46. If the Daylight Feels a Long Way Off

"Um, Lena...are you just happy to see me or...are you starting your rut?"

As soon as the words left Andrea's mouth, Lena knew it was the truth. The combination of the epic Board battle with her brother, mother, and evil members, followed by hearing Kara's voice, and her decision to go to Sydney, and her...fantasies about Kara. Not to mention the idea that Kara could become pregnant, which was always in the back of her mind. She tried not to focus on it, but the idea that she might be made Lena feel lowkey on guard and anxious to be so far away from her. It all added up to trigger her into an early rut.

But none of that was helpful as she stared at Andrea, her skin peaking from her clothes in all the right places, her mouth gaping open in shock. As Andrea's body was reacting to her and giving off receptive pheromones, Lena's alpha was getting even more excited. Not only that, but Andrea had been a regular sex and even heat partner for Lena, and not surprisingly her body had every expectation that was about to happen again.

Andrea moved as if drawn by a magnet towards Lena, where she sat at the head of the long table on the far side of the room.

"Lena, it's going to be OK. I'm here. I'm going to help you through it. Just like old times."

Lena's body was saying yes, full speed ahead. Her mind and her heart were fighting back, telling her she had to stop. Lena held up her hands as if to fend off attack.

"Andrea, please. Don't come closer. You need to...you need to leave. Please." Lena's thoughts were getting hazy, she was starting to see red, her body wracked with need.

"That's not what you want, Lena. I know you. And you know how good we are together."

"I'm with Kara now. Everything has changed." Lena said, feeling desperate at the way her body was responding. "At least, I have."

"And Kara is 10,000 miles away right now. You think she wants you to suffer? If she really loves you..."

Andrea moved forward slowly until she was next to Lena. Andrea's scent was intensifying and calling out to her.

"This doesn't have to mean anything. Just let me take care of you, baby."

"You...need to go...now." Lena was struggling. She already had a raging hard-on and it was getting to be painful.

"You don't mean that. I can smell how much you don't mean that...how much you want this..." Andrea went down on her knees in front of Lena.

"Don't make me beg, Lena. You know I miss our times together. We've always been so good." Andrea's hand went to Lena's knee and began sliding up.

"Andrea, just...please stop...you need to...you have to go!"

"No one has ever fucked me like you. No one compares. And I promise, no one ever has to know about this. You know I'm completely discrete. And no strings attached."

Lena was at full-on war with her body, her body's drive to fuck, knot, breed, and the assault on her senses in front of her. She closed her eyes as Andrea's hand moved higher. She thought about Kara, and part of her argued that she would understand - that it was a freak situation, unpredictable, it didn't mean anything.

"You know I don't want anything from you. You can have me and your precious soccer star. We can even pretend this is the last time. It's a win-win...all I want is this..."

At that moment the tips of Andrea's nails reached and teased over Lena's covered cock. Lena squeezed her eyes shut and her mind flashed to Kara's face, pulling her out of the fog of her rut. She knew in the moment she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she did anything that she knew could hurt Kara.

"Stop!" Lena gripped Andrea's wrist and jerked her hand away.

"You have to go..." Lena growled. The sound caused Andrea's eyes to go dark, but she froze her movements.

"You want this Lena...stop pretending...give me what I want. What you want..." Andrea looked her in the eye and licked her lips slowly, then looked pointedly down at her cock.

Lena closed her eyes again, keeping a strong grip on Andrea's wrist. She stretched with her other hand to hit the intercom button.

"Jess...can you...come to the board room? I need..." Lena's brain was hazy, she just let the button go without finishing her sentence, knowing that Jess would be there in a minute without further instruction.

Andrea looked up at Lena, her eyes narrowed in fury. "I can't believe you're really doing this."

She stood to her feet, now looking down at Lena who still sat in her chair. Andrea leaned down and kissed Lena harshly on the mouth, more teeth than lips, then jerked away and smacked her hard across the face.

Lena recoiled at the unexpected pain, but managed to control herself and not strike back, despite her roiling alpha.

"You put me in this state, and now you refuse to fuck me...because of a girl? You can just... go fuck yourself."

Lena kept her eyes on Andrea. "You got that part right...but she's not just a girl." Lena closed her eyes as she pulled herself together.

"If we're going to stay friends...you have to show her respect." Lena was still struggling against her driving desire to fuck the beautiful omega, but she needed to make that point. She stood to her feet and stepped towards Andrea menacingly.

"If you speak about her like that again..."

