Ravensblood Forest The circle of life

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As to Dakarai’s explanation on how he thought Olive was due to enter her estrus cycle Arturo was silent. Perhaps the ebony man was much more perceptive to the female body than Arturo and so Ceannasach dismissed it without intended to study it any further. Dakarai responded that it was in Olive’s words that led him to believe she wanted a family and it was Olive that stood in Arturo’s path of saying no directly. She was one of the few Teaghlaigh founders left and Arturo did not wish to see her vanish from The Family like smoke as he’d watched Isley. It was understandable given the grief that no doubt choked her with Palisander’s death, but given all that had happened in such a short time: Furiosa’s death, Palisander’s death, and Isley’s departure Arturo wasn’t sure that babies was what Teaghlaigh needed. Teaghlaigh was small and he could not risk what little adults they had for mewling infants. It took an entire pack to raise pups, after all. Right now, they were surviving by the skin of their teeth.

Yet…yet Arturo found himself pondering what he would do if Lotte were to spontaneously go into her own estrus cycle. The gangster was logical enough to take in the consideration of Teaghlaigh but he also knew that he would never deny his beloved nightingale anything and they had already discussed children and that she desired to bear his. Were Olive to go into estrus and he granted the two permission the mental math told the gangster that they would be born mid-March. Even without Dakarai’s previous mention of it, it was easy for Arturo to count out in his head by going off of how long Duana had been pregnant. March was early spring, when life would begin it’s rebirth from the death that winter wrought upon the earth. Life would be easier for the wolves of Teaghlaigh by then. He eyed Dakarai as he contemplated, weighing the decision and his words carefully.

“Teaghlaigh as it is right now is too small to support pups and I specified that there were to be no pups during our first winter,” Arturo began, salmon pink tongue drawing against his lips. “but as two months is a long time it should be plenty of time to find recruits to build our Family back up.” Meaning that all of them would need to go on some recruitment runs. “You have my permission, so long as Olive agrees,” He began, letting his words hang, the lingering and unspoken but hanging in the air as Arturo prepared to name off his conditions. “You should know, however, that if by the time they are born we do not acquire more adults than we have now I will have no choice but to call a Family meeting to decide if we can support them. You can take the chance and actively assist in recruitment to ensure that we can support newborns or you can wait to see how we are doing by spring but that choice is up to you.” With their low numbers this is the best Arturo can offer Dakarai even though the grim words tasted like ash upon his tongue. So long as they managed to recruit then he didn’t forsee any issues but if they could not manage to bolster their numbers Arturo would do what he needed to — and he did not try to hide his condition so they had the knowledge of the grim possibility before going into it. What the couple chose to do with it from there was up to them.

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