The Sentinels [m]y love is a lifetaker

She would've been happy to lose herself in his scent, in the warmth of the moment. But he wanted her to eat, and her stomach churned the moment the word left his lips. Marina grimaced slightly as Dutch turned her head toward the food, but whatever protest she'd been preparing died on her lips at his question. She wasn't sure she could answer that; feeding herself was no longer her main priority, now that she had no children to nurse...

Children. Her stomach clenched harder this time, drawing a stifled gasp and a small flinch from her. She turned to bury her face in Dutch's ruff with a plaintive whine. My stomach is all in knots, she admitted, swallowing hard. She took a deep breath and drew away to meet his sunset eyes. She couldn't see them without thinking of her daughter, and it was a sweet ache.

My first season... I knew nothing about it. I didn't get to choose, because I didn't know I was making a choice at all, Marina began softly, tremulously, but her voice grew steadier as she went on. She wanted to tell him this. Sialuk found me, but it was too late then. So she brought me to Moontide. I whelped my first litter there... Carlisle and Brockleigh. I raised them alone until I met Chakliux.

Last year, I tried to hide. But I didn't get to choose. Her voice wavered a little then, and she buried her face back into Dutch's fur. She felt her breath hitching, her thoughts fragmenting, but the words kept spilling out; Your father asked me if I loved you. Back in Moontide. And I did. I do. You were my choice. You are my choice. Not for children — not just for that, but for everything. Forever. And now he was here, and she was drowning in the terror that something else might come to steal the choice from her again, again, again.

How could she even think about eating?