Because, you know, I'm a pirate
04-29-2019, 12:20 PM
Corvus appeared not long after she had, and cleared his throat to draw her attention. Not that Peggy had needed to have her attention drawn, she was immediately aware of her friend's presence and her ears felt on fire from embarrassment. Guilt followed quickly on it's heels at the bewilderment in Cor's expression. Oh, hell.
Rhyme spoke to the... well, honestly, both the males were strangers to her, she was realizing more and more... two males who had come to the border, asking to have a word with her privately, and motioned for her to follow him. She found her gaze drawn to Ash as she stood to follow, like iron filings to a magnet she simply couldn't help but want to drink in the sight of him despite everything, but then she did a doubletake. He was wearing... something. She was at a loss as to what, exactly, to call the strange combination of brightly patterned fabric and a spikey leather harness. It really wasn't... armor, precisely, and it clashed ludicrously with her image of him as a noble, gentlemanly warrior, and sent her anxiety about this whole meeting rocketing skyward.
She followed Rhyme to the side, both relieved and embarrassed when Corvus followed at her pleading glance. As little as she wanted to explain this to her younger friend, she also didn't want to be explaining this any more often than she had to, so getting it all over with at once certainly seemed preferable. "Rhyme, Cor, I'm really sorry for all this," she said in a rush. "I know I haven't been a good packmate, or a friend, or a cousin, for a while now. I should have told people sooner. I just... I thought I was in love..." Was she? Even now, as upset as she was, she wanted to make excuses for Ash's behavior. That he just didn't understand, that he just wanted to protect her and the pups, that if she could just explain things better he'd understand why she couldn't leave Abaven and he'd be ok with it. The larger part of her saw the warning signs in bright neon and wasn't at all ok with the way this was going... but that small part of her that thrilled at his attention still set her heart fluttering at the thought of him. She knew his name now, thanks to Rhyme, and that small part of her clutched it close to her. Ashmedai. But the practical, logical side of her kept drawing her attention back to all the little red flags, and the big ones, that he kept throwing up at her, and she couldn't help but be wary.
"I thought he loved me," she continued in a small voice. A contraction took her breath away, this one longer and harder than the ones earlier, and made her lose focus for a long moment, and she had to close her eyes through it. Another week or two of this? Really? "I told him I would think about it when he made his offer for me to live in Legion. I thought he'd give me more time. I don't want anyone to get hurt because I made a mistake," she said as the contraction passed and she could focus again. A slip of the tongue, a phrased loosed from her by the distraction of the pain, but now that she had said it she could look at it and examine it and decided yes, yes it had been a mistake. This whole thing had been a mistake. She'd been a naive little fluffhead and all those consequences she'd conveniently forgotten were coming home to roost all at once. "I don't want anyone fighting over me. I'm sure it won't come to that. Ash will understand..." she hesitated, then held herself up straighter, lifting her head and firming her jaw, turning so that she faced Ash and his brother-alpha-of-Legion as well as her own packmates, and raised her voice so they could hear her determined words. "I don't want to leave Abaven. This is my home. My family is here, my friends are here, and my responsibilities are here. I belong in this pack, not Legion, and I want my pups to grow up here, where they'll be safe and happy."
Despite all the bumps along the way - the Abraxas occupation, Sparrow's capitulation and later her death which ended the occupation but brought a new set of troubles with an unknown alpha and a whole spat of new wolves, the whole thing with Rhyme and Shaye - Abaven was home to her. She'd grown up with stories of it, and it was all she had left of her mother. She'd grown protective of the pack and everyone in it, and she was determined to work her way up to lead warrior and beyond. She wasn't going to give that up just because Ash asked her to. Once he understood that, he'd stop being so pushy.
Her confident, determined pose was somewhat spoiled as another long, painful contraction hit. As she closed her eyes against it she felt the flutter of panic she'd repressed earlier return with a vengeance. This was much faster and more painful than the contractions all week had been. Had she actually been in labor all day? But this was too soon for her to be in labor, wasn't it? She still had at least another week or two before she was due.
""
Rhyme spoke to the... well, honestly, both the males were strangers to her, she was realizing more and more... two males who had come to the border, asking to have a word with her privately, and motioned for her to follow him. She found her gaze drawn to Ash as she stood to follow, like iron filings to a magnet she simply couldn't help but want to drink in the sight of him despite everything, but then she did a doubletake. He was wearing... something. She was at a loss as to what, exactly, to call the strange combination of brightly patterned fabric and a spikey leather harness. It really wasn't... armor, precisely, and it clashed ludicrously with her image of him as a noble, gentlemanly warrior, and sent her anxiety about this whole meeting rocketing skyward.
She followed Rhyme to the side, both relieved and embarrassed when Corvus followed at her pleading glance. As little as she wanted to explain this to her younger friend, she also didn't want to be explaining this any more often than she had to, so getting it all over with at once certainly seemed preferable. "Rhyme, Cor, I'm really sorry for all this," she said in a rush. "I know I haven't been a good packmate, or a friend, or a cousin, for a while now. I should have told people sooner. I just... I thought I was in love..." Was she? Even now, as upset as she was, she wanted to make excuses for Ash's behavior. That he just didn't understand, that he just wanted to protect her and the pups, that if she could just explain things better he'd understand why she couldn't leave Abaven and he'd be ok with it. The larger part of her saw the warning signs in bright neon and wasn't at all ok with the way this was going... but that small part of her that thrilled at his attention still set her heart fluttering at the thought of him. She knew his name now, thanks to Rhyme, and that small part of her clutched it close to her. Ashmedai. But the practical, logical side of her kept drawing her attention back to all the little red flags, and the big ones, that he kept throwing up at her, and she couldn't help but be wary.
"I thought he loved me," she continued in a small voice. A contraction took her breath away, this one longer and harder than the ones earlier, and made her lose focus for a long moment, and she had to close her eyes through it. Another week or two of this? Really? "I told him I would think about it when he made his offer for me to live in Legion. I thought he'd give me more time. I don't want anyone to get hurt because I made a mistake," she said as the contraction passed and she could focus again. A slip of the tongue, a phrased loosed from her by the distraction of the pain, but now that she had said it she could look at it and examine it and decided yes, yes it had been a mistake. This whole thing had been a mistake. She'd been a naive little fluffhead and all those consequences she'd conveniently forgotten were coming home to roost all at once. "I don't want anyone fighting over me. I'm sure it won't come to that. Ash will understand..." she hesitated, then held herself up straighter, lifting her head and firming her jaw, turning so that she faced Ash and his brother-alpha-of-Legion as well as her own packmates, and raised her voice so they could hear her determined words. "I don't want to leave Abaven. This is my home. My family is here, my friends are here, and my responsibilities are here. I belong in this pack, not Legion, and I want my pups to grow up here, where they'll be safe and happy."
Despite all the bumps along the way - the Abraxas occupation, Sparrow's capitulation and later her death which ended the occupation but brought a new set of troubles with an unknown alpha and a whole spat of new wolves, the whole thing with Rhyme and Shaye - Abaven was home to her. She'd grown up with stories of it, and it was all she had left of her mother. She'd grown protective of the pack and everyone in it, and she was determined to work her way up to lead warrior and beyond. She wasn't going to give that up just because Ash asked her to. Once he understood that, he'd stop being so pushy.
Her confident, determined pose was somewhat spoiled as another long, painful contraction hit. As she closed her eyes against it she felt the flutter of panic she'd repressed earlier return with a vengeance. This was much faster and more painful than the contractions all week had been. Had she actually been in labor all day? But this was too soon for her to be in labor, wasn't it? She still had at least another week or two before she was due.
""
