Duskfire Glacier the seal lullaby

Currituck doesn’t like the way Tahani’s face changes. Her ears fall back against her head and she feels a sinking feeling in her stomach. Sometimes tells her she already knows, there’s weird memories that tend to float around every so often that don’t fit anywhere to her most recent and what @Uki said the other day makes a little more sense.
 
“You’re not my mama?” her voice quakes and her throat constricts around her breathing. Tahani’s face softens and she leans in, assuring her that’s not the case and explaining she doesn’t have to be her true mother to be her mama. It makes her feel a little better but it doesn’t stop the questions she suddenly has.
 
“What is her name?”
 
“Ocracoke.”

“Was it just me?”
 
The woman pauses but Currituck doesn’t notice. “Yes.”
 
She takes a few seconds to process the new information, shifting her view. She looks up to Tahani, expecting to see her any differently than she had a few moments before. Currituck has always adored the woman, spends every night with her, curled up so can borrow some of the warmth. She and the other white wolves have taken her in and treated her like family. Siarut and Shivali will always be Uncle Sia and Aunt Shiv.
 
“She did not want me?” she asks a few seconds later, eyes welling with tears. Tahani tells her the opposite, reiterating what she’d said earlier, explained vaguely what someone had put her through (she realizes she hadn’t really wanted to know any of this), but she can see the strain on the woman’s face and Currituck sinks, setting aside the questions for another day.