awake my soul.

The iridescent moon overhead shone with startling brightness, casting ghastly shadows down on the range. Silence had forced its grip onto the Kingdom of Seracia and seemed hesitant to relinquish its hold. Everything seemed at a standstill -- still there was no sign of the three wolves who were believed to have been taken captive by Glaciem -- and with each day she could sense the tension in the Kingdom growing. And yet in an instant, everything would change.

An abrupt contraction wracked the Queen's body, a strong pain that shook her from her light slumber and forced her quite suddenly into consciousness. A growl would escape her lips as the pressure became overwhelming. Everything seemed far more painful than it had just a few seasons ago. Like her last pregnancy, this one had been unplanned, but somehow even more so than the previous. She had been utterly void of joy at the prospect of more children, bereft of the enthusiasm that a mother ought to feel. And though Epiphron had never been a particularly complex woman on the face of it all, she felt a bitter kind of distaste towards herself that she could not even hide from the King himself.

But there was no turning back now. She had quietly accepted her predicament, and would raise this litter even more carefully than she had her first. Her children would be of Adravendi blood, pure and beautiful -- the Mathias line would be of benefit as well, giving rise to beautiful warriors and Kings. There was truly no man she would prefer as the father of her children, and she sought his presence and she rolled to her side, letting another whimper escape her clenched jaws. Though her den was sheltered and safe, she suddenly felt cold and exposed, and her sudden movements to find Maverick's warmth would make that all too obvious.