no news is good news

Samara agreed to be my mate. Theory hiccuped slightly on the turkey she was wolfing down, but she smiled around the meat. So many thoughts rushed through her mind at once. Shaye, Tana, the split litters of her and her siblings... The torch Rhyme held for Shaye, even after she had denied him. There had been real love there. She could see it again now, brimming in his eyes. It was almost enough to make her cry. Images of Rhyme and Shaye played on loop in her head as Theory closed her eyes in thought and swallowed the last chunk she'd torn off the carcass. "I'm so happy for you." Oh, her eyes were stinging. Theory swallowed hard. It felt like there was a chunk of gristle stuck deep in her throat that she couldn't work past. No matter what she did, it wouldn't move. ... we're expecting. Spring had just arrived. Wasn't it fitting that he announced more new life?

It was frightening, the idea of more siblings. She hadn't done so well the first time around. No matter how she tried to frame it, she couldn't help but feel that she'd let down Verse and Noir. "I... I don't know what to say," she said softly. "I mean - not in a bad way, just, a surprised way," Theo blathered on. She was making a real mess of this. Huffing in annoyance, she settled her chin down on her paws and looked up at her father with worry. "I just worry I'm not ready for this. Poem and Motif and I learned how to support each other, but I can't help but think I really, well, fucked things up with Verse and Noir." Neither remained in Abaven. Both, she was sure, hated her. "I feel like I just figured out how to be a good sister and a passable alpha. It's all so much. I spent all of last year worrying my ears off about Eulogy's brood, and Vail's orphans." It was in her nature to take the lion's share of worry onto her plate. Theory was so caught up in her own head that she didn't pause to think about the reality of the situation: Rhyme and Samara were here and they were ready and excited to raise their litter.