Blackfeather Woods [m] i've known everything but this

Too late, she almost shot back, but didn't. She looked at him, a hollowness in her stare that hadn't been there before except—well, things that were hollow could always be filled again, right? It wasn't as if her love and trust for him had eroded completely, the moment had just snatched it from her. But he had a chance to give it back. They had a chance to make things right.

Then do this for me, Maegi murmured, the words finely slurred. She motioned at the shadows in the trees, now watching them like patrons in a theater. Do it for them. They've decided. She pushed her muzzle into his neck, against the pelt that changed so suddenly into scar tissue there. Please, she whispered, almost vibrating with the intensity of her feeling.

If it was lust with which she came to him, it was a manufactured lust, for she'd never known it before. No, all she felt was love and fear, and those two things tended to make an ugly blend together more often than not.