At that moment Jess came through the door, clearly having rushed down the hall from her desk outside Lena's office, alarmed by the sound of her voice on the phone.

"Ms. Luthor, I wasn't sure what you said you needed..." Her voice dropping off at the sight of Andrea.

Andrea jerked around and glared at her. "Ah yes, the loyal assistant. I'll leave you to it then. Maybe she can help with your...situation."

Lena and Jess watched as Andrea stomped out and slammed the door. Lena immediately sat back down, feeling dizzy with the pheromones raging in her body.

"Jess, thanks for coming so quickly....I'm fine...I just need..." Lena stuttered. "Just, please go...it's been a long day...go...home...now!"

Jess's eyes went wide at the state of her boss. She seemed to understand that there was nothing she could or should do. "Ok, Ms. Luthor, um...have a good night!"

Jess backed out of the room and closed the door. Lena turned to the conference table and let her head fall on it. She waited until she felt sure Jess would have gone home and then rushed to her own office.

Digging around in her desk drawer she found her stash of emergency blocker meds and tossed them back with a glass of whiskey. After that she made her way to her couch and laid down to endure the difficult process her body would have to go through. She downed another shot of whiskey and laid back and closed her eyes tight against the pain. The best thing she could do at this point would be to sleep while her body went to war with the blocker drugs she'd just taken.

The intensity of long confrontation with the Board, followed by the intense exchange with Andrea, and two shots of whiskey eventually allowed her to drift off.

As she slipped into unconsciousness her dreams merged into rut dreams, which were different than her typical dreams which tended to be unrealistic, with floating and strange situations and stories that could be difficult to make sense of later.

Lena's rut dreams tended to be very realistic, no flying or floating, or ethereal and impossible things happening. No, her rut dreams, fueled by her pheromones and the intense drives of her body, tended to be almost painfully realistic and graphic.

Lena twitched as she slipped into a dream. Fantasy, really, in which she dreamed of waking up on the very office coach she had passed out on. In her dream she sat up anxiously and looked around. It was the same time of day that it was when she'd gone to sleep, with the sun piercing her eyes as it slowly slipped over the horizon, the room darkening around her.

"Lena. You're awake..." Within her dream Lena jolted a bit at the sound of Kara's voice. She looked over to see Kara leaning against her desk, wearing the same skimpy dress that she had after winning the national championship.

"You're here...I thought you had a big match tonight."

"It got delayed."

Thank god. Lena thought. It didn't really make sense to Lena, but since it was a dream she didn't worry about it too much. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Me too. You smell amazing right now." Kara was practically making a purring sound with her words.

"So do you." Lena whispered and tried to think and speak as normally as possible given the roaring in her ears. She was worried about scaring Kara.

"Is that your lucky dress?" Lena asked the dream Kara, trying to sound calm.

"You mean because I wore it the night of the championship?" Kara said with a sly grin.

Lena just nodded, her eyes never leaving the sight of her dream Kara.

"Yes, I guess it is. But then again who knows. Maybe you'll be the one getting lucky tonight..." Dream Kara said with a wink. Lena noticed that she could hear Kara's words, but her mouth wasn't always moving, another weird thing of dreams that didn't really register fully as it went on.

"Oh god, I hope so." At that point Lena couldn't hold back, she rose and went to Kara. Without saying anything she took Kara's hand, kissed her palm, then squeezed it, then turned her and pressed her hand down on the desk. The smooth motion caused Kara to now be facing the desk.

Lena was so hard already, the maneuver caused the head of her cock to drag over the delicious soft/firmness of Kara's ass, causing Kara to gasp in anticipation.

"Oh please Lena..." She murmured. "I can feel you already... and your scent makes me want to fall on my knees."

"Shhh. Gonna take care of you." Lena hissed into her ear. She found that even in her dream she was struggling with words. Instead she moved her hand up the back of Kara's spine until her fingers reached Kara's hair. She luxuriated her fingers through Kara's mane until the tips reached her scalp. At that point she gripped tightly and pushed her head down roughly against the desk.

Kara keened with want. The move caused her to bend over and forced her ass even harder against Lena's cock. A moment later Lena jerked her hair slightly, causing Kara's back to arch. She pushed back against Lena to grind into her bulge.

"Give it to me..." Kara pleaded in a low voice and that was all it took for Lena to stop her slow pace and hesitation, if you could call it that at all. With her free hand she slid her thumb under the hem of Kara's dress, pushing it up over her ass until she could reach to top of her panties. She slid her nails inside the top of them and pulled them quickly over her round cheeks.

