Oh my god I can't believe I forgot to mention that somewhere in the fic (thank you for reminding me lol it had literally slipped my mind). In the TSOS verse, the wolves have their rut/heat cycles every three months, although they're stronger in the summer/autumn so a lot of pups are born in the springtime. In this verse, they're not as dire or deliberating as some omegaverse stories, like they can still function and aren't rendered mindless or completely desperate, it's just a part of life for them and most packs have ways of dealing with them to make them both comfortable and as unintrusive to daily routine as possible. Mated pairs may experience stronger cycles when they've first mated (gotta breed lol). Outside forces can also affect the frequency/intensity of a heat or rut, like extreme grief or poor health and malnutrition causing the body to skip cycles, or being suddenly introduced to lots of new wolves triggering an early cycle etc etc. It's not really a big part of this fic, but it does play a part eventually.