Silver Creek memberberries

for @Rowan Mayfair <3

rowan.

she'd had her children in the time Cas had been gone, and when he found he could spare a moment from searching for Laika, the boy followed the trail of the young woman's scent to her den. Saena's words continued to ring inside his head, and he had devoted himself to planning their fulfillment.

for now, the boy deviated from both his plotting and his patrol to catch a silver fish that flashed brightly in the creekwater. he carried it dripping across the ground at a trot, and when he found where Rowan made her den, Cas paused to search his surroundings for her.

MEMBER? o i member!

Motherhood had become Rowan. Though by far her son was more active than her daughter both children were unique and beautiful all their own and she was enamored with the changes between her children. She had been relaxing near the densite when a familiar and utterly longed for scent reached her. Rowan let out an excited bark, no doubt alerting her children who were nearby playing before she beelined back to track Casmir down. 

Her tail was moving rapidly behind her and the pale woman buried her face in the one-eared boy's scruff as she found him. She ignored the fish entirely, not caring if it's scent or the water got on her. She didn't bother to wait to greet him, nuzzling against him tenderly. "Casmir," She was near breathless before she pulled back to regard him. 

their cute lil voices omfg

it wasn't a second after he arrived that rowan flew at him, pressing herself into his embrace and driving the fish from his jaws. Cas chuckled, surprise flooding him, followed swiftly by a second and amorphous emotion. burrowing his muzzle into her ruff, he breathed her familiar scent, realizing how fiercely he had missed her. "hey, Ro," he mumbled. 

they parted and he grinned sheepishly at her before glancing around, more to break the awkward eye contact than to look at anything in particular. "so where are the little fatties?" he chortled.

oh god I know right?

 

Rowan nuzzled into him, for a moment just letting herself bask in him. She'd been so isolated with just the children, the pack so small and scarce and truly only Spring to call a friend. She didn't know Heston well enough, though he did seem to mean no harm, and she hadn't seen Amber and had only heard the rumors of her pregnancy and abandoning of their pack. Rowan licked her lips when Casmir pulled away, sheepish and almost nervous around the younger male. 

"They're....they're perfect, Casmir." She said, nudging him before she lead him to where Cortland and Mona were playing. "This is Cortland Tobias and Mona Antha." She said, introducing her son and then daughter with a bright smile. She was so proud of them, undeniably overjoyed. "What....what happened?" Casmir had been gone so long and while she wanted nothing more than to just watch her family meet she wanted to know about the girls and Casmir's journey. 

deciding to set this after his thread w spring

Casmir followed Rowan the short distance to where her kids wre playing, and his heart melted at the sight of their tussling little bodies. and their names. badass. she asked him what had happened, and the boy cooled noticeably, keeping his eyes trained on the pups while he lowered his haunches to the ground to watch them.

"they didn't want to come home," Casmir finally muttered, turning his gaze back to Rowan. "Indra was too scared and Laurel --  Laurel hates her mom." he sighed heavily. "Saena isn't coming home either. she's staying close to Larksong in case the girls change their mind, but she's moving on."

he stared at his paws. "Saena told me to take this place back. it belongs to the family. and when i got home, Spring offered me the Beta position. so i guess that was meant to me." again he lifted his eyes back to the softness of Rowan's own. "Aria and Constantine left Donnelaith. Deedee and Em are leading. they want to make it how dad wanted. i ... i don't know if i can go back, though."

"what do you want to do, Rowan?"

She was almost gutted by the words that Casmir said. That his children didn't want to come back to them - that they had rejected the life they had been given, the world that had been made and carved for them! Rowan bristled some, but she put aside her own feelings to try and support Casmir's. Rowan's mouth opened, then shut, and around them the wind shifted harshly, whipping against his dark fur and her pale fur in contrast so clearly. "Her jealous fit cast me from the pack that should have been ours and then she abandoned them on the cusp of winter?" Rowan asked, tail lashing angrily behind her. 

How dare Aria leave them behind - but she would not drag her children through winter's grasp to go back to Donnelaith; it would not be safe. She nuzzled against him, trying to soothe her own emotions and his as well. "I am so sorry." She said as she glanced over at the children. They had never seen her angry, and for a moment, looks of confusion met them. "Play, loves, it's alright." She said softly. A few moments and the children had forgotten the momentary ordeal and they went back to playing. 

"My place is with you. As much as I appreciate Spring and what she has done for us, you are who I am loyal to. I will support you, Casmir." She said honestly. "It sounds so horrible to say it that way - is this what you want? Beta?" Because Rowan knew she had always seen greatness in the boy - of that she had no doubts in him at all. 

she was right. Aria had driven out Rowan, pregnant, and then had abandoned Deirdre and Emaleth to their own devices. that his own twin had supported the pale bitch in this enraged Casmir to no end, and this showed in the tightening of the muscles along his jaw, the way he glanced away from Rowan until the sight of her children soothed his anger. it was too late to go back, and Casmir didn't think he even wanted to do so, but the dread in his gut told the boy that without the expert leadership of an adult who had known Lasher, Donnelaith might well fall before the winter had even peaked.

he couldn't do anything about it now -- the Creek needed him, and Dee knew where to find him if she was alone. easier for her to travel across the mountains than it was for Rowan to return home with her young children. "of course it isn't," he told the grey-eyed woman, wanting to snap the words but realizing what she meant by them. "i don't -- i'm not fit to rule. i never wanted this, but the pack needs me, and i've always been there for Saena. i'll do whatever i need to do to keep us going."

as to the rest of her questions, Casmir sat down and raised his heavily furred shoulders in a shrug. "i don't know what else to do. i want you to feel like you're at home, and ... that's Donnelaith, isn't it? that's where my dad is buried. that's where you found out you were pregnant. we're Mayfairs. don't we belong around our family?" he was pleading with her now, asking for the answers to questions he didn't realize he had.

