The days falling into her heat season and the time that followed had become quite a strange time for her. A good, great, and wonderful time, but a strange one. After their night together Alastor and Manea had some kind of falling out regarding a man in Manea's life, and Relm was there for Alastor. In every way she could be. And she loved being with him the way they were but she knew something wasn't quite right about him. She wasn't just where she wanted to be in his life, she still wanted more. And she knew indefinitely now that she'd never have that fully satisfied life with him. She had already come to terms with it long ago. As their nights continued on, her anxieties and her longings were getting the best of her. She felt and hurt deeply for what Alastor was going through even in the event that she was a part of the problem. And she was worried about what it was brewing between her and Manea. Relm did as she did best, and kept moving on with her life. Doing all the duties that were expected of her, working with Alastor, and of course taking whatever he gave her in their off time. The mask this far into their relationship was easy to keep on. That sense of wanting and maybe even needing more was no secret between them, maybe he wouldn't know the extent of it though.

The two of them had gone out on a hunt together and were making their way back to the island to take care of the kill. She was just the same as she always was, work first and play next. So anytime Alastor gave her a glance or bumped into her or anything of that nature she met back with him in just the same way. Otherwise it was just the usually quiet trip back to the main land of Elysium.

They had made their way back into the pack lands but not up to the land bridge just yet when she was hit with a sharp and unexpected pain right in her gut which made her pause for just a second before going back into step with him with a gentle smile and back into duty. But she was already on the midst of a panic. She tried to tell herself it was nothing, that it was just a quick cramp from the exercise they had just done but it was almost like she had known immediately. She at least hoped it was some kind of ghost pain or just a memory coming back to haunt her.

It was many steps later that she was met with another, sharper pain when she had that confirmation it was just what it was. But she did her best to play it off. Because the same things were going through her head from the last time, she didn't want Alastor to know, she didn't want to put it on him. She was in a near disbelief because she didn't think she could get pregnant again so soon, she wasn't planning at all obviously and in those ways she hadn't been careful in keeping it that way. But it was easy for her to get past that and know what was happening to her.

The first indication to him that something wasn't right probably would have been the way she was breathing, he could pick up on cues like that from her. But she was so focused on trying to keep her complete calm that if he had said anything to her she'd just glance over at him without responding and keep moving forward towards the island. It wouldn't be long though before the fatal contractions had her dropping to the ground. It took her a moment as she cringed and quietly groaned in pain until it passed, she had been holding it off from him for too long. "I need to get to the medical den." Was finally what broke her silence, and she would leave it at that. It would seem to be the only thing that mattered in the moment. She'd figure out how to get him to leave once they were there. He could make assumptions from where she was bleeding and the way she was reacting, or he could act completely blindsided like she felt the first time. Or maybe nothing else mattered but getting her back. She was sure the hunt they had was no longer on his mind.

"Relm"

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"

If he wasn't here she would have just made it there on her own, but she couldn't just put it off any longer with Alastor there beside her. The condition she had come to made it overbearing and she already knew to expect that, she was just hoping it wasn't while they were still together.

It was a bumpy ride but once she was on Alastor's back she held onto him tightly, her face pushing into the plush of his fur when she felt the faux contraction surge through her. The ride didn't make it any easier, but in a way it was a bit distracting than if she had been laying in a cot.

They had made it back with haste to the medical center, the difference between Ikigai and Irilyth meant little to her. She was shivering some once she hit the pelts mostly just from the shock and pain but it was something that she had experienced before not that he would know. She let out a shaky breath as everything seemed to be chaotic around her, maybe it was just the way he was reacting or maybe it was this pull of emotion that she hadn't felt the first time while he wasn't here. His voice hurt her in ways she couldn't even describe. "Leave." Her tone quiet, just loud enough for him to hear her when he wasn't speaking himself. She couldn't look at him though because she was fighting back the turmoil that she had hidden inside. A truth she kept from him before, and a life she wanted more of. Looking at him now would just make her lose it entirely. "Alastor, leave." She was going to be adamant, not that she could do much from her place on the bed. But she genuinely wanted him outside, back with his family, back to his duties. Anywhere away from her.

