Awakening

She would struggle, the task was complete, her duty, at least for now, was done. Her pups were well and happy, greedily pulling milk from her teats. She would slump against Segar, exhausted and out of breath, her birthing had taken well into the next day and she felt winded and weak. But a sense of peace and contentment had arisen in the depths of her soul and she lounged with her lover. She craned her head around to tuck her snout beneath his jaw, grateful that he had come, grateful that he had stayed. She couldn't have done it, without his strength at her back. Did he know how much he meant to her. His scent had been the anchor. Newt had told her to find an anchor, he was hers, even in the haze of confusion her mind had lapsed her into she had remembered his scent.

She had lost her way and he had seen her home. Her tongue would escape her ivory lips and a soft pink tongue would bathe him in loving kisses. Her tongue softly trailing across his fur. She loved him, she knew she did and she thanked him for being here, thanked him for forgiving her, thanked him for putting up with all of her insecurities all of her problems with every languid lick of her tongue. "I failed you, my mind it..." She didn't have to speak, she knew what her mind had done, it had taken everything from her, again. "You are my strength, you are my light, you are everything to me and... I love you."

A scent, too familiar, a scent she hated drew closer and her gut reaction was to snarl, protective waves washing over her. Her pups, her mate, her den, he threatened them. She would never forgive Gerhardt, she would hate him because that wretched scar was a constant reminder of her own failures, of her own cracks, her own breaks of sanity. She wanted him nowhere near her pups they would not be told they were wrong because she had not first sought permission from another. Her lips curled over her teeth in aggression, her body moving wire tense and her bodice instinctively curling around her pups. He would approach the entrance of her den standing a fair distance away, sitting back to rest upon his haunches. He would offer his congratulations but it was false, she knew what he thought of her pups, of the perfection she had cradled to her abdomen. She knew they both expected her biting words and angered snarls, but her lips would fall and all emotion would fade from her gaze, her muscles, sore and exhausted losing their tension. Not a single spec of emotion could be seen upon the silver hues dames maw. There were so many things she wished to spew like venom, her lips would part and she would speak, surprising probably everyone there with the lyrics that would spill forth.

"Three. Beautiful, perfect pups. Two girls and one boy." Her tail would shield them from his view. Her voice a whimsical litany, beautiful, sweet, full of love and admiration, no a singular spec of the hatred she felt for the king present in her tones. "Would you like to see?" Her tail would lift, brushing across the ground to reveal the tiny life that suckled for more nutrients, allowing the king to see, a toss of her head told him he could come closer if he wished. Her eyes would gleam with something unreadable. Segar was her home. If he was content here, so too would she be. She would cause her lover no more trouble, no more pain, she be his whenever he needed her, whenever he required her, she would mold herself to be whatever he needed her to be, and that began with rebuilding a relationship with Gerhardt.