Bearclaw Valley seal the clouds with grey lining

It was a bit hurtful to see Indra this way, especially considering Laurel was feeling much better. She had a game plan: Raise pups, get over post-pregnancy stiffness, claim Alphaship -- or leave, if she lost that challenge, once the pups were big enough to travel -- one way or another and set them on their rightful place as heirs. It wasn't that she did not understand her sister's worrying. Laurel had worried and hated a lot in her life, but somehow when she looked at the teeny faces of her teeny babies with their teeny smiles and coughs and sneezles, the world wasn't such a complicated and painful place. She had something to fight for.

The subject of Xan roused her unhappiness somewhat, for Laurel remembered their last proper conversation too well. She did not allow him near the pups -- though if he would try harder, she might, but not try harder for them, but for her -- so there was little space to be a father, for now. "I don't want to see him. He brings food but that's it. He can see them and be their father when he decides to love all of this family." Her eyes shone with emotion as she spoke, and she meant the words. She was too afraid that he would take them from her, that he'd fill their heads with lies or that he would make them think of his mate as their mother. Laurel wouldn't take that risk.