Porcupine Ridge children of the corn

keeping vague about vuk's thread with tagg...! aw ... maybe @Capriccio? 

vuk was now aware of the changes in her body; the nameless beta's seed had grown roots, spiraling little tendrils that forced the food from her belly. the nausea was lessening in some ways, but her overwhelming anxiety intensified her episodes of sickness. weight had dropped from her already narrow frame, but the girl's sides were undeniably rounded these days.

she slunk through the trees along the ridge in the direction of the stream, having fallen out of taggarik's favour, and, she was sure, capriccio's own.

As was expected, Vuk’s scent had changed – the Beta had indeed been successful in copulation, and now a forbidden litter pushed itself in to the paws of the leadership. It had been her mistake above all else – and yet she could not keep herself from feeling irate at the Beta for breaking their law despite Taggarik’s initial attempts to tell him not to.
 
Vuk, however, was just as guilty in all of this, and as Capri’s own dark form swept forward, following the scent of the she-wolf who had indeed changed since first arriving to their borders, her frosted eyes studied the pale woman, uncertain what to say. “Why did you do it?” Her tone was hushed – her soul sore. She had purposefully slipped form Taggarik’s side, unable to restrain her instincts. It was understandable.. and yet it was still a measure of treason in the dark woman’s eyes.

setting this before her thread w tagg now

before her tongue could sweep the surface of the waters, capriccio glided down upon her, and vuk flattened herself against the ground with placating sweeps of her pale plume. "i --" she had no true excuse -- she had been stung by taggarik's rejection, and determined to fulfill the wants of her body. "he d-does not w-want me ... he w-wants .... y-you," vuk whispered brokenly.


perhaps her beloved alpha female would understand, perhaps she would not press the girl further, but the pain that wreathed from capriccio was tangible, and vuk hated that she was the source of it.

The girl pressed herself to the rough grounds of the ridge, sorrow apparent in every aspect of her body. Capri desired nothing more than to join her there – to soothe both of their hearts of the hurt that had been caused. And yet Vuk’s changed scent kept her at bay, her pale eyes thoughtfully upon the woman.
 
Her words had surprised her – had all of the women sought the side of the man she was keen to take as her mate? “And you wanted him?” The betrayal stung – but Capri was not so foolhardy to know that Taggarik had been all but fair game until only very recently. “You’re with pups,” she noted then, her tone soft.. hurt. “You went against the laws of Porcupine Ridge and bred without consent.”

vuk pondered this -- had she wanted taggarik? of course he was handsome, kind, but the girl recalled the way that the beta male had looked at her upon their first meeting, his eyes lingering appreciatively in his feral silence, and she shook her head. "n-no. t...aggar-rik is k-kind, but i d-did not w-want him." she breathed now, attempting to gather her words and speak the longest passage of her life thus far: "i w-was hur...t w-when he did .... n-not ... ch...oose m-me, but i w-wanted s-someone e-else."

a betrayal, to be sure, but not the sort that capriccio thought. vuk let her chin fall against the ground now, exhausted by the effort of speaking and the tension that surrounded them. but her gaze travelled upward -- apology in the sparkle of fresh tears -- but she said nothing of the children she carried, her mind shying away from the enormity of that fact.

Vuk spoke of Taggarik – not having truly wanted him, and yet her upset primarily focusing on the fact he had not wanted her in turn. It stroked the ire of the swarthy she-wolf, and for the first time since meeting the pale girl, she wondered the levels of vanity that truly seemed to prickle beneath her pelt.
 
Perhaps she had read Vuk wrong this entire time.
 
“Vuk,” she spoke, her voice clipping now, as the girl had chosen to ignore her other words. “You went against pack law and bred without permission.” She paused, her gaze riveted upon the she-wolf. “Do you understand that? Do you understand what you've done?”

her honesty was met with a flicker of anger from the alpha female, harsher tones. vuk shrank further from it, but nodded her head against the earth. "y-yes." but what would capri do to them? to her? the girl did not want to think of it but instinctively she curled her tail more tightly around her haunch.

what had she done to make the ecru female angry in this moment -- she knew that the woman was irate over vuk's deliberate disobedience, but -- vuk understood, but also she did not.

Vuk responded – the yes would have been considered far too simple an answer for the silver-laced female, and yet the girl curled in to herself more tightly – nervous.. afraid, even. She had broken pack law, and yet had become a shell – as if this would appease the alpha female, who had taken this all very personally.
 
“I can’t, Vuk,” she started, her tone going deadpan. “I can’t even look at you right now.” She paused, her pale eyes drifting over the girl once more, trying to glimpse at her belly, as if she expected her to be showing already.. another slap to her face. “I thoguht we were friends, Vuk.” She quieted then, breathing in sharply before whirling on the spot, her paws swiftly carrying her away.
 
She couldn’t deal with this. Not yet.