Heron Lake Plateau shadow, my sweet shadow

Sorry this took me like 100 years to reply to! <3

Quixote reacted somewhat as she had expected he would, but it wasn't directed at her and the relief that flooded through her was almost dizzying in its intensity. Later, when she could think with a clear head, she would look back and wonder why she'd been so afraid. None of it had been her fault. But her love for him ran deep, far beyond that a sister holds for her brother and well into the love a mother feels for her son. For she had nursed the boy at her own belly, helped him learn to walk and talk and hunt. He had grown under her watchful eye into a handsome, capable young Redhawk, and yet while she liked to think she had done a decent job of teaching him and his siblings the difference between right and wrong, somehow Screech had managed to choose the wrong path in nearly every aspect of his life.

Her mate's touch brought discomfort to her wounds, but she did not grimace. Some distant part of her still felt she deserved the pain, though she knew that was ridiculous. "I tried to give him a chance," Quixote rumbled, his body all but vibrating with the force of his anger. "So did I," she agreed weakly. She swallowed and continued, "I blamed myself for a long time. Thought it was something I did. Tried to justify his actions by...fabricating little errors on my own part, I dunno. But his actions these past few months... He's been such an asshole to me, and has avoided me at every turn. Now this." She shook her head and was silent for a few beats, before looking up at Qui and adding, "I'm not defending him from his fuck-ups anymore." Not that she would have to, as it turned out.