Dang it, woman

Ulric sat, staring at the floor, listening to Aranea wretch and vomit up all of the contents of her stomach, still listening to all of the thoughts and anger that were swirling in his mind. He was angry at her for all of this, for whatever she had done to herself and what could potentially be their children, but he was also mostly angry at himself. He had been weak, too weak to fight his own emotions and lusts, and he had given into her. He felt like he was at fault, even though there was still plenty of room to leave the blame on her as well. The self deprecation ran deep and true, tearing in apart from the inside.

Eventually the sounds seemed to stop and he glanced up to watch Gwynevere pour some water for Aranea before going to get some other kind of herb. He didn't know what any of the herbs were or what they did, he just trusted that the healer knew what she was doing. He did notice how Gwyn didn't give her the second one right away, but was distracted from that fact as Aranea spoke for the first time since the mumbled attempt she made back by the lake, listening as she told Gwyn that she overdosed on some plant he'd never heard of. Khat? What was Khat?

Gwynevere's raven provided an answer. A drug - one that was terrible for pregnancies. His teeth grit together as he stared at Aranea, biting back the building anger. It confirmed what he had assumed. She was trying to kill the pups and probably herself along with them. His claws scraped across the stone floor as his chest squeezed painfully tight. It wasn't just this one thing. It was losing Azariah and Everlyse, it was knowing his mother died alone without him, it was the inner turmoil Aranea had caused with drawing him in despite the fact that she had a family that needed her, it was watching his mentor and friend deteriorate and die, it was watching the entire Carpathius family suffer and not being able to help them, it was watching his own family suffer and not being able to help them either, it was Emile pulling away and practically disappearing more and more from his life, it was feeling like he'd never be worthy of filling this role that he had been placed into. And now there was knowing that pups that could have been his were most assuredly gone. Because this woman that had twisted his life apart had decided that's what should be done.

He was trembling with anger as he pushed himself to his paws and walked out of the room, walking out of the castle grounds and out past the plains. At this point he hoped he ran into another one of those extra dire wolf bastards. He wanted something he could rip apart, something he could take his anger out on that wouldn't come back to haunt him later.

Ulric Adravendi