Heart's on the Table {Nat}

He shrunk from her, something like a coward below her paws. But that was exactly what he should be. She was his mother, she was a queen, and if he had fought back... It would have angered her, she thought. Though she would've felt pride in his strength, she would've felt rage at his disobedience. Now, she was disappointed to see him act so weak but she was thankful that he did. No mother wanted to carry out the consequences she would've been bound to.

The words he finally responded with were thick with emotion. He plead for forgiveness, for welcome, for understanding. Natalya closed her teeth but they remained slightly barred and the growl in her throat cut off as she listened to him. She would not let her features soften as she wanted them to. She would not let him see weakness from her. How could she begin to forgive him? After everything the bitch he claimed to love had done... Natalya wasn't sure she was capable. But she did miss her son, more than he would ever realize and now more than ever before.

She couldn't yet tell him what plagued her, couldn't give him the information that she had shared with no one but her trusted raven, not even her dear Helios. Even so, she wanted to drop the weight of it on him and watch him squirm, to hear his reaction to the true consequences of his actions. It probably wasn't fair to blame him, but how could she not? Instead of letting her urges get the better of her, she dropped her voice into an almost whisper, anger still strong behind it. "Would you abandon her now? If you love her so much that you could not choose between us, would you abandon her for our affection now?" She pointedly ignored his other sentiments. She wasn't sure she would be able to respond to the rest without breaking down.