fortunately for her, her Demon biology seemed to spare her the hell I was going through with mine.

I did my best to reciprocate and make her feel as good as she was making me feel using the same techniques until we were both spent. I was relaxed, feeling good, and happily snuggled with my girlfriend in bed once we had both gotten cleaned up a bit and changed our sanitary devices, just enjoying being held in her arms and feeling loved. Eventually, I dozed off and managed to get a few hours of sleep before I was awoken by the hellish cramps again. Thankfully, after casting the pain relief spell to make myself somewhat comfortable for a few more hours, I was able to quickly get back to sleep.