"Oh god yes." Lena said at the sight of Kara's beautiful ass. She teased her fingers down and inside, between her cheeks, delicately fingering her pink hole, then lower until she reached her soaked folds.

"Don't tease." Kara rasped. At that Lena couldn't wait another moment. She moved her fingers to release her belt and unzip her pants. She quickly reached to take out her cock. She maneuvered at first between Kara's cheeks to remind her of that intense stretch of her ass and the potential that could happen again, then eased lower, eventually breaching inside, finally reaching what she most desired.

"Oh fuck yes." Kara breathed more than said as Lena began to move inside. Lena luxuriated in the hot, wet and squeezing pressure of at last sliding inside Kara. She began, steady, slow thrusting to ease Kara into the stretch, then increased her pace as Kara cried for more. Before long she felt her knot forming and soon banging against Kara's ass, which meant she couldn't bury herself as deep.

"Inside, Lena." Kara gasped, also seeming to having trouble with sentences. "Your knot...fucking do it."

Lena cried out as she thrusted hard enough to pop inside. Her alpha rejoiced as they tied. She could feel Kara wracked with relieved sobs as Lena laid down over her back. Moments later she began to release, but somehow the euphoria of knotting and releasing during rut didn't follow. The next thing she knew there was a loud ringing coming from somewhere.

The ringing jerked her out of her rut dream. She sat up to realize she wasn't bending Kara over a desk, but still on her couch with a tight grip on her cock. The disappointment crashed over her as she realized why she wasn't getting relief. Her rapidly forming knot wasn't sunk into Kara, only her own fist. Even so, she could feel the medication starting to help and ease some of the intense pain of needing to fuck, knot, and breed.

She looked around for her phone, which she realized was the cause of the jarring end to her dream. She saw Sam had called and suddenly remembered she was supposed to be coming over so they could watch the match together. She quickly pulled herself together to call, hoping she could still save her the trip. Sam picked up on the first.

"Hey Lena." Sam said cheerfully.

"Hey, are you headed over already?"

"Yes, just on my way out, called to see if I should bring anything."

"Glad I caught you. I'm sorry, I...can't do it tonight."

"Everything OK?"

"Yes I just...started my rut. Took some blockers but still have a couple more hours before they fully take effect."

"Oh no! Are you OK?"

"Not really, you know how it is. I'll be fine though." Lena took a deep breath, her hormones making her talk more honestly. "God, Sam, I came so close to...Andrea was here and..."

"Oh hell, Lena! What did she do? I mean...what did you do?"

"Nothing! Nothing happened. Just my body trying to override my brain. In the end I...I knew Kara would understand, but knew it would hurt her. That realization...stopped me cold. I just never want to do something that I know will hurt her. Still...the whole thing was...really intense and it never should have..." Lena said.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Lena. This is a good thing. The old you never would have held out like that. This is a huge breakthrough for you!"

"If you say so."

"I do say so." Sam insisted and Lena couldn't help but chuckle, despite the pain still wracking her body.

"So you're going to miss the match?"

"No, I'm just going to lay low here. I'm not ready to see anyone. I'll just try to rest more and watch from here while I wait out the meds."

"OK. Call me later if you feel like it. I'll be here watching alone. Trying to catch a glimpse of my girlfriend on the sideline on the other side of the world."

"You poor baby. It's rough when your girlfriend is a gorgeous doctor helping players at the World Cup."

"Isn't it though?" Sam laughed, sounding sufficiently smug.

"'Night, Sam." Lena said, hanging up.

***

Kara thought the team was more than ready for the match that night. They would be playing Chile who they should be able to beat comfortably but she could tell no one was taking it lightly. The extra nerves and awkwardness of their first World Cup match were behind them. There was an intensity on each of the player's faces as she looked around the locker room just before the match.

Even Sara was being unusually serious. No rousing, joking cheer to send them off. Just straight talk about what they needed to do.

After only two times up and down the field, Lucy and Kara went on a run and managed to cover half the field kicking back and forth between them. As they got closer to the goal Lucy sent Kara a kick that went wide. The US crowd groaned in dismay, thinking the ball was headed out of bounds. But somehow Kara managed to get to it, going into a full body slide to save the ball. Not only that, she managed to send it within shooting distance of Imra. Imra was ready, and caught the other team off guard - everyone assumed the ball would be out and they'd have a moment to re-group. Instead Imra kicked a blazingly fast shot from a long way off from the goal for a score.

The team and their crowd erupted in excitement. Kara was exhilarated and her step felt a much lighter to have a point under their belt this early on.

