Deathless Death

He sighed looked away as Aranea called to him with her first mate's name, clearly more delirious than he had even originally guessed, unable to look at her emaciated, frail form that was somehow still swollen with what he had come to accept was their pups, frantically trying to reach him under the belief that he was the man that had originally broken her. He remembered her telling him about Tyranis, how he his heart had broken for her, how he had wanted to fix her the same way he tried to fix Azariah and the same way he tried to fix Philomena and his mother and his children and his family. He was constantly trying to pick up the pieces of others and never allowed himself to pick up his own pieces. No more. He couldn't give her any more and couldn't endure any more of the hurt that she had caused him.

He felt Eska's side against his and leaned into her, bringing his exhausted silver gaze up to hers, her presence draining away the furry that Aranea had brought back to him. He nodded quietly to her request, tipping his head forward to press his nose to her cheek for a moment before pulling away from her side without a word to go into the castle, ignoring the apology that Aranea muttered at his departing form. He didn't look back to see what Eska was doing, not wanting to know and not really caring. He dutifully went to the food stores within the castle and gathered a portion of meat to carry back out to the dens that were just outside the castle walls, following their scents easily enough to find them. He slipped his front half into the den, unable to fully enter due to his size and the two women already taking up most of the smaller space. He placed the meat down beside Eska, his ear swirling toward Aranea. He had arrived just in time to hear something about marrying her and making it right.

His first reaction was to bristle and deny the accusation, but then he remembered her delusional ramblings. Ty. He gave a small shake of his head, whispering to Eska, "She's probably still talking about Ty. The father of her first litter. He stole their son and left her." He didn't feel the need to defend Aranea, but perhaps he felt the need to defend himself. Eska had already proven that she was incredibly understanding, but he just couldn't stand for this woman to do anything that might threaten their relationship after all of this. He glanced toward Aranea and added, "I've been sending food to her every day... I guess she's just been refusing to eat. I didn't think to tell them to stay and make sure she did." At this point he was shocked that the pregnancy had even remained this long. Were those two pups even still alive at this point? It was difficult to believe that they could be with her in this state.

Ulric Adravendi