Sleepy Fox Hollow [m] nomajoka

"anselm."
her body thrummed with the remnants of a vague pleasure, one briefly felt but not truly experienced, not fulfilled. he had been rough and eager, the latter spurring her own investment in the act and the former sending such a contrast through the other side of her brain for how caracal had been with her.
her flanks stirred between the ironclad embrace of his arms, with breath, with a sigh. not with a sob; she would not let it be that. heda lay her cheek against the snow and watched cardinals darting beneath the evergreens, hoping for fallen pine fruits or a worm slumbering too near the frozen surface of the earth.
he was heavier than she, possessive; with some clinging emotion the widow wondered if he would want her again, if he understood what the end result of even this single time could be.
"anselm," heda said again, gaze searching upwards and back; soon they were parted and she made no move to distance herself from the hollow wolf. "tell me i'm your wife. i am, after this." she searched his face intensely. a new future had the possibility of beginning here, for them both. he needed only to accept it by committing.