After that the teams went back and forth, with the US team taking a lot more shots on goal, but none quite making it. Even so, the other team also failed to make one either. The score was 1-0 at halftime.

In the locker room Sara gave them a fiery pep talk, demanding that they not become complacent and reminding them that one point from the other team and they would be in overtime with a tie score.

"We need some goddamn cushion! You women are going to give me a heart attack at this rate." She said.

Kara sat resolving to make that score happen. They all cheered and encouraged each other on the way back to the field. But when they got back out to there nothing came together for them for most of the second half. They held the other team scoreless, with Ava making some great saves in goal, but the offense couldn't seem to deliver that cushion point, making them all on edge with worry that they might end up in overtime.

It wasn't until the end, the last 3 minutes, when Esperanza came through with a perfect assist to Kate for the score. After that the Chilean team lost all their fight, knowing that 2 scores in the final minutes against a team like that was nearly impossible. Kara and her teammates stayed completely focused though, until the final buzzer. Then they all seemed to leap into the air at once before running for a massive group hug. Kara eventually pulled herself out of the mob to run to hug Alex, lifting her briefly into the air as Alex grunted.

"Nice work, Supergirl." She said as they bumped fists and followed with exploding fingers

"Couldn't do it without you, Sis." Kara beamed.

"Stronger together." Alex offered.

"Stronger together." Kara nodded, then took off for the locker room to celebrate with her teammates.

On the ride back to the hotel a couple of messages came through from Lena.

LL: Congrats on the match!LL: You were amazing, as always.KD: Thanks Lena :)KD: Did you have a watch party with Sam?LL: Not exactly. Was a bit indisposed.KD: ??LL: Long story.

When they arrived at the hotel Kara hopped off the shuttle and called Lena from the parking lot.

"Hey baby." Lena picked up after the first ring.

"Hey." Kara said, suddenly feeling breathless at the sound of Lena's voice. "Is everything OK?"

"Yes, just, it's been a day, you might say."

"Your voice sounds...so deep." Kara could feel her pulse racing and felt a little hot.

"Yes that's...well my...my rut triggered early..."

Kara felt herself clench harshly at the thought. "Oh fuck..."

"Yeah, so, like I said...I'm a bit indisposed...the blockers are hitting me pretty hard."

"What...caused you to trigger early?"

"I was pretty worked up for the Board meeting. All that time surrounded by alphas letting off dominant pheromones, trying to intimidate me..."

"Fat chance of that." Kara interrupted.

"Yes, well. Afterwards I talked with you, and Sam,...then Andrea came to see me, and then it hit me...the room was so hot and..."

"You mean..." Kara felt a stab of jealousy like a knife to her gut. "Andrea...triggered your rut?"

"What? No, I...I mean it was difficult the way she came at me, so determined, but it was just...my body was remembering past times when we were together..."

She couldn't escape the mental image of Lena going through a rut with Andrea. "Damn it, Lena, just...I don't..."

"Kara, I'm sorry. You know how I get during rut...I just start talking and lose my filters, especially with you..."

"I don't want you to filter with me. I can handle it, Lena. Just...tell me. I want to know what happened."

"There's nothing to tell."

"You just said Andrea came at you."

"Yes but, no, nothing happened. I just struggled for a moment because of rut brain. We have a history of being heat partners...my body just...went into automatic...only for a moment..."

"Fuck." Kara said, feeling dismayed and confused.

"I...thought of you. Pictured your face. And knew I could never, I mean I would never want to do something that might hurt you. It was just a fleeting moment of my body moving into overdrive without my mind. My heart. You're all I want. All I could ever want."

Kara got quiet for a while. She trusted Lena, but it was a tough visual to overcome.

"Kara." Lena whispered, her voice still very deep. "Please say something."

"I trust you, Lena. Of course I do. I'm sorry, my brain just went to a bad place. I think my omega was not at all happy to hear you started your rut while I'm so far away. And then imagining Andrea triggered you..."

"Which she didn't." Lena interrupted. "Kara, it was talking to you! Thinking about being with you. The Board meeting got me all amped up, then Sam talking about coming to...well I wanted to talk to you about maybe coming to Sydney. For the finals..."

"Really!?"

"Only if it you want me to. If I wouldn't be a bother."

"Of course I want you to!" Kara nearly squealed. "I thought you wouldn't be able to, with all that's going on with Lex and Tokyo and..."

"I know, but the meeting today went so well. There's time get Lex squares away before the Finals. At least for the time being, so if you..."

"Yes. I want you to. Of course I do."

