Chapter Eleven: Dae-rí's Confession

Just as the corn moon rose in the sky, the Alpha couple halted their breakneck chase though the vast grassland. Rennon's chest heaved as his flying paws finally came to a halt, and he wriggled out of his harness, before his form blurred into the one with two legs. He began to unbuckle Dae-rí's harness, the intricate straps of her magical apparatuses not able to be easily removed. The greater weight of her pack needed extra reinforcements, and Rennon lowered her pack to the ground with a soft chuckle.

Rí shook out her glossy fur even as she shifted, groaning as she stretched out her long, muscled limbs. Rennon pulled a small flask from her pack, and began to rub her tincture into the chafed skin of his mate's neck and shoulders. "Gaia bless you, Renny." She looked back to him with a relieved sigh, an exhilarated grin on her face as he gave her a soft massage. "Forgot how much that damn thing rubs." Rolling her round shoulders, she laughed breathlessly as Rennon caught her in his arms. She turned, stealing a soft kiss. "We haven't had a run like that in *years,* darling."

Rennon hummed, laying his lips on her mating mark, gently nibbling the scarred skin. "I missed this." He felt the familiar tingling in his lips as he kissed the sign of their bond, and held her close, revelling in their solitude, free from the sideways glances from so many of their peers. "Feels like just yesterday we coupled for the first time."

Dae-rí sighed, leaning her head upon Rennon's shoulder, pressing herself to him, and Rennon wished he could melt into her skin. Her fingers came up to his face, and she ran her fingers through his close cropped beard. "You couldn't even grow a beard yet," she murmured, rubbing his immaculately kept facial hair. "And I was a half starved runt fresh from the University." He hummed, rubbing his face over her hair and giving her his scent possessively.

"You were *my* runt." He felt her laugh in his ribcage, and smiled into the pierced shell of her ear, nosing the rings that denoted their seventeen years of marriage. "I'll gather firewood, if you find us some dinner, love," he murmured as he cast his thrice damned Alpha pride to Catharta where it belonged. Instinct told him he should do both, but he knew Dae-rí was the better hunter, especially in the night. He watched her silver eyes glow like lanterns as she set off for the hunt.

Meanwhile, he gathered dead wood from the trees next to a violet hued pool, its water glowing softly in the dim twilight. By the time the logs had burned down to magenta coals, Dae-rí had returned with a brace of rabbits and a —

"Rí, love, I think that one drank from the ponds." He gestured with the green stick he was using to stir the bed of coals, as he made a makeshift spit. The strange glowing creature had perhaps once been a rabbit, but it now had antler like protrusions coming out from its skull, and the tail of a much larger animal. Dae-rí shrugged as she set it down with the rest of her kills and began skinning them.

A pair of glowing eyes began to prowl the darkness on the edge of their camp, but neither wolf paid the Volknír any mind, the harmless scavenger was simply looking for scraps. Old Omega's enjoyed to pass along the superstition that feeding the animals was a surefire good luck charm, though Rennon himself had never received any sort of blessing from one.

Dae-rí made a soft noise of disgust, as the not-rabbit's glowing flesh was revealed, and looked up with a bashful grin. "I'm not eating that.'

" I'm glad we put the poor sod out of it's misery." Rennon chuckled as his mate flung the half opened carcass beyond the firelight, and the glowing eyes disappeared with a soft rowl of appreciation. Rennon picked a stalk of the wild growing oats behind him, chewing on it as a rampant idea burst into his mind. It was a frequent musing of his, though he had never shared with Rí the idea. But tonight, for some reason, be it the soft glow of the campfire, or the adrenaline rush of having a quest to themselves, he dared.

"Rí, have you ever thought about pups?" He smiled into the fire, tossing another small branch onto it. "I mean, us, but with a pup or two?"

Dae-rí's mage marks shifted their golden patterns of his unbonded mate, pulsing the soft glow of a mage without a familiar. Rennon knew just by his mate's living tattoos, that he had struck a nerve, and a cold pit settled in his stomach. He had no idea the hurt his innocent question had brought to the surface, until his wife began to speak.

"I… I used to dream of myself with a pup when I was just a girl." Dae-rí sniffed, turning the spit the two fat hares roasted upon. "I'd be older, with marriage rings in my ears, and there would be a tiny baby in my arms." Her voice cracked, and in the glow of the fire, Rennon saw the shiny tracks of tears on her face. "But then I presented, and I knew I would never have that dream."

She made a noise halfway between a sob and a laugh, as she wiped the tears which refused to slow. "Halfway through my first rut, the nurse could only think to give me an Omega's fake knot, so I could have a minute of relief." Rennon understood that statement deeply, and the horrible confusion it brought to a young Alpha. How such an act seemed to other Alphas, but how blissful it felt. "You can imagine what the others in my dorm did when they found it." She sniffed, curling around her drawn up knees, and blinking at him.

He sighed, shaking his head, and moving around to pull her into his arms. "I'm sorry, my love," he murmured. "We can still try— "

"Magic would corrupt our child, Rennon Farvolf," Dae-rí spat venomously. "It would be a *monster.* I'm not doing that to an innocent life." She pulled away, moving from her mate in her anger and revulsion.

Rennon chuckled, softly drawing her in to whisper into her furry ear, "I was referring to *adoption.* Foolish Alpha." He kissed their first ring, the simple golden hoop from the first year they were together. "My Alpha, I agree with you wholeheartedly."

Dae-rí crumbled in his arms, curling into him as she felt the crushing relief. "They… They would give *us* a child? At eight-and-thirty?"

"I spend every fourth day helping with the war orphans, those poor pups need every loving parent available." Rennon carded his hands through his mate's silky soft hair, admiring the play of light on her silver tresses. "I've been bonding with this little girl, Maeve, she's so quiet, with the most beautiful green eyes." Rennon kissed the tip of Rí's nose, humming contentedly as she gazed into his amber eyes. "She's waiting for us, after this mission."

"I love her already."