Heron Lake Plateau Your love is like a car crash.

If there was one word that accurately described how Towhee felt lately, it would be woebegone. She should have been looking forward to the arrival of her nephews and nieces, who were due any day now. Instead, she was worrying they'd be born dead or that the birth would kill their mother, so soon after the sudden loss of their Aunt Orca. And all the while, Screech was somewhere out there, running free despite the havoc he had wreaked upon the Redhawks. X was out there too, though, still scouring the wilderness for any sign of him, and that gave the Beta some cold comfort.

The sky suited her melancholy mood, with gray clouds blocking the sun and a cool wind soughing the blades of fur along her shoulders as Towhee traipsed around the borders. The sudden twinge between her legs did nothing to help her disposition, especially when it forced her to stop, sit and investigate. When she hiked her leg in the air and saw that she was now sporting two lumps—unmistakably testicles now—she felt a wave of despair wash through her, followed quickly by a scorching blaze of anger, the flames of which seemed to raze her inner landscape until she was nothing but a molten core on the verge of a nuclear meltdown.