Page 1 of Unicorn Unashamed

Chapter One

Josh was bent over his desk, concentrating hard on his current design project, when he felt the beginnings of the itch. Just a niggling little ping in the back of his head to warn him of the upcoming nonsense that was about to take his body by storm. Or would try its damn best to do so, fighting the medications Josh took specifically to keep said storm at bay.

For Josh, it always started with feeling a little like his skin was too small. Then, of course, came the achy feeling and overall restlessness. Followed by his body happily doing everything it could to get itself ready for the fuck of its life.

Every eight weeks, like fucking clockwork.

Josh grumbled and decided to be stubborn. It wasn’t as though refusing to acknowledge the onset would stop it from happening, but god, it always managed to start at the most inopportune moments.

Having a regularly-occurring time of the month where your hormones went nuts, your scent turned stupidly enticing, and your body “prepared” itself for sex was probably the most annoying thing about being a unicorn shifter. Medical professionals had coined the term “the virile period” and the act of it was widely known as “going virile.” Which was plenty annoying in itself, for all the jokes made about the term on social media.

Most actual unicorn shifters, like Josh, pretty much just called it being Horny.

But going virile could also be near-debilitating. Far more than a simple annoyance that warranted a dumb nickname and some stupid jokes.

While the medical community had made some strides, especially in recent years, unicorn shifters were still rare enough that the scent blockers, libido inhibitors, and other tools they used to get through their virile periods could be hard to get prescriptions for. It also certainly didn’t help that some doctors were biased, deeming virile periods as “natural” and just something unicorn shifters “needed to learn to live with.”

It always made Josh mad, on behalf of his whole species. He in particular was one of the lucky ones. His virile periods only lasted a few days and weren’t that bad at all, even without prescription medications. For him, it really was just being extra horny for like three days. He still used libido inhibitors as needed though, since he preferred to work without the constant distraction of arousal, even if he had self control.

As for the scent blockers… those were to keep other people from losing their self control.

Josh had never had an issue before. Along with his virile periods not lasting very long or being very strong, the scent he produced during them was apparently below average in the alluring category. It was not something he was going to complain about. There were plenty of horror stories out there: people whose virile periods lasted a week or longer, who went so out of their minds with the need that it could turn into actual pain, or whose scent was so strong it attracted all sorts of the wrong kind of attention. The scent thing especially sucked, because it brought on way too fucking many, “oh, they were asking for it” and “why did you go out like that if you didn’t want it” flimsy as shit excuses and defenses.

Josh was among many unicorns who simply wore a scent blocker all the time, in order to keep people off his back. And even with his virile scent not being the strongest, he still wore a special heavy-duty scent blocker for when he went out on those days.

Most shifters who had really bad virile periods went on suppressants to stop it altogether, if they could convince their doctors to prescribe them. But suppressants had some issues all their own too. Being on them too long without taking a break to regulate the system could have serious side-effects.

Yeah, Josh considered himself very lucky indeed.

And right now, lucky meant that he could ignore the little warning signs and wait to get up, because he was in a creative groove and wanted to keep working.

Unfortunately, it was only a few minutes later that he could tell his body wasn’t having it. He could feel himself start to get wet, and no way was he going to put off dealing with that. Being able to skip fumbling for lube when stimulated properly was often a bonus. During his virile period, when the stimulation wasn’t required, it was mostly just an inconvenience. Especially because he’d get wet at the most inopportune moments possible.

Like right now. Forget the fact that soaking through a pair of underwear was gross—he was not about to let his favorite chair get drenched in pheromones.

Muttering unhappily about stupid biological imperatives, Josh set down his stylus and pushed away from his desk to head to his bedroom to grab a pair of briefs. The absorption pads he used to deal with the natural lubricant his body was all too happy to produce didn’t work well with boxers.

After he’d dealt with the pad, he swung by his bedroom to riffle through his medicine cabinet. He pulled out his little bottle of libido inhibitor and let the tablet dissolve under his tongue. It didn’t completely get rid of the urge to screw his responsibilities and find a partner immediately, but it kept the want at a manageable buzz. He left his scent blocker on the counter, as a reminder to apply it later. He wasn’t leaving his apartment until that afternoon, so there was no point in using it now. His insurance didn’t cover the higher-grade scent blockers on the market, so his wore off faster than he liked, and he had to be careful about timing applications, on top of applying it often. Just because his scent wasn’t the strongest didn’t mean he wanted to take chances.

With everything taken care of for the moment, Josh went back to his desk. He was working on a set of illustrations for a client for their book, and he was so close to being finished. He really wanted to get it all done before he went to brave the outdoors to go meet Raymond Campbell, his personal trainer.

Because Josh worked from home, having regular reasons to get out of the house was important, and scheduled physical activity helped combat the fact that he spent the majority of his time sitting at a desk. He had been going to Raymond’s studio every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about a year now, ever since he’d moved to Florida.

He’d found Raymond simply because he’d been searching by distance when looking for a personal trainer. He much preferred walking to driving, especially when it came to dealing with Florida drivers. Besides, during monsoon season where rain fell so heavily you could barely see out your windshield? Josh was not a fan. So finding Raymond’s studio only a few blocks away from his apartment was perfect.

Of course, convenience didn’t matter when it came to a personal trainer if you didn’t get along with them. Luckily, meeting Raymond had definitely sealed the deal. Raymond was great at what he did. He really put the “personal” part in personal training, knew how to work with Josh’s strengths and weaknesses, and treated Josh like his time and care was important.

The fact that he was charming, funny, and so handsome that Josh sometimes struggled not to be caught staring didn’t hurt.

Josh had to admit, if only to himself, that going to train with Raymond during his virile period wasn’t easy. Raymond was strong and solid, attractive in all the ways Josh was into, and so earnest and sweet that it kind of made Josh ache. The fact that he was a shifter too…

It was nice that most societies had come far enough that shifters didn’t have to live in secret anymore, and because of that, most people were upfront about being what they were. It was on Raymond’s personal bio that he was a werewolf—which was another reason Josh had been interested in him at first. He’d expected Raymond to know more about how to treat shifter body types and the abilities that came with them.

Josh tended to keep what type of shifter he was on the downlow. Unicorn shifters were incredibly rare, because the genes were recessive and picky. Not even having two unicorn parents guaranteed that the child would be a shifter too. Neither of Josh’s parents were unicorns and Josh’s own sister wasn’t even a shifter. Which had been fine for him, growing up because he’d been lucky enough to have a family that accepted him and did their research and tried their best to make him feel normal.

As normal as he could, anyway, what with all the stigma that came with being unusual. Much of which was connected to the virile period, unfortunately. “Pushy,” and “lacking control,” and “emotionally volatile” had been just a few of the stereotypes Josh had dealt with as he got older. Even now, he continued to deal with them sometimes.

“Easy to bed” and other shit along those lines was another stereotype that Josh wasn’t exactly fond of. Though he was a lot better now at dealing with people who were assholes about it. Certainly better than when he’d been a poor kid going through puberty.

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