Jade Fern Grove lift back and see the darkness hid

lips gently parted to deny her, but the crush of it kept him silent. would their new bond now be corroded if he said no? he thought of laurel, how she had fractured before him, how she had come to find him again in his solace. how she too wanted children, and how mahler, bound by his word to wylla that day in the frozen wetlands — how he could not find it in him to do this without a mateship, without a marriage.
without her.
"i vould tell her i cannot, that i vant her children raised inside her home and tended by a father who can be there alvays." seeking, now, the corestone of iana's eyes, seeking and asking that they share this understanding, even as a man's weak desire began to flutter behind his veins.