Panther Park white winter hymnal

She nuzzled into him, taking everything she could from their embrace. But still the act felt hollow, as if it were under a microscope. She was judging their every movement — dissecting it to its very essence. Was the movement natural, or did it seem forced? Was there any semblance of electricity left in their touch? Did he feel the curves of her beautiful chest into his and feel that their heart beat as one? Or were they as every other wolf in the world, burdened with their white hot obligation? What once felt so natural felt so foreign. It disgusted her. She pulled away. 

It hurt the trembling lamb to hear him say those things. Just moments before they had been so happy, so carefree! Just a soon-to-be mother and a soon-to-be father enjoying the frivolities and lapping at the sweet waters of life. Now, it was all so complicated.  He trusted her? He had known her for only a second, and he already trusted her? Did her king give away his trust so freely? Or was that some latent memory [since forgotten], trying its hardest to poke its way through? And then there was his lack of love. It was so strange; the woman had never thought to hear those words uttered from his beautifully sculpted mouth. He would renounce everything before he renounced her; Olive was sure of it. But here he was, doing exactly that. Unreal.

But the woman had a back up.

"It's okay. That's alright," she spoke to Dakarai, but the words were meant for herself. “Our babies…” she curved her body and gazed at him, eyes become big green swelling pools a million miles wide. You couldn’t tell from looking at her that she was carrying life, but i showed through the fecund way she carried herself. “they love you, too. Just as I love you.” Without Dakarai's reciprocity, her passions seemed so... alien. misplace. forced. unnatural. "I can love..." she did not fear scaring him or turning him off, for this new [old?] Dakarai seemed plenty stubborn. "...enough for the both of us."