Whitebark Stream All my fears could be Irrelevant

family. it was complicated. it was at the root of surya's issues with love and commitment, the fear that no matter how much he wanted to pledge himself to someone, his true identity would rear his ugly head. he was not the son of a noble man, but the son of a cur who had left his mother (already mated to another!!) pregnant, and disappeared without a trace.

i am. . .ek dogala. i don't know how to put it—it is someone whose father went away. who wasn't pledged to my mother. he swiped his tongue along his jowls nervously, staring away from aphrodite. my father—who i thought was my father—is not my blood. i was created out of. . .lies.

there was a burning in his chest that bade him stop, stop, but he continued haphazardly on, looking distressed. i'm afraid i'll do the same, surya blurted, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. he saw stars, and the outline of her form—or was it her? or some other woman he was destined to spurn? that i can't be loyal because of my blood. because main hamesha dogala hoon.

he felt tears behind his eyelids and held them at bay, taking a shuddering inhale. was this just theatrics, a panic reaction to get out of commitment, or were these issues really so deeply ingrained within him?