Whitestone Monadnock we better keep on keeping it lit

Thank you for this <3 if you ever want another one just let me know, I'm always up for it.

The outpouring of love he received in return took him aback. That youth and innocence he had been admiring poured back out with a vengeance, and this time Craw was struck with a terrible melancholy, a blue note which tainted this otherwise sweet encounter. The chuckles rolled out of his chest as she dashed about planting kisses on every part of him she could reach, and as he let her and watched her he lamented that this is what he had missed out on - this is what had been taken from him. He had been so wrapped up in vengeance that he had never given himself the opportunity to just mourn.

And even this was not a vindication, a redemption, because while the girl was his in many ways, she was not his in every way, and this felt like the runner-up prize, the sticker for 'you tried'. Morganna was so fortunate and would never fully appreciate that. And yet, if he was honest with himself, he only felt that because of his loss. What was the saying? 'You don't know what you have until your father destroys it and it's all bonedust and lies'? Something like that.

The great yawn overtook Kara's little copper face, her tiredness betraying her. Craw gazed down at her with a smile, pulling back into the present, reaching down to bop her cheek gently with his nose. "Come on," he rumbled, taking her scruff in his jaws and carrying her carefully back to where her mother and brother still slept. The den was so cosy that he was barely able to get one leg in before placing her down beside where Odin was curled against Morganna, the two dark wolves peaceful and quiet, oblivious. His brighter sister was quickly following suit, and Craw coaxed her into slumber with another slow lick over her forehead. With her settled, his snout shifted to snuffle briefly against the fur in Morganna's neck, just to inhale her, to leave a kiss for her as she dreamt.

He had a feeling his own dreams that night would not be so sweet.