Phoenix Maplewood smile without a reason why

if he noticed her sudden turn of mood (and he likely didn't) his face did not show it. instead, he sat patiently through her answer, nodding placidly at her pauses. her twins. . . his eyes flashed to hers, fixing her with a gimlet stare. perhaps he hadn't met her, before. but he could have sworn--

the word family took him by surprise, and a slightly unpleasant surprise at that. since his break-up with dawn, could he truly consider the morningsiders family? any of them? kitten and river were children of his heart, true, but not his blood, and the rest. . . adi forced a smile, mulling her question for a moment before finding the words to speak.

"after our leader died, i stepped up to help his daughter, dawn," he said, his mouth feeling inexplicably dry. "we lead together. then there's her brother, sunny; pema and sebastian are our medics; aviana is sebastian's sister and aliac is sunny's mate. catori is grayday's widow, loir is a huntress. . ." and then there were the myriad children. god, where to begin?

"eventide, river, and kitten are grayday and catori's," he explained, feeling a bit better now that the subject had turned to pups. "aviana has faye, and pema had timberlake, radcliffe, meadow, and padma with shale--who we lost in the fire," adi added, his stomach twisting as he did so.