As was her routine and habit, as soon as the weather began to warm and the seasons began to shift, she began to prepare the herbs she would need for her contraceptives as she went into her heat season again. It was something she did without really thinking after living the life she had lived. Most of her herbs she tended to have on had regardless so it was just a matter of creating the extracts that she preferred to take them as and that's what she was working on now—preparing the leaves to be steeped with a bowl and cloth to strain it through off to the side.

However, she stopped in the middle of crushing up the leaves so they would release more of what she needed from them, staring down at the mortar and pestle in her dexterous paws. It suddenly dawned on her that she no longer needed these. She no longer needed the contraceptives or to prevent herself from getting pregnant. Slowly she put the tools down and she just looked at them for a few moments. Everything in her life and what she had known had been turned upside down in the last few months and now it seemed even this habitual routine and preparation would be disrupted as well. That was going to be a common theme for a while until she got used to this new way of life.

After a bit she finally decided to go ahead and move forward with what she was doing. Even if she wasn't going to take it maybe someone else in the pack would make use of it and then at least the leaves she had begun to prep wouldn't go to waste. As she continued on with making her extracts, she started trying to imagine what it was going to be like carrying Merrick's children, being a mother, raising a pup... It was impossible for her to even picture. After she had transferred the herbs to a jar to steep, she looked down at her slender, scarred stomach and couldn't even imagine how it was going to be to see it round with pups. She had never considered herself mother material, but to keep this life with Merrick she would do anything.

"Keelin"

"I do hope that's for someone else," Merrick growled low as he came up behind Keelin. He'd seen the woman make her concoction enough to know exactly what it was and the smell was easy to distinguish. He'd told her exactly what his intentions were with her. If she was still taking her contraceptives, then she wasn't on board. If she wasn't on board, then she was a liar. If she was a liar, then she was useless to him. A woman that couldn't be trusted didn't deserve the position that he'd bestowed upon her.

As the amaranthine brute stepped around the brindled fae, he noted that she had bottled up the brew rather than taking it instantly as she usually did. A contemplative hmm pulled from the giant and he moved to stretch out upon the furs before the hearth. He was still sore from his previous dance with death but his ribs were slowly healing. They twinged every now and again, but he didn't let it show. Not unless he wanted attention. Which... he did.

Merrick made a show of laying with his scarred side up, a hiss of pain squeezing between clenched teeth. Laying on his side, the brutes blue eye was closed, but the swirling claret of his other eye remained fixed on the tan and white fae. Over the herby tang of the woman's brew, he could smell the intoxicating scent of her heat. He'd told her of his intent with her long enough ago that she should be receptive to his seed by now. There was only one way to find out and he waited for her to come give him some attention so he could give her some attention.

"Merrick Mendacium"

As lost in her thoughts as she was, she hardly noticed Merrick as he returned to their den, jumping a little with a soft gasp as he came up behind her and growled out how he hoped the herbs she was working on were for someone else. Her ears flicked and she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, replying, "Gods, you startled me... Yes... they are. I had quite a bit of them left on hand and they'll last longer as an extract. I thought I might see if one of the other women in the pack could make use of them." It was certainly not a lie since that was what she had finally landed on doing with them, but she didn't share the habitual muscle memory of making this mix of herbs that had caused her to start this process in the first place—nor how difficult it was for her to grasp that for the first time in her adult life she was willingly forgoing the herbs in favor of letting Merrick get her pregnant.

She had been in the middle of bottling the mix of extracts in a few vials when he came in so she finished up that task just to be done with it and the herbs wouldn't be sitting in the liquid for too long. She could hear him moving around behind her to the pile of furs that made up their bed and just as she was placing the stopper on the last vial she heard the pained hiss that came from him as he laid down she turned her attention toward him again with a worried furrow of her brow. Ever since his scrape with death it had made her concerned about him and his well being in a way she had never been before. He had always seemed so invincible, so powerful and strong, that seeing him unconscious and barely clinging to life had shaken her in a way she hadn't been expecting. At some point in this strange relationship of theirs she might have seen it as an opportunity to be free of him, but now it only served as a reminder of how her life revolved around him being in it and how quickly it would fall apart if he were to suddenly disappear from it.