"I know we probably can't spend time together, but I'd really like to at least be there if you..."

"Win the World Cup?"

"I was going to say go to the Finals."

"Or both." Kara laughed, she was feeling a bit giddy at the thought of Lena being there. "I can't wait."

"Me too." Lena sighed wistfully. "Listen, Kara, I think I better hang up. I'm supposed to be letting the blockers run this out of my system. Talking to you, thinking about seeing you, is not helping me block my rut. And I need to get out of the office soon, before people start arriving for work."

"Right. OK." Kara said, feeling sorry they couldn't talk longer. The sound of Lena's rut-inflected voice was making her feel desperate to be near her, even if it was only hearing her voice. But she knew Lena needed space to come down from her surging hormones.

"OK, I'll let you go." Kara said a bit glumly. "But before we hang up, just, I'm sorry about earlier. Getting upset about Andrea. You know I trust you, it's just...hard to be so far away from you."

"I know. And it's OK, Kara. We're still somewhat slaves to our instincts, even though we're able to overcome them. I know it's not about whether you trust me or not. Surely you understand that I don't want anyone else."

"And I don't want anyone else to touch you."

Kara heard an almost groaning sound from Lena and felt herself clench again. She forced herself not to respond.

"You're the only one, baby." Lena whispered. "Now I really have to go."

"Bye Lena."

"Bye, darling."

Kara hung up and made her way to her hotel room. Despite the win their coach had forbidden any partying, and she found Lucy lounging on the bed in their room watching "Everything Sucks" as she made her way in and flopped down next to her.

"Hey, you don't look like a woman who has just advanced another step closer to world soccer domination." Lucy commented.

Kara smiled and reminded herself she should be celebrating. "Sorry. I just found out..." Her voice died out.

"What?" Lucy sat up, looking concerned. "Are you OK?"

"It's nothing, really."

"You can't just...Kara, what the fuck happened?"

Kara chastised herself for accidentally bringing it up with Lucy, but realized she would never let it go and she may as well confess.

"It's just...Lena just started her rut and..."

Lucy broke out in laughter. "Oh my god, Kara, you are ridiculous! I thought something was really wrong. You had me worried."

"I know! I know. It's just...it's really hard to be so far from her knowing how much she must be suffering right now."

"Damn, girl. You've got it bad."

"I know." She said wistfully. "And I feel like an idiot for getting upset."

"You're not an idiot, Kara. If it's really true that you're soulmates, well, it's no wonder you're on edge, being so far away during her rut. I can imagine it leads to a lot of unwanted thoughts."

"You got that right." Kara huffed.

"So...what's she doing about it?"

"She took blockers." Kara added. "After fending off an attack from a former lover..."

"What?" Lucy seemed to think better of her question. "Well, she's a strong woman..."

"I know!"

"I didn't mean that in a bad way. She's in love with you! Really. Seeing her with you in Florida before the trip...it was just written all over her face. You've got nothing to worry about."

"I know." Kara said, letting out an exasperated breath. "I really do. It's just a gut reaction."

"Totally understandable. I'm sure I'd feel the same if something like that happened with James." Lucy reassured her. "Now let's order some of that terrible ice cream from room service and get our netflix on."

"Yeah. You're right, of course." Kara said, laying back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly she remembered what Lena had said about coming to Sydney.

"Oh, and if we make it to the finals, Lena's coming to Sydney..."

"What? Really?"

"Yep!"

"Well, I guess you don't get to be a billionaire CEO without knowing how to motivate people." Lucy smirked.

"Guess not." Kara said, smiling to herself.

***

The next day the team had an intense practice, but it was over earlier than usual since they wouldn't be having a game for several days and their coach wanted them to recover. Kara was surprised to see Alex in the locker room when she came out of the showers. Alex gave her a look that made it clear she should stay so they could talk.

Kara walked over to Lucy and said: "I'll catch up with you at the hotel. I need to talk to Alex. She can give me a ride back."

"Why does that sound so ominous?"

"Just reacting to Alex's face, I guess. Something's up." Kara said. "I'll fill you in later, whatever it is."

"OK. Later dude."

Kara took her time getting dressed and packing her bag, dreading whatever shoe Alex was getting ready to drop. She had disappeared into the office and then reappeared after the room cleared. Kara looked at her wide-eyed as she came into the room.

"It's time, Kara. It's been two weeks since..." Kara watched Alex pull out a plastic receptacle. "I thought it'd be better to do here, instead of the hotel."

"Is that...?"

"Yes. Pregnancy test."

"Oh, fuck."