Whitebark Stream The blurred world is filled with dust

@Kaori fade in your next post?

"I smelled blood," he lied when she asked why he'd come. Well, sort of. He'd picked up on the scent of afterbirth in the air, and traced it to Kaori's den. Artyom heard movement within her hollow, the gentle cries of newborns, and remained entirely aware of how threatened his presence made her feel.

He exhaled softly, and held his ground; he had to know. "Kaori, are they..." he stalled, took a moment to consider how best to ask without it sounded less like a concerned friend and more like a demand. Emotion tightened the pale Alpha's throat as he thought of his fallen comrade, of his gored flesh and spilled guts, and that lifeless eye that stared back at him.

Inhale

He closed his eyes for a long pause, before taking the plunge: "is Salvatore their father?"