"Relm"

Irilyth began to work around  Relm in a tizzy once Alastor had her down on the bedding, gently probing and prodding and asking questions to determine where Relm's pain was originating from. The tiny golden fae went over to her herbal supplies, fishing out a decoction of meadowsweet and trillium for the pain and contractions. Alastor, frustrated by a lack of clarity and understand of what was going on, had set to pacing around the end of the bedding, keeping out of Irilyth's way, but also making his presence known. Obsidian eyes didn't leave Relm all the while, watching her struggle with the pain her body was racked with. "What's happening to her?" he snapped at Irilyth between frustrated growls, glowering at the medic almost as if she were personally responsible for what was happening. The healer's response shook him to his core. "She's going through contractions. She's giving birth."

Those Stygian black eyes slowly grew wide, his furious expression faltering and falling to shock and dismay. For a long moment, Alastor just stared into space while his mind tried to process what he had just been told. Relm's demands for him to leave fell on deaf ears, the brute too far gone in his own thoughts and panic. Irilyth continued to move about, offering medicines to ease Relm's contractions and giving her gentle reassurances. When his brain finally came out of the tailspin it had been stuck in, he turned and looked to the pink woman laying out on the furs. Relm was giving birth. She had been pregnant. She had been pregnant with his children. Alastor did not do as Relm demanded him to. Instead, the dire brute brought himself over to her side with slow, unsteady paws, collapsing to his haunches and reaching a paw over for her to take. "I'm not leaving you," he rumbled back to her, his shellshocked gaze never leaving her silver jewels. "We're in this together." Alastor fell silent then, watching Relm as his mind buzzed with a thousand different thoughts and fears. All he wanted now was for Relm to pull through okay.

"Alastor"

Irilyth worked quickly on experienced paws as Relm was laid out on the bed, tensing and holding her breath from time to time as the contractions came across her. Just as Alastor was lost in his own thoughts, Relm was more focused on her physical reactions than anything else. It would take her even a moment to realize he didn't leave when she asked.

The herbs slowly made their work on her, and just as she was with Ikigai she was a good patient for Irilyth. This wouldn't be the first time she had medical interactions with the smaller woman, but the first time for this. The pain wasn't gone but it became more tolerable, and now all she needed to do was ride the rest of it out. It would start to fade away over time. Not before Alastor was down at her side.

Her nose pointed down at where Alastor placed his paw on top of hers and while they had this deep, unspoken language between them it would have been easy for anyone to tell what she was feeling. She choked back the emotional turmoil that was building inside of her, she almost felt like she couldn't breathe. Her ghostly eyes stayed right down where they touched with an immense amount of mental pain that mastered over all the physical ones. A gentle and shaky breath left her before tears welded in her eyes. She was stuck on this line of who she was to him and who she wanted to be, and they would always be stuck right here. Watching him care for her, want to care for her hurt more than she could describe because she knew her place. She retracted her paw out from his, still without looking up at him even once. "No, Alastor! Get out!" It was when she really started crying, shivering both from the miscarriage and the emotions she was showing. Irilyth tried to get her to calm down so they could finish what they were doing, "Get out! I need to do this on my own." He was there for her in anyway she asked, and he could have been there for her now. But to her this was where the line was crossed. This was where she needed to be alone in the nature of their relationship.

"Relm"

When Relm retracted her paw from beneath his, she may as well have slapped him across the face. Alastor looked up with a start at Relm as she started crying for him to get out, hot tears streaming down her face while she glared at him and demanded he leave her to do this on her own. Her words and rejection of his attempts to provide her comfort and support ripped him apart. He couldn't look away from her as she grimaced in pain, yet staunchly refuted him, even as Irilyth attempted to keep her calm. "Perhaps it'd be best if you wait outside," Irilyth spoke to Alastor in an attempt to mediate and placate her patient. "This won't be pleasant, and if she won't be calm around you, I may have to sedate her." Alastor leered at Irilyth, an unreadable expression on his face. The turmoil on his visage was painful and present. For once, the dire brute did not know what to do with himself. Every part of him, every fatherly instinct and emotional drive of a lover demanded he stay here with Relm—with the mother of his children—and be there for her. But what did he do when he was being given an order against what he felt was right?

