Morningside Cuesta it's time for a new beginning

Her voice drew his gaze, and as he looked at her pretty face, his heartbeat began to slow. "You're in heat," he said, a bit bemused. Somehow, in their little talk, he'd forgotten that this was about children and had begun to think it was about them, about this thing that'd always been between them. But she was in heat, and they'd coupled, and likely, she would whelp just as summer began.

The more he looked at her, the calmer he became. She would whelp, but he'd be beside her, and Dawn beside them, and Sylvas and Heartha, and Kieran as well. They'd manage. She would whelp, even though his heart was sore and heavy, even though the brother of these future-pups had fled from him. Even though the man that would've been their uncle was dead.

Life went on.