Blacktail Deer Plateau Light up your wildest dreams

Rosalyn was the first to speak, answering his question but also asking one of her own. Wives he understood; it took him a moment or two, processing the word and translating it back, but he did understand—to an extent. Mates, however… mates was not something he had a word for, able to relate it only to pack mates—friends and family. He thought to share this but was kept from doing so by the sound of laughter, forcing his ears flat with embarrassment. Her approach to his side helped brush off whatever shame was felt but, still, he was at a loss.

“I remember what a wife is—annak. The uppik told me but…” he frowned, struggling to find his words. “I didn’t know about mates. They’re not the same as pack mates?” Different from friends and family but more than a stranger—more than the former titles, too, perhaps.

Erzulie spoke of love being given but the comment further added brought his brows back together, eyes flitting back and forth between them—and then they shot up with surprise, as did his ears, the latter he could feel burning. “Like… like pakik?!” he exclaimed, a noticeable rise in the tone of his voice at the word. “I don’t… know what it is in this language. I wasn’t told.” Truthfully, he hardly knew about what went on between wives; Aningan left his own family at an early age and his primary teacher became the uppik—the owl whose return was yet to be made following the storms. But that was hardly on his mind presently, overwhelmed by what he was told—and by the realisation of what he did.

“I don’t think I want Ying to be my wife—mate?” he decided, shaking his head. “I don’t want to do… that… with her.” The thought alone made him nervous beyond words—besides, he agreed to father their puppies already and felt bad even considering partaking in the same act with someone else.