In the end, it was Irilyth's paw on his with the gentle pleading look in her eyes that broke him. "Please, for her sake." Alastor opened his mouth to refuse—but no words came out. Instead, he simply looked down at Relm once more. The thought of her in pain crushed him, but the thought of making this more difficult on her because he was here was unbearable. Without so much as a word, Alastor rose to his paws and slowly made his way out of the den. He didn't know where else to go, so the giant wolf ended up just slumping against a pine tree just outside, far enough away that he wouldn't be seen, but close enough to hear every awful sound happening behind him and knowing he was powerless to help. With his weight against the tree trunk, Alastor slid down to his belly, gazing down into space while a million thoughts raced through his head. Hopefully Relm made it through this all right. If she didn't... he didn't know how many lives would be lost on this island tonight.

"Alastor"

She still didn't look up once at Alastor, and if she had she would have turned back on what she asked of him. Not for herself, but for him. A part of her knew not to look him in the eye because of this, and another part was just trying to keep the hard exterior that was always plated around her. She was past holding that together though.

As Irilyth finally got him to head out of the den and they continued working through the miscarriage, she covered her face with the furs under her as if hiding the prominent sobs from Irilyth but really it was some kind of comfort hiding behind them at all. She let herself breathe between contractions otherwise she would have passed out from everything happening around her. Irilyth certainly hadn't seen her like this, but even Alastor hadn't before. She had been upset, or mad, or crying, but this was a whole new level of all time low for her. And it wasn't the loss of their babies. It was a part of it, a part of this future she would never have with him. Overall everything was finally pulling that last leg out from under her.

She was able to get herself calmer as the contractions faded out and everything had passed save for the few things Irilyth had to get cleaned up. Relm couldn't know that Alastor was outside, but she had the feeling that he was. She knew him well enough to believe so. In the most flat, emotionless way possible, her cheeks held with stale tears as if she was drained of absolutely any feeling at all, she only glanced at Irilyth before looking back down to the floor, "I don't want him here." It was more of like a check if he's outside kind of ask, but she still wasn't ready for him to come back. She would probably stay the night here in the medical den and come tomorrow she'd go back to her den here on the island while she was in recovery.

"Relm"

Time passed by in a blur for Alastor. Seconds flew by while minutes dragged into hours. The world spun, turned, twisted and danced before his eyes while a flurry of thoughts rushed through his broken mind like panicked leaves in a gale. Relm was inside. Relm was inside that den giving birth to their children. Too soon—much too soon. He knew they wouldn't survive. He knew what this outcome would be. Still, he wanted to be there. He wanted to support her and show her he cared. But she didn't want him there. She didn't want him. Relm had cast him out from the one thing a good father should have been able to do. Did that make him a bad father for not insisting? For not pushing and standing his ground? Did it make him a bad partner for so easily bending to Relm's demands? His sharp ears could still hear Relm's sobbing from within, the gentle weeping of a heartbroken woman. His heart broke. He had done this to her. It hadn't been intentional, but he knew what all their fucking during her heat season could lead to, and yet they'd both been so reckless.

Eventually, Alastor heard the noises from within the den fade away. He knew it as done. His ears flattened to his head and his shoulders slumped in defeat. A quivering, choking sob worked its way up from his core, but he managed to hold himself together for the time being. The dire wolf remained where he was seated, firm as a statue and sentinel over his distraught lover in the medical den. After some time, Irilyth emerged from the den, reeking of blood and death. The smell normally would've been welcomed by the demon brute, but knowing that it came from his children that never were crushed his heart and soul. Pained black eyes looked down to the golden blonde woman while she came closer and sighed, the heavy expression on her face betraying how gruesome the experience had been. "It's done. She's resting now. I'll make sure she recovers okay." Alastor didn't need to hear anymore. He rose to his paws and turned for the den—only to be stopped when Irilyth blocked his path with her smaller body. "I'm sorry, sir, but she does not wish to see you. She's asked me to tell you to leave."

The dire brute leered down at the petite woman with something akin to anger and offense. How dare she tell him he couldn't see Relm. And how dare Relm dismiss him like he wasn't invested in this with her! Ebony lips peeled back from pearly fangs in a deadly growl, glowering at the den just a few yards away from him. It would have been so easy to bowl Irilyth over and go see Relm anyway... but for what point and purpose? If Relm didn't want to see him, didn't want him here, what good would that do? Why was he trying so damn hard when she just wanted him gone? A heavy huff and a furious snort left the wolf before he turned to storm off into the woods. He was angry. He was hurting. He felt like he'd failed Relm and that she had failed him. All he wanted to do now was escape the pain in his fractured heart. But how... well, he supposed that's what he'd spend the rest of his day figuring out.

- exit Alastor -

"Alastor"