Sleepy Fox Hollow [m] nomajoka

they were glaciers in the thaw of spring, each cracking beneath its own weight with a great and thundering cry, a spate of pain welling up from black pools long buried.
"my god," heda replied, elaborating no further for it did not matter. "you talk about how cruel he is but he brought me here." fervency rose in her breast, a stirring of zealot fire she thought had been dead a long while.
"my father left when i was young. my mother had died. i didn't know the one who sired me. another woman nursed me and this man became father to me and to her daughters, who in turn became sisters to me." witch and druid and skaigona and worripa, all at the belly of sequoia.
so long ago. "that man taught me even the most solid home could just — disappear. that i needed to depend on something more than myself. i was so deeply, hatefully angry for such a long time."
until bartholomew.
"i learned to give it to god. sin is something we can't avoid. we can only try to do better." like marrying the woman you hated for so long so her kids didn't grow up bastards. but it was clear that any connection between them couldn't exist; anselm would not even tolerate her touching him, as if they had not just been connected so short a time ago.
and so the two only stared at one another, a painstakingly guarded space cut out between them. her breath rose like white smoke. "what are you going to do if i turn up pregnant?" finally she said it. "i won't live with your resentment, not any more of it. that's why it's best if i go. there's no hard talks to have or choices to make. someone told me about other packs in the area. id work hard to make sure we were taken in." he had seemed to care about this, and now she wanted to reassure him.