Duskfire Glacier tangled up in you

She had been trying to mend this as best she could. Clutching at strings, reaching for explanations that she thought would best quell the storm of his emotions. But none of them were perfect. None would fix the hurt here. She simply could have driven Rye away the day he found her. It was too late for that. She hadn't realized how deeply Wintersbane truly wanted these children to be all his own.

"I had wondered." She returned. "Even dared to hope." A smile wanted to come to her voice. The weight of the situation kept it at bay. "I had just...never..." She choked on her words, swallowing thickly. Try again. "I was too afraid to say it. To ask..." She cut herself off, feeling her throat closing up with the threat of tears in her eyes. There was nothing holding her back now. He had opened himself to her, and she to him. 

She thought of Rye. She would have to tell him. Hopefully Wintersbane would not come down too hard on him. She cared for the Hotah, but only as a pack mate. As a dear friend. Otherwise she wouldn't be standing here confessing her deepest feelings to the scarred Tundrian. It was him she wanted. Had yearned for. The missing link in her life, leaving her an incomplete, fractured chain.

The moment wasn't perfect. It didn't have to be. The mushy romance could come later. Evolve naturally. All she wanted now was to clear the air. To soothe his burning nerves, kissed with the cool touch of ice like that sprawled in so much of their home. She would go to any means to do so. His voice wrapped around her, tugging her to him. A promise, asking to be returned. A pledge of the heart and soul. What Tzila, the Shadow Queen heard then, were words she thought she might never hear. For others, but not her. She had been wrong. Fate was smiling upon these two wolves, brought together by tragedy, at last. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "I will. I am yours, completely." Her voice was soft, hushed with sincere elation.