Bearclaw Valley And now it's hard to breathe

When she screamed, his body went rigid, whilst his brow furrowed. See what? he wanted to ask, yet the words didn’t quite make it out of his mouth. He was entirely oblivious to her feelings, aside from the anger that she presently displayed—he was blind at times, but not so much so that he couldn’t see that. Yet, it confused him, knowing not from where her anger originated.

Then she continued to speak, and he thought—maybe—he’d figured it out.

“She has to lead beside me,” he said, body relaxing, though his confusion remained. “When my parents lived here, they led together. When I was in… another pack, their leaders were also mates. That’s how it’s supposed to be.” …right? his eyes almost seemed to ask. There was either a single leader that was without a partner, or two leaders that were married. That was how it had always seemed to be, that was what he’d grown used to seeing; he knew no better, having nothing aside from his past observations to base his decisions on. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Laurel,” he continued, daringly taking a step towards her. “You never seemed interested, I didn’t expect you to care.” Indra he might have expected to be bothered by it, but not Laurel. From where he stood, she’d seemed content with where she was. How was he to know any different? He couldn’t read minds, he could barely read emotions.

Slowly, confusion morphed into concern as he stared at her, disbelief evident in his gaze. “Do you think I won’t be a father to them? I’m gonna be.”—he glanced towards her abdomen, then back at her face—“I want to be there for them and you. I don’t want what happened to me and my siblings to happen to them.” He didn’t know how deep her anger ran, he couldn’t see that far, but he wanted to believe that she wouldn’t be like his own mother. “What do you want? What will make you not angry at me?” Truly, Alexander wanted to fix what he could and eliminate the tension from his makeshift family.