Porcupine Ridge children of the corn

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.