The Love I Never Knew I Wanted

The rest of Aliana's birthing was a blur. One after another the pups fell into her awaiting paws and one by one she carefully wrapped them so no one else would need to see the pups that weren't fully formed. She laid each one next to its siblings, falling into numbness like Ali just to keep her mind from spinning out of control with worry and anxiety for the pups she was carrying. This wasn't about her right now, this was about Ali, and she could swallow back her own fears to help her friend through this in the only ways she knew how. When the last of the five was laid beside the others, a row of little bundles waiting to be buried, she sighed and stepped back, looking at them all for a moment with Ali's cries of apologies distant in her ears. Would she add any little bundles of her own to this row? Ali had lost all of her children, Viper had lost children as well. Siren was the only one that hadn't lost her pups and their father wasn't Chimera.

She didn't realize that she had started trembling until she forced her gaze away from the row of pups, looking up at Siren attempting to comfort Ali. She drew in a shaky breath and walked around to stand beside Siren, having a hard time trying to meet Chimera's gaze. She leaned in to gently press her nose to Ali's cheek in a silent apology and condolence, her heart shattered for her and wishing that there was anything that she could have done to help. Dalila was certain that Siren was right—that this wasn't Ali's fault and it wasn't any of their fault and whatever the world had done to them was to blame. Leaning back she glanced to Siren and nodded toward the door, leading her love away and out of the room so that Ali and Chimera could have some privacy to mourn their losses, hoping that Chimera could help to pick up Ali's broken pieces. She closed the door behind her and managed to keep herself together until she and Siren were back in their own wing of their home.

"Dalila Vista Rocha"