Duskfire Glacier [m] grace, this is fucking birmingham

Wintersbane did not chuckle along with her, as Lane had expected. Actually, he looked troubled. Surely he couldn't be so attached to her already; they had spoken hardly a word in between hello and goodbye (although their "goodbye" did pack a punch, she had to admit). A long moment drew out between them, made awkward by the difference in attitude each seemed to have toward their encounter. The humor dropped away from Lane's expression.

As he began speaking, Lane's brow also knit. It always seemed to happen this way, didn't it? Even though Lane felt she was enormously clear with her intentions when they met at the border, Wintersbane seemed to be under the assumption that she was staying. Antares had been the same way. Was it a quirk of alphas, or of pack wolves in general, Lane wondered? Did they all believe that their own pack was the pinnacle of existence, and that there was nothing about the wilds that could draw a wolf back out once they had sampled the sweet life that was pack living? 

Lane might have given him a mouthful about his assumptions, and reminded him of her previously and explicitly stated purpose here, if he hadn't dropped such a bomb for his final question. 

"Pregnant?" she echoed, taken aback. "No, that would only happen if I was--" Realization crossed her features immediately. Fuck. Oh, fuck.

"--Fuck."

Lane's weight dropped to her haunches. She needed to sit down for this one. She shook her head. She was a trained medic, for fuck's sake! How could she have overlooked the telltale signs of her own first heat? 

"I.. guess that changes things..?" she murmured.

Lane's mind was racing. She knew that this called for a change of plans, but she couldn't land on exactly what she was supposed to do. Stick around? Stay until she knew one way or the other? Then what? She didn't know a damn thing about this pack, or their customs. Did she have the pups and leave? Did they get married? Oh fuck, she didn't know shit about this guy-- what if Wintersbane was already married? Would her children be bastards? Lane's amber eyes found the tundrian's polar gaze, pleading with him to answer the questions she hadn't-- couldn't-- even speak out loud.