Rowan wanted to cipher the answers they both sought, she wanted to tend to him and try and make things better for him as she had found he had always done for her. Before he could reject her she reached forth and drew him down against her breast, wild beating heart loud as it could be as she tucked her head over his and held him. She comforted him as a lover, as a friend, as family - as one of the few she trusted and the only real thing that rooted her to the spot other than her children. 

"You are stronger than you think, and the pack needs strength and needs you - but you will learn, you will grow. There is such greatness in you, Casmir, do not doubt yourself." Rowan didn't speak on what she wanted, she truly didn't know. Right then she had her family though, the three of them, and that had to be enough. 

Casmir didn't resist when Rowan pulled him closer. he leant into her embrace, letting his head be nestled into the plush fur of her chest -- the boy gave a small sigh and closed his eyes as a deep knot of pain inside him began to unfurl. he didn't let himself weep over Lasher, not yet, but he as quickly discovering a thick distance that had formed inside him with himself and his family. first Connie; Eilidh followed her littermate, and now his baby sisters were off across the land trying to rule.

"i don't feel very great," he muttered against her pelt. he found the edges of his deepest want and touched them inside the cavern of his mind, and it came to him. "i need to apologize to Constantine." the reason for his anger had not been Aria's actions, but that Rowan carried the last of Lasher in her belly, and had been mistreated for it, not celebrated like Casmir thought she should have been. the boy cared fuck-all that his dad had found someone to comfort him after his mate had disappeared -- why should that be held against him?

Casmir realized too late that he was nuzzling into the velvet of Rowan's chest, breathing in the scent of warmth and milk that surrounded the woman. how could Lasher have resisted this? a witch who came to him and opened her arms to soothe the hurt in his heart. the boy pulled away abruptly and cleared his throat, refusing to touch on the moment with words. "and i should find Eilidh and tell her i love her. i guess .. i just need to go on a trip."

Rowan did not begrudge Casmir from the way he sought more - she had welcomed him for comfort, wanted between their touches to be a gentle presence that he knew he could rely on. Even when he admitted he needed to apologize to his brother Rowan pressed a kiss against the base of his present ear, not a reward precisely, but to show she would not take offense to such a thing - she did not want to live with the us verses them mentality that their circumstances had opened up to. "You are family,"  Rowan began quietly. "You will love one another always - and probably fight again as you age. It's just the way things are."  She said with a small smile. 

Rowan would not keep Casmir from his family, she would never dissuade him from reconciliation. She would not forgive Constantine his controlling attempts to choose her life for her, or the way he had ignored her words repeatedly. It had been clear he did not care for her nor for her children, and should he appear on her doorstep she wasn't sure if she would allow him near her children. If Casmir was present

.. Perhaps. 

Casmir pulled away and for a moment Rowan worried he could feel her thoughts - but it was not the dark boys twin Rowan despised but the haughty alpha who had rejected her children because she had wanted them for her own. Still, in an effort to protect the remaining Mayfair children Rowan had told no one Aria's true betrayal. She had kept that secret all her own. That Aria so quickly abandoned the pack only further proved she never would have deserved the gift that Mayfair children were.  To Aria it was the status symbol, it was all her pride and not her heart. Her gaze shifted for a moment to her babies playing so innocently and then to Casmir again. 

"Do you know where they went?" 

Rowan's gentle tones assured Casmir that she would not hold his need to reconcile with his brother against him. Cas knew she'd been hurt by Constantine's actions, and he'd protect her from that always. but this was something he needed to do. she hadn't drawn away from him, which had surprised the boy slightly, for reasons he didn't understand. a trip might be nice, though he wasn't too keen on going alone. Rowan couldn't accompany him, not with Mona and Cortland so young.

the boy's sides expanded in a sigh of long suffering and he tipped her a wry grin. "it's all bullshit, really. you wanna go for a walk, the four of us?" for some reason, saying that string of words out loud warmed Casmir through, but he opted not to dwell on it for now.

It was sad that they were locked until the children were older. Rowan, being overprotective, knew she'd probably only want the children out of the safety of the Creek's packlands once they were able to really hold their own - maybe four or five months old. That seemed forever away, but, the weeks had already flown by and they had taken brief trips to the Forest. 

The question none the less brought a smile to her face at the prospect of them doing anything together - it would reinforce the familial bonds that she longed for her children to have. "Yes, lets." Rowan finally stepped away from him, going towards the children to nuzzle against them for a moment before sharing the good news. "It used to take so much to bring Mona out from the den." She said with a chuckle, recounting for Casmir the things he'd missed. 

fade here? we need another one soon

he grinned and stood to his feet. "well we'll try and entertain her today." lowering his muzzle, Casmir gently approached the pups and took their scents, giving his in return. a gentle light shone in his eyes, only to fade as he raised them back to Rowan. Laika and himself had wanted children -- without her return, he no longer considered that a possibility.

slowly he fell into step with Rowan and the quartet of Mayfairs made their way into the thick of the Creeklands, talking as they went, and Casmir felt his heart mending with new love for Rowan's children.

Rowan relaxed as they started to walk. The children were excited by the prospects of a new person to know and investigate, she could already see the wheels turning in Cortland's mind how he would earn himself extra meals from Casmir. It was probably the happiest that she had been in months, all of them together, all of them relaxing in one another's company. It made her feel better about things, even if they weren't ideal at all.