Crushing Weight of Paradise

Alastor had been doing all that he could to ignore the crumbling of his marriage and the bitterness brewing between him and Manea, and in doing so he had found his solace in Relm. Where some would say the pink fae was the reason for all this mess in the first place, Alastor adamantly refused to place blame on her. Maybe it was the way he felt for her. Maybe it was his compulsion to protect her from the world. Either way, it had the ebony brute spending all his nights in the lakeside den with Relm since his spat with his wife, indulging in playing a bit of house with her. They woke together and went to bed together, spent their days working and patrolling and hunting, and they both vigorously enjoyed her heat season every opportunity they could get. Alastor was ravenous for Relm, akin to a feral animal in rut when he was around her. Likewise, Relm seemed to be enjoying her time with him just as much, the two living out the dream life Alastor didn't know she yearned for so desperately. He was nursing a broken heart and she was mending it with her presence and affection. It was a perfect cycle of dependency on one another.

In recent days, he and Manea had started working on making amends, hashing out their feelings, their perspectives, and their stances. They discussed and drew boundaries, working on rebuilding what they had so that neither one felt hurt or manipulated by the other. Alastor had been adamant about not giving up his relationship with Relm. He cared deeply for the young woman and he refused to cast her aside like a used up product. She was his now, in whatever ways he could have her. To prove that point to her, even though he'd begun spending time around his family again, Alastor still spent most of his days at her side. Today saw them hunting together, the two engaging in their physical shows of affection with gentle bumps as they walked towards the offshore island. He exchanged sly smirks with the woman, letting his obsidian eyes rove shamelessly over her as they trotted alongside one another to the land bridge. Gods, the past few weeks with her had been incredible...!

Their paws hadn't even hit the Boreal shores yet when Relm came to an abrupt stop, so sudden that Alastor continued on past for a moment without even realizing that she had fallen behind. When he did notice, he paused and looked back at her with a curious tilt of his head. Was she okay? Relm smiled and continued on without missing a beat though, so Alastor just shrugged it off and carried on. When they were crossing the land bridge and she once again stopped with a grimace and her shorter breath. "What is it?" he asked his lover, concern pulling his features down as he lowered his head to nudge her cheek with his own. There was no question of if she was all right; he knew she wasn't from her sounds and posture. The concern mounted as Relm didn't respond right away, sucking down shallow breaths while trying to steady herself. As soon as Relm said she needed medical attention, Alastor was moving. That was all he needed to hear before he was sliding his larger frame beneath hers and carefully hoisting Relm across his back.

"Hold on," came his simple command to his ailing lover before he turned and ran down the length of the land bridge with all his might. Alastor stopped for nothing, massive paws thundering over the rocky turf as he made for the medical den at breakneck speed. He didn't know what was happening to Relm, but he was treating every second with critical importance until he knew otherwise. Rushing through the dense pine forests, the dire wolf made short work of the distance, coming to the cave at the base of the mountain range used as their hospital. He hurried inside, carefully depositing Relm down on the nearest bedding while Irilyth came out from where their supplies were stored to tend to the woman. "She just began doubling over and having trouble breathing," he explained to the diminutive healer. "She was fine, and then she wasn't. Help her. Now!"

"Alastor"