Blackfeather Woods please don't let them look through the curtain

Any day now. She knew it by the way her sides had reached heir apex, the stirrings within her stronger, more frequent. She knew the length of a pregnancy, and knew much of hers had long elapsed. Her sister, she knew, had given birth perhaps a month ago, and by the scents of blood and how the inside of the den had looked like a great struggle had taken place, she was nervous for when her own time would come. 

But the fear that stood out the most was that of being alone. She had her sister, and Potema was kind to her, but what of their father? The male who had promised himself to her, only to leave when he was most needed, and completely disappear without warning of any kind. She felt anger, at times, but mostly, a crushing despair. Nemesis had her mate, a whole pack she knew and cared for. What had she, but a sister she barely knew and a dim place in which to raise her children.

Charon. The thought of him returned, and she winced, for he had not graced her thoughts in many days. Nervously, she looked to the entrance of the den behind her, wondering if she ought to tell Nemesis of her encounter with the male. More than an encounter. She did not know what her sister's reaction would be, to know that she had mated not only with Harley, but the alpha of the pack she had been enthralled to. Her stay at Moonspear had not been bad, but the horrible mistakes she had made there and the resulting escape pained her and were like more marks on her ledger of mistakes. Quietly, she let out a chuff, becoming her sister to perhaps leave the comfort of the den and her young ones a moment, and speak with her.

The children were becoming increasingly mobile, she observed. Ever since they had been allowed to venture a few steps outside, some seemed to constantly hover near the exit; ignoring her efforts to keep them close. It was Astrid in particular, she worried for. The girl was far to adventurous for her age, and whinny. Nemesis would not have a whinny child. Yet, she seen no way to correct her behaviour. They were infant's after all. Yet, as soon as they begun to comprehand words to a good degree, they would learn. She would make sure they did, for she would not have a child with the disobedience of Xan in their early, early years. 

But, it was her sister's hesitant presence that suprised her. They had little time to communicate before the spiderlings had been born, and she could only imagine how her sister felt. It must have seemed Nemesis was far to busy to interact with her only surviving realitive. Perhaps, that was the case. Yet, all the same she beckoned the girl closer so that at least one of her children would come to meet their aunt for the first time. The interaction with Damien had proved managable enough; family came next. "Sister," She looked over the girl, who had only grown in size, indicating her time would come soon. "You have been distant," She opened her mouth to speak more, yet a tug on her tail cause her to snap her attention to the eldest, yet most attached child she had birthed. Seeing that the child was now over his nap and was fully alert, there was no point in coaxing him back into the den. "Atshen," She cooed, guiding the boy to face his aunt. 

Once again, he arose to find his mother missing from her usual warm spot beside him. This, he clearly defined in his head, was something he did not like. Lifting himself from within the pile of lumpy beings, he sought out the warmth; following what he saw out the den. Indeed, his mother was outside. It was cold. Her looming figure did not frighten him but give him the assurance he needed to become easy again. His mouth sought about any piece of his mother he could grasp as if to hold her tight and never let go. That happened to be what he would learn to be a tail. Her voice was soothing, causing him to venture closer to the sound as he could get. But when he made his way through her legs and closer to the source of the sound, he made an odd discovery. 

The pale colors made him wince, uneasy, as he struggle to comprehend what this was. He had hardly paid attention to the black man just a day before and he had simply assumed the dark man was his mother. His mother was dark, therefore anything dark was his mother. Yet, his father, was pale. Was this his father? It had to be. Yet, he could not understand the feeling of uneasiness that swirled in his stomach and he gave a pitiful whine. "maaaaaaaa," his face burrowed in his mother's legs, wishing the weird feeling go away so he could eat. And play. He really wanted to play. 

Her sister arrived soon, a child in tow. At her few, simple words, Althaia shifted her weight, eyes flicking from the little one to her sister as she spoke. "I did not want to be a bother, not when you have children to care for." she murmured, knowing now that telling her sister of her past mistakes would alleviate some of the weight on her chest, but hesitant to tell her all the same. The audience of a pup did not increase her desire to tell her sister, but words spoken likely went straight over their heads at this stage. 

It was tangible, the silence that stretched before she spoke again. "I told you that Harley was the father of my pups." she stated, a string of words that seemed to dangle in the air a moment, though she was unwilling to continue them just yet. It was only after another couple seconds of silence that she added, "That may not be completely true. There was...another." she said, meeting her sister's gaze a moment, before her pale green optics returned to the dark form of the pup that seemed absolutely besotted with her sister.

She did not bother to respond to her sister's remark; clearly the girl had more to say. In the absence of speech, she sat upon the ground, pulling her child towards her in attempt to easy his nerves. A gentel preening was usually all it took to settle them, and in this case, she hoped his shyness would not deter her sister from approaching them in future times. Yet, Althaia's interest was not in Nemesis's young. The dark woman listened as the other admitted what most would keep a dark, dark secret. 

