Ouroboros Spine xlvvi. ringing in my head, when you broke my chest

just wanted to be clear, lote was still laying down! :)

"Calm myself?" she repeated, brow twitching with indignation. "Aye, I agreed to become your wife. Because you were kind. You were thoughtful. Because you were unlike any man I had met. Never have you been less that man than you are today." And now, the cloudberry stood, dipping for just a moment to rearrange her litter carefully together in her brief absence. She stepped around their wiggling forms, placing herself some feet before them. She raised her evergreen gaze to meet Adrastus'. "Do not ever kid yourself into thinking you are my keeper just because you are my husband -- or that you have the right to order me about as such. The last man who tried that never saw me again." Her face was hard, serious. It was not a threat but a factual statement. He had no right. It was she who had carried them, brought them into this world, cared for them all while thinking he was dead -- and not even five minutes through their threshold he had the audacity to call their child a deformity, to look upon Ink and their youngest with scorn.

His words did little to settle the riled mother. Her face turned away at the harshness of it all, the violence. That he could even suggest such a thing might happen to his helpless child without flinching -- as if it were normal. As if it were just and right. It sent a shiver down her spine and tore at her heart.

"I don't care what they did in your homeland. And despite what you think, Sialuk and Shikoba were there when your children were born. The whole pack gathered to protect them. In your absence, Kukutux and Aiolos watched over me, over our children. They made it quite clear that I would always be a member of their family, a part of Moonglow, as would my children. The only one who seems to have found any dismay with the children I brought to your hearth is you." 

"I'm sorry you were disappointed. I'm sorry you see them as defective," the word was like bitter herbs on her tongue as her octaves dipped into a low, fatigued murmur -- suddenly drained and heavy with the crushing sensation enveloping her chest. "I'm sorry you came home and found we weren't good enough for you." Her lips twitched with the effort of keeping her face from crumpling either with disgust or despair. 

"I think you should leave," she told him, glancing beyond him to the doorway of the den. "I won't keep you from seeing them, as long as you can keep your negative comments to yourself. But I don't want you here." Her tired eyes seemed to plead with him not to make her call for @Shikoba and @Aiolos or any who might be near. His presence in the village was tenuous at best and even now, there was no telling what might happen if such a situation were to arise. She did not want to see him forced out, unable to see their children until they were old enough to travel beyond the Spine's borders.