A moment later she entered the room and several things registered at once:  Her luminous smile as her brown eyes met mine; the way her heartbeat automatically sped up at the mere sight of me, her blood quickening in her veins as a result.  I registered, vaguely, that I’d been correct.  She was indeed wearing a new set of pajamas:  plain, blue cotton pants and a matching blue camisole that, when it came down to it, didn’t leave much to the imagination.   The fabric clung to her enticingly, showing off the perfectly round shape of her small but firm breasts and the creamy, delectable skin of her rounded shoulders, throat, and chest, which was heaving from her accelerated breathing.  A decidedly human  instinct arose in me then; a decidedly male human instinct at that, so powerful that it fought and struggled against the other instinct that had arisen in me at the exact same time:  the less human, more monstrous instinct that caused my throat to burn uncontrollably and the venom to pool in my mouth.

As I fought to control both extraordinarily powerful urges, I realized the reason that her scent, upon first entering her bedroom, had seemed so much more commanding than usual:  She was menstruating.   The scent washed over me like a tidal wave, blinding me, tossing me, pulling me into its depths.

I’d been around her while she was menstruating before, obviously.  Those days I had chosen to absent myself using hunting as my excuse.  However, this had been unexpected.  I’d just been with her at school today and her scent, while always ridiculously potent, hadn’t seemed any more alluring than normal.  I was caught unawares, frozen like a deer in the headlights, so to speak.  Should I leave?  Did I trust myself enough not to hurt her with the aroma of her feminine blood emanating from her, saturating the very air around her?

All this I cataloged in a matter of seconds.  She was just now moving toward me, her arms outstretched in greeting, that enticing smile lighting up her face.  The confusion of wanting to stay more than anything but needing to go more than anything, for her sake, tore through me, freezing me to the bed.