Bearclaw Valley you are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down

anna once again bit her tongue and held back the ugly black tendrils of anger that threatened to pull back her lips although it was more for her own children and the life that stirred within laurel than either of the redleaf women that stood before her.  trepidation began to bloom in the raven's chest as the woman continued her tirade.  if it escalated any further, she would call for her mate —

and then laurel was collapsing at the mouth of the den.  recognition stirred within bearclaw's matriarch.  she had just been through this herself and she knew: it's time, she offered gently, her nose coming close to the gravid woman but not within easy biting distance, kindness in her eyes.  

the children beneath her (except for marten, the sweet boy) began to squirm and squeal as annasiak weighed her options.  she could condemn the laboring woman to crawl across the wilderness and back to her own den, she could call for the entire pack to go drag her sorry hind end back to where it came from.  

or she could make room in her own den — the safe space she had created that had shielded her from the aftermath of her sexual assault.  that had hidden her safely from the wrath of the redleaf sisters.  where she and xan had become a unit.

being an alpha was not solely about the respect you commanded or the opinions others held for you.  what set annasiak apart was that she would do what was right, and sometimes that meant putting on your big girl pants and letting things go.

come in, she whispered before disappearing back inside the den, moving her pups to an isolated corner next to the bison skin that valette had brought before calling for @Forrest, as the woman had done an excellent job of guiding anna through her own labor.  she gathered the lavendar bushels in her mouth and arranged them in a spot for laurel — whether she decided to enter or not.