There was no world in which Candle did not follow @Zoug. She didn't understand his anger nor his clear jealousy. But she understood enough to have kept a healthy distance from Talisman, lest his scent be on her furs when she went to her mate.

Her mate.

Did he not know this? Was he not secure in the knowledge that Candle had chosen him, now and forever? She followed him relentlessly now, breathless when she found him.

Zoug, Her eyes shone with hurt and apology all at once. She slipped into a bow and then fell into the sand at his feet, rolling to her side. You. Only you. How could he think otherwise?

in truth, zoug did not know what had come over him. he knew only that the presence of such large emotions had always been a reason for him to retreat, since he was a boy.

now alone in the desert, he automatically fell to tracking for prey and measuring the horizon, but his heart was not in it.

candle found him and he stared at the shimmer of sand-grains glistening in the curve of her flank, her scent affecting him enough to bring a flutter to his eyelids.

"i wanted you to be certain," zoug finally said, knowing candle had learned enough of his language to follow. "i did not doubt you. but all of this is your choice."

softly he resisted no longer; he lowered down to press his forehead against the lovely hollow of her hip, soothed by this contact even as his heart started a faster cadence.

Candle still wasn't sure she understood. She had always been certain of her decision; she didn't think she had done anything to show Zoug otherwise. But things were different now; the way he touched her was different, the way it felt. A small shudder ran through her. And it frightened her.

I chose you. I choose you. Always, Her mouth lingered warmly at his ruff. What was this? This feeling like hunger; a want she could not put to words. Candle felt ill. Why is it different now?

Intimacy in this way existed in another realm entire from Candle; something far out of reach until him, until Zoug. In this she had nothing but her ignorance, and it was her mate she looked to for answers. She had chosen him. She trusted him. Now and forever.

"it is different now because you are different now," zoug managed to rumble, though their closeness proved a simmering obstacle to the gestures he needed to make with several words.

"when women come to this time, they will grow large with children after if they keep near a man." coupling in the caves was done with little discretion; each member of the group pretended not to see or notice. he had drawn away now to explain, albeit in reluctance.

the physical act was known. but the unknown part was how this scent and those movements produced pups after a number of weeks.

"that is why i wanted you to be certain it was me you wanted for this."

Candle was displeased with Zoug's explanation, though she didn't let it show so much. Not because of him, but because somehow she had not imagined it this way. Somehow she had thought it would not be so invasive.

Always, She repeated, silver-green gaze meeting the single cerulean eye. Show me how? There was much she still didn't understand. Some part of her was still stuck on the way he touched her, the way it seemed to affect him; she wasn't sure how it made her feel but she knew that it was addicting, seeing this want in him. She wondered if it would remain this way.

Candle reached for him tentatively, all of her now attuned to Zoug and his reactions.

again candle chose him, and again his heart raced, faster.

there were no words for love in the clan. closeness. fellowship. a word to say a man and wife lay together.

none for the sentiment which gathered almost painfully in his chest when he gazed down at her.

his nostrils flared; his jawline tensed. he nosed each of her eyelids and the bridge of her muzzle, each slant of her cheekbone, each eartip. he touched their mouths together and nipped her nape softly, working down along her spine.

his legs pillared in the sand around candle as he did not rush their moments, only gave himself fully to the sensations enhanced by her desire.

and at length he drew her softly up beneath him, attuned to any hesitance or dislike.

Candle had always been a creature of touch; it was Zoug who was more reticent between them, slower to respond and rarely reaching for her first. She'd never minded it.

But this was different. This was something new, and at first she was almost overwhelmed by it. She hesitated even as she welcomed it, and for a moment their roles were reversed. Zoug had never touched her like this; Candle had never thought she could touch him like this. It was a wish so far out of reach that she had never prepared for the possibility that it might be granted.

Slowly she found her confidence. She dared to press her own muzzle to his neck, his chest, preening at the fur there, the ridge of her spine arching to press against him. Any discomfort Candle felt was lost among the bright shivering green of a love grown in the ashes of all that had come before; a promise of spring. Something new to fill the space left behind by what had been taken from each of them.

And it started with this; with them, and the love between them.

When they parted it was only for a moment; Candle pressed her flank to Zoug's, her muzzle into his fur, and she knew that she would choose him again. Always him. At times she wondered why he had chosen her. She was the odd one, the frightened one, the one who left at strange hours and returned with the blood of wolves on her fur. The priestess parted from her home and her faith, a shadow of a woman next to the light of those like S'ari and Ko'a.

Right now it didn't matter. She pulled him closer and thought that she hoped their children would look just like him.