It Started With a Scent

Nine Pounds

She had put on nine pounds in the last couple of days.

It wasn't something she was particularly upset about, it just meant that her doctor commented on it when she went for a checkup and proceeded to question her about her love life.

Lying didn't even cross her mind and she told the doctor that she was bonded.

She didn't usually fluctuate in size, not even when she was on her heat and ate her whole weight in ice cream. So, the fact that she had put on nine pounds in such a small amount of time was interesting to say the least.

"Is it a serious bonding?" The doctor asked. "Will you and your alpha be spending your next heat together? If so, we can start you on a plan now for-"

Rachael ignored the pang in her chest when the man referred to Jason as her alpha. "No, no. It's not serious," she said, not revealing the fact that it was an accidental bond, not to mention unrequited, "we're actually in the process of dissolving it."

The doctor raised an eyebrow, "dissolving it?" He murmured, like he didn't understand what the word meant. "Yet you're putting on weight?" He scribbled something down on his notepad and asked her to hop off the scale.

"Is that bad?" She asked, nervously shimmying back into her coat.

The doctor gave an absent hum and shook his head, "so you'll be on some low power suppressants for the next few weeks, let me go grab them."

His words didn't do much to placate her newly founded worries.

She signed the form telling the hospital that she knew the risks of suppressants and the like. She had signed the forms hundreds of times in the past, so she barely read through the small print before scribbling her signature on the dotted line.

When the doctor came back with the suppressants, she took them from him with a grateful smile.

"Thanks," she said.

"Will there be anything else, Miss Martin? Any questions?"

"I do have a question about my weight gain," she started. "You sounded surprised that I was putting on weight even though I'm in the middle of having my mate bond dissolved. Is that not meant to happen?"

The doctor tapped his foot on the ground and made another humming noise, packing up the equipment that he had taken out for Rachael's appointment.

"Usually dissolving a mating bond causes weight loss, especially for someone like you with a high metabolism. However it's nothing to worry about, it's possible that you're gaining weight due to a combination of being bonded and having your heat in just under a month. Other than the weight gain, you may find yourself experiencing nesting symptoms."

She wasn't any stranger to what nesting was. It was that feeling she had when she was babysitting Liam, to cluck around him and make lots of food, cover surfaces with soft, plushy cushions and blankets and swaddle them both up.

"Right, well thanks again."

It took her about an hour to get home after that and she was thankful when her apartment finally came into view. Jogging the rest of the way towards the building, she climbed up the stairs to her front door as fast as she could.

She slammed the door behind her, preventing the air from seeping out into the frigid hallway, and simultaneously dashed the bag of suppressants down on her coffee table. It was with a collapse on her sofa that she noticed the condensation that escaped from her nostrils as she breathed.

It was almost depressing that being inside her apartment was no better than being outside, and she vowed to herself that her next house would have good insulation.