Moonsong Glacier Snowdrops

He watched her a moment longer, his lips parted as if he might utter more warnings — but he had no more for her. His fears had been aired, and Simbelmyne seemed to think them unfounded. It still felt, somehow, too good to be true. His life would change so quickly from lonesome leadership to close quarters with Chakliux and his wives, and their children! Children who were surely born, now.

And, one day soon, children who would call him Papa.

The panther's tail spun. His eyes shone. His heart skipped. Suddenly, he laughed, and he swept Simbelmyne up again and covered her face in kisses.

"I will give you everything there is to want," he promised her, still starry-eyed. "Simbelmyne Morningside."

He liked the sound of that. And it was his name he was giving her, but this gift came with a sudden shift, and a surge of feeling that took him entirely by surprise. It was a kind of possessiveness he had never felt before. A kind that felt right as it sank deep into his bones.

She was his.