With her work done, she wiped off her paws and went over to his side, a small frown on her lips as she sat at his side. "Your ribs bothering you again?" she questioned with genuine concern as her careful paws lifted to his scarred side. Her nimble toes traced the thick scar that than over his ribs and gently felt to make sure everything was still healing as it should. Sometimes she was better at seeing through his charades than others, but right now she was too caught up in the thoughts about their lives and what was to come to notice. "Would you like something for the pain? Let me get you something. I think I still have some of the wintergreen extract left." She started to get up to go over to her supplies to find the right vial, her soft paw pads following the still fresh scar one more time before she got to her paws.

"Keelin"

Keelin didn't disappoint him, stating that the brew was for others in the pack that might need it as she'd had a large supply of the herbs left. A low rumble left the man as he considered her words. She'd had her chance to get away from him but she hadn't chosen to leave. Even after he told her that all of their pups but one would die, she chose to stay. Merrick wanted to believe that the brindled woman was being truthful, but his experience with women had proven that the majority of them were liars and whores. He hoped that Keelin would end up proving that she was neither of those things

As he lay down and pouted in fake pain, the fae drew closer, a look of concern on her face. She traced the edge of his scar with one paw and asked if he was in pain. Merrick didn't answer, instead he simply stared at her quietly, the tip of his tail twitching like a cats. As Keelin rose to go and get whatever she thought would help his pain, the massive man wrapped a foreleg around her middle and pulled her down onto the furs with him. He obviously didn't hurt too much.

A rough padded paw slid down between her legs and, with his muzzle, he pushed her head up so that he could nibble down the side of her throat. "Your heat is intoxicating," he growled low, his teeth brushing her flesh as he spoke. "You must be ready to be filled to the brim with pups." He had no idea the kinds of feeling or urges went through a fae when in estrus. All he knew was that he could barely keep his paws off of a woman that was in her heat cycle. Since Keelin belonged to him, he didn't need to keep his paws off of her. Merrick could use the woman as he wished. His body curled and he snuffled in the thicker fur of her neck and chest, his paw never stopping its ministrations to her lower body. It was clear what he wanted from her and it wasn't pain relievers.

"Merrick Mendacium"

Keelin gasped softly as her path to her supplies was interrupted by Merrick's paw catching her around her torso, pulling her down to the bedding with him instead. He very clearly wasn't hurting that much or at the very least not enough to distract him from the other more pressing carnal needs. He wasted absolutely no time with pulling her into him with her back pressed against his chest and stomach, keeping her held firmly against him with no way for her to get away—not that she would really want to. She felt a bit of whiplash from where her thoughts had been moments before, but with his large paw sliding down between her legs and the nibbles he left along her throat it was difficult not to get swept immediately into the pleasure that her body naturally craved right now while she was in her heat season. Usually she was heavily medicated with all sorts of things to prevent her from getting pregnant and suppress her heat as much as she could, but she had none of those this time and she was experiencing the full gambit of sensations that it brought for the first time it was like his paws and teeth had lit her nerves with electricity that traveled through her in an instant.

Another breathless gasp left her at the feeling of his practiced, talented paw finding her most sensitive spots easily, a trembling moan filling the air while she pressed back into him. His teasing, growling words sent a shiver of lust down her spine, a soft whine leaving her. She hadn't expected the notion of him planting his pups inside of her to make her body react the way it did, but this was also the first time she had ever really heard such things outside of a context that was just to turn on the brute she was with. It wasn't just to tease her any more—this was a promise of what was to come and that thought was thrilling and terrifying, exciting and worrying. Still, it tapped into her heat ridden body's natural, undeniable desires and instincts and made it easy for her to give into him and what he wanted from her. "I am," she breathed in response, the dexterous toes of one of her paws gripping his thick foreleg just to have somewhere to hold on to as her hips pressed back into his and her tail brushed and teased between his legs, very quickly being intoxicated by the slow, building waves of pleasure that his paw was bringing her.

"Keelin"