Yet, it did not surprise her nor worry her in the slightest. What Althaia did with men were her business, and quite frankly, given Harley's lack of any useful qualities apparent to her; Nemesis did not blame her younger for her disloyalty. If there had been any real matrimony in the first place. "Oh?" She only offered with a tone of slight curiosity. "And who was that?" She could only imagine another male in her captive pack. It led her to wonder if Harley himself had known, causing his disapperance from the dark woods, Yes, that was most likely it; she decided. Coward. Althaia would get no judgement from her. 

Her sister did not seem to care much that she had not told the whole truth, and this interested yet cool reaction allowed for her to share the last of her information with greater ease. She had been slightly fearful should her sister become angry at her for not being fully transparent, but obviously, her nervousness had been misplaced. What had she too fear from her sister? Her initial reaction at Harley had become all too true, the moron had left her. And though she knew other causes could be at fault, his sudden departure had caused her great sadness, leading to anger that she could not shake. 

"His name was Charon. He was the alpha." she said a little more boldly, unafraid now, her unease put at rest by her sisters words and fairly certain that this information would not ignite much anger in her. She doubted that she even knew of the male, his pack was far. "It was nothing but a..stupid mistake." she admitted at a murmur, for she felt no feeling for Charon other then the need that was fueled by her heat, long dissapated.

She had been calm, yet the news came to her in tidal waves. The alpha, her sister held an opposing Alpha's children within her. Her fury was beyond control. "Alpha? Did you not think to tell me this? Did you know think that this would have been important information to share, say we'd, gone to war with this pack?" She abruply stood up, potentially knocking over her child in the process. Atshen would recover, yet the shared information was something she could not simply forget. "That kind of information is not something you conceal, no matter the fear of judgement," Her anger was in no way tied to any hate for her sister, but the foolishness of her actions. The maternal side of her was brought out, as if she was reprimanding a pup of their wrongdoings. Yet, Althaia was not a pup, and she had the brain to think. Yet, it seemed, she was in the very least, not of the right maturity to handle such things. That, she could not blame her for. The insolence brought upon her was not of her doing yet could not easily be forgiven. 

She paced, a mixture of emotions swirling within her as she struggled to contain her temper. "You must not go back," She spoke, dead serious after a moment of silence. "Promise me you will have nothing to do with that pack ever again," Her cold eyes bore into her sisters, yet it was of a protective nature that caused her to meet the other with such strict emotions. The risk was to high, all the possible outcomes of being involved with that pack was far to great, a risk they could not take. If they came looking and did not like what they found, the following would be anything but pleasant; she was sure. As she looked to the dazed figure of her eldest child, she knew it was far to a cost to start a war over bastard children. 

The best word to describe her sister's actions in those next moments was explosive. Fury rolled off her in waves as she stood, angry words rolling like wasps from her tongue. They stung, and she shrunk, crouching low and tipping her ears back in an automatic submissive behaviour. She was weak. So much more than her sister, her strength of will having been broken by loss, and the great doubt she had in herself. Her mistakes, Harley's disappearance, this whole situation had taken it's blows at her while she stood still, and she had paid the price. 

At her sister's last words, her eyes wide, she responded quickly. "I- I promise. I would never-" she broke off, shivering once in self-disgust and fear. Her leg shot a bolt of pain up her leg, as it often did now when she rested on it in the wrong way, and she shifted her weight, eyes wide. "I-I'm scared, Nem. This...wasn't supposed to happen." she half whimpered, refusing to budge from her small, crouched stance.

The world around him seemed only to grow louder, and scarier and in an instant, he was flung back; away from his mother's shelter. A gasp escaped him as he connected with the ground, a mixture of varied emotions he could not place. As his thoughts collected, the painful feeling in his shoulder made it's way into his mind, a wail escaped him. Why? Why did he have to feel so.. not nice. He wanted warmth, comfort. He wanted his mother, and his father @Kove and his fellow lumps. This was... he couldn't understand. Perhaps, this would be his earliest memory of pain. None would know.
"m-m-mm mmaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Tears made their way to his eyes as pitiful sobs racked his body. "mMMMMAAaaaa!" the water from his eyes made it's way to the folds of his mouth and he tasted his first tears. Yowl after yowl until he had little breath in his tiny body. Whatever this was, he wished it would never happen again. He did not like the feeling of.. sad. It was extremely unpleasant.

The child screamed, the sister apologized and her headache grew. She sent Atshen away, nudging him towards and into the den so that she could speak to her sister in silence. Returning to her sister's quivering form, she sighed, casting her eyes to the ground. She should not have yelled, she knew it. "It is fine. You will be fine, okay?" She sought her sister's face for approval, some sign that her anger had not just damaged the very grounds that their relationship stood on. The dark woman tenderly paced towards Althaia's crouched form, nosing the woman with an affection she had only shown to her immediate family. 

"You will be okay, I promise," Nemesis kept her promises, she had always done so. Althaia, despite their strained sisterhood, was as much under her care as her own children. It was something she took quite seriously. If Althaia had the slightest bit of faith in Nemesis, the dark woman urged her sister to use it. Nemesis would not fail her, not again.