Ouroboros Spine xxxxvii. to the finish line

for @Adrastus whenever you've got time. (and sorry for the wait on this! note: Lote is in her second trimester!)

Though they had spent her heat hidden out in her secret meadow, the couple had long since returned to the ulaq when her fever abated. In the first weeks, Lótë hadn't been able to tell for sure whether or not she carried Adrastus' children. Not until the muscles of her lower back and the joints of her hips began to ache worse than any time before in her life, until she found she could no longer stomach even the thought of food and just bending over the herbs in her garden made the forest spin -- and even then she wasn't certain. This was her first time doing this after all. 

It wasn't until the pale cream fluff along her underbelly began to shed by the pawful and her thin sides began to swell heavily with the numerous pups within that the two-year knew without a doubt that she was pregnant. When the change began to become visible, again the dove wound her way up into the blackpine to the secluded sanctuary where their future cubs had been conceived. 

Adrastus had been protective and attentive even without knowing whether she was expecting and the glen had become a personal space of sort for them. A few pelts were scattered across the ground near the stargazing stone beneath the overhang of the trees, sheltered from the elements. It was here that the fatigued mother-to-be retired, nuzzling against the soft hides that smelt of her husband -- curling lovingly around the distended bump along her midsection. Though her lids began to flutter in exhaustion, she wasn't all that worried about dozing off in the open. Few wolves knew of this place and her mate was never far off these days.