Noctisardor Bypass dark veil

Laurel was 1,5 month pregnant now and it showed. She looked as expected, with her stomach round, and it was becoming harder to move around now. She honestly just wanted it to be over with. Laurel had hoped that she would feel settled in Rivenwood since her return, but everything tasted like poison now. Ever since that fateful night where Mahler had turned her down and prostituted her to one of his friends, things had been different. Laurel was not sure that she could live here anymore, but she also knew that leaving now would be a death sentence for her children. Every time she thought of Mahler, her stomach twisted. He would not fight for her unless a fight came to them, and he would not love her. Why, then, did he so desire to keep her by his side, in his pack? Laurel did not understand. She wanted clarity, but it felt like Xan all over again; the love for another woman kept him away from her, but there was something beneath the skin. Something that promised her that if this other woman did not exist, that there could've been something beautiful. Now, all she was left with was a hollow shell.

She really did want Rivenwood to be her second chance. Her last chance. Her happiness. But it was hard when it felt like there was a wall between her and Mahler; once, she had felt comfortable in his friendship. Now, she was not so sure. It was as though her heat had awakened something — and perhaps the knowledge that she was once more not good enough to be loved compared to others — and no matter how hard she tried to push it back down it would not leave her alone.

She lay by Birdsong Lagoon, but where it had once been a place where the birds chirped, now it was hard to hear them sing their lovely songs, and easier to hear them bicker among each other.