This is the beat of my heart

She could hear as something crawled down into her den and her ears flattened. She'd known that slavers took pups before they had even suckled from their mothers and instinctively she shifted, hiding the child inside her chest fur as best as possible. She knew if that's what it was she couldn't stop them but she held out hope it wasn't.

As Rhyme entered the den her tense body visibly relaxed a bit. Obviously not fully able to as the pain of labor kept her slightly tense. Pain had drove her to think the worst things but could anyone blame her? She was born a slave, with only one purpose, even as a free woman she could never truly forget that. His question had an obvious answer but she answered anyway. "As well as you might think." she returned her attention to her son and nosed him to her test gentle as she could.

Rhyme praised her but she didn't answer as another contraction came and she clenched her teeth. Sure he'd been over the herbs with her, but with her own noseblind affliction it was hard to even think of which herb is which. She shook her head through clenched teeth. She didn't trust herself to even attempt to use the herbs without supervision. As the contraction ebbed away she relaxed a little more. She was already tired but she was only one pup in.