Moonspear p1 cleaner than your church shoes

Arcturus seemed surprised by the apology, which in turn didn't surprise Charon. He tried to figure out what was going on in the boy's head, for none of his children were too vocal. Arcturus then looked up him and asked him a question he didn't expect. A question that nobody had actually literally asked him -- or perhaps dared ask -- since his return to the mountain. They had told him that if he had, they would... That if anything came from it, that meant... But nobody had asked. Not this directly. Not in a way that Charon felt it impossible to weasel his way out without lying.

Honestly, his first thought was to lie. Lying and exaggerating had come easy to the Ostrega all his life. It was almost like it was the easier, better choice to lie sometimes. He just wasn't sure why. But there was something in Arcturus' imploring questioning that made Charon want to tell his son the truth. He wasn't sure if it would lead to anything, but it was very likely that it would and if Hydra and Amekaze decided to unreasonably punish him for it, then he wanted his son to know the truth.

And so, after making sure there was no one listening in on them, Charon spoke at last to answer his son's question. Something did happen. I did not want to tell you in front of the others because they won't understand. I don't want then to hurt Speedy. Your mother refused to give more children to this mountain, and that is why Hydra and Speedy both came into their season. It wouldn't have happened otherwise. I intended to just protect Speedy, but one night she said that she had always found me attractive and one thing lead to another. I fear for what will happen if she is pregnant, what the others will do, even though Speedy is one of us and the mountain's Alphas should have a litter this year. The problem was, they wouldn't see it that way. Ame was too stubborn to realise the pups would be hers, or maybe simply too old and unwilling to raise more, hers or otherwise. Charon let out a hefty sigh as he said this out loud for the first time, and slowly the predicament started to dawn on him.