Stone Circle And I will sing a lullaby

His eyes narrowed slightly. Fig was not the name of a wolf he knew, which meant that Tauris had met someone else. He felt sour, jealous, and felt his cheeks and throat burn. Someone else had courted Tauris, without him even knowing. It wounded him further to reflect on the promise she had made- that she would not go off and have children. That it would be them- only them. 

He wondered, then, if this meant she was choosing to have her own family. Whoever Fig was, he was unwelcome. Skáld wanted Tauris to himself, and it was only when he thought of how jealous he was of this Fig that he realized his feelings ran much deeper than something familial. 

It felt wrong to think of Tauris’ children as siblings when he held her so dearly in his heart. He was far too young to have children of his own, but now a boundary was placed between them that made him feel hopeless. He felt ashamed for not realizing sooner where his heart pulled. Growing up without blood family had often pushed him to accept others as his family but Tauris…Tauris evoked something much deeper within him. 

And yet while it broke his heart to realize she had chosen someone else, he could not pull away, even though he wanted to. His heart felt as if it was bursting from the pain, and he did what he could to stuff it, bury it deep within his chest but oh, how it ached. 

Knowing he could not (and should not) explain, there was little he could do but bury his head against her side and sob in agony.