Morningside Cuesta skaiplei

"i'm hoping it kills," heda retorted with more sharp coldness than she felt. he had startled her from her thoughts, this stranger. because he was unknown and because he was a man, heda found herself both paralyzed with fear and desperate to fit him into the role glaukos had been torn from.
he was not so much larger than her, less to fear, she supposed. in small pieces of awareness she grew painfully conscious of her rippled belly and its loud announcement of motherhood to all she met.
she should be in the den, with the pups. it was the place she knew to be. studying him a moment longer, heda gestured to the herd. "i want to run them off the edge here. do you think you could help me?"
this time, her voice carried a touch of apology.