Blacktail Deer Plateau The road outside my house is paved with good intentions

At some point, he heard her whisper his name, but while in the grip of the worst part of the headaches, he could never speak or do anything but lie there and wait for time to pass. He felt her nose and heard the quiet whine she released into his fur. The warmth of her body against his briefly pierced through the pain, and he realized she was trying to soothe his anguish just as her shh reached his ears. He certainly didn't deserve her or her soothing, but he was grateful for it even if it did nothing to ease the agony. Nothing helped except the passing of time; eventually, it would stop. Unless it didn't--no, it would stop, it always did.

He counted to himself, knowing that with every second, he had to be getting closer to the end. He tried to focus on his mate beside him, and finally, the pain started to lessen. After another minute, it was gone, and he released a sigh of relief. He opened his eyes slowly as nausea struck him. He clumsily got to his feet, feeling his throat tighten and bile rise from his stomach. Kavik barely made it outside their den before his last meal departed from his stomach and fell to the ground at his feet. There was always nausea after the headaches, but he only actually vomited about half the time, and of course now would be one of those times. Once he was sure nothing else was going to come up, he stumbled back into the den.

He avoided Liri's gaze as he walked back over to her side and slumped back down on the ground, feeling exhausted after his episode. I'm sorry, I tried not to wake you, he said quietly. I've...been having headaches since the bear attack. They're less frequent now, though. I...didn't have one at all yesterday, the alpha explained in a strained voice. It was the truth; he went from having two or three a day to now having one roughly every other day, so he took that as a good sign. He was no medic, though. His tired gaze shifted to her face, and his expression turned apologetic. I'm sorry, I should have said something sooner, but I didn't want to worry you. I'll try not to do that anymore--keep things from you, he admitted. It wasn't right to do that to her, and he didn't want to ruin things more than they already were because of his stupid pride and need to protect her from everything. Feeling weak from the episode, he rested his inky head on his paws after he finished speaking, unable to hold it up anymore.