A Love Like War

Manea scoffed a bit when he insisted that he did in fact love the water even if his thicker, fluffier coat diminished that love a bit. She couldn't remember a single time that he'd ever just dived into the water to swim for the hell of it. In fact, the only times she could easily remember him being in the water at all was when he slipped into the icy water chasing after that massive dire wolf and when she forced him into a bath after his illness during the long night. She didn't press him on it though since he quickly moved past it, instead coming to lay down beside her and draping his paw over her side so that his large, ebony paw was resting on her slightly rounded stomach. She smiled and leaned back into him as he nuzzled into her scruff, enjoying the closeness she had been waiting on him for through most of the afternoon. "They're draining," she said with a chuckle when he asked how their growing children were doing. "But it'll all be worth it once they're here." A few weeks of exhaustion was nothing in comparison to having their perfect child here in their lives and growing their blossoming family once again.

She was tired and probably could have fallen right back asleep if given the chance, but she thought again about Alastor saying that he had been running patrols, but also had somehow ended up taking a swim in the middle of it. There was something there that didn't quite add up, but she mostly brushed it off, thinking of all of the possible shenanigans that her wild hearted demon could have gotten into. Some combination of her exhaustion, thinking about pack duties, and the morning she had spent with Avacyn did finally bring her pregnancy fogged brain back around to a topic she had been meaning to talk to him about and hadn't gotten the chance to which at least distracted her from her husband's odd absence throughout the day.

"I've been meaning to ask you," she began, shifting a bit as she moved to lay more on her stomach than on her side so that she could see him better and keep herself from falling asleep. "Do you have any thoughts on who we should put in our higher ranks?" With another pup on the way and her pregnancy progressing further by the day, it was something that had come up in her planning and delegation of things. "Avacyn and Saracyn are certainly coming into their own, but I would still like to fill our other important roles soon as well just in case we need to take time away for any reason. I at least want your opinion on the Generalis since that's supposed to be your main support for our fighters." She could probably handle selecting wolves for their ambassadors, but if it was going to be someone that Alastor worked with frequently then he ought to have a say in it.

"Manea Mendacium"