Sunbeam Lair vicariously I live while the whole world dies

There was a lot to unpack in the words she spoke—words he felt came so much more easily to share in the dark of the night. A frown pressed upon him, his arms tightening around her, as if he could protect her from the ugly words she spoke of herself—the ugly thoughts.

When she murmured to him that she was glad they hadn’t explored one another physically—with an add on that the prior statement wasn’t necessarily true—all he could imagine as he looked to her somber eyes was someone had done one hell of a job on her.

“You can’t possibly think anything you just said about yourself is true?”

He understood self deprecating. Indulged himself with it as well from time to time—a dead wife, two missing kids, a new litter with a missing mom… things tended to add up.

But this was a whole new level. And while in the back of his mind, he had been wondering how he could protect the woman from the place they currently traveled to, he never once imagined he would need to protect her from herself.