Redhawk Caldera I don't want easy, I want crazy

Although Finley hesitated, she managed to complete Elwood's sentence. Once the word was out in the open, he felt a rush of relief -- but it was short lived. He smiled down at her, tight-lipped, but as he turned to Fox and Peregrine, he took in their expressions. The Alpha female's features shifted rapidly in a short time, finally settling on something that resembled happiness but didn't quite reach her eyes. Peregrine, too, seemed to need to digest the information, although he eventually congratulated the newly-mated pair.

Elwood felt his heart slowly sinking to his feet. Their elation at the fact that the pregnancy hadn't been completely terminated had overlapped the reality of the situation -- they hadn't necessarily been given permission to bring a litter into the world. Although they were the pack's Betas and both Fox and Peregrine had expressed their willingness to let them procreate in the future, they had still skipped a very important step. Elwood's former self -- stiff, rigid, logical -- wanted to slap his current self upside the head for thinking that their leaders would just accept their news with open arms. How could he have been so stupid? And now, he had put Finley in an equally awkward position.

He cleared his throat, glancing down at his mate again and gathering support simply from her presence. "I know it's, uh, unexpected. We weren't exactly counting on this, either. And the timing certainly isn't the greatest..." he said, purposefully avoiding meeting his friends' gazes. Not only were the firebirds only a few months old, but the pack was in the middle of some fairly dire straits after the mess with Junior. Neither he nor Finley had anticipated that this would happen, but it had -- and they would all need to deal with it. He began to gnaw on his lower lip, his tail hanging limp between his back legs as he waited for the other shoe to drop.