Bramble Falls if i fall for you, i'll never recover

She was sparse enough around the others that Pip felt certain her absence for a few days wouldn't be anything of particular note. But she could no longer sit idly by like a good pack wolf should. Yes, she had a duty to her family here, but she also had a duty to her heart and the family growing inside her. Whether the others could understand or not, Pip had to find him. Kjell was every bit as important to her as each and every one of her packmates. If she were honest with herself, perhaps even more so.

Despite her condition, Pip set a hard pace in her searching, slowing for little other than to relieve herself and scavenge something quickly before any creature could take offense and moving on. She found herself more readily drained of energy, a new development that frustrated her. Why now? More than once, the mute looked to her belly with exasperation. She was trying to do her best by the little lives within her belly; they weren't being very understanding!

In her travels, the agouti female smelled clear markers for a pack and skirted it widely. The last thing she needed was to be surrounded by strange pack wolves who would not likely take the time to try to understand her communications as readily as her own packmates. Only once she had put half a day's distance between herself and the other pack's boundaries did she find her first clue towards her mate's location.

Lowering her muzzle to the ground, she sniffed at a stale trail. It was something, at least. Encouraged, the little sea wolf ignored her roiling belly and pushed onward until the roar of a waterfall could be heard. With an exhausted sigh, she lowered her head. Maybe it was best to take a break after all. Fishing in the falls seemed a good way to ease her aching paws in the silty bottom of a pool as well as feed the growing life within her.

Fate. It was the only thing to explain how she was so suddenly looking at her mate across the short expanse of water. @Kjell looked rough, but a sight for sore eyes nonetheless. Tearfully, her tail wagging fully, Pip chirped out to capture his attention before racing straight through the pool to collide happily into her mate's chest.

Most of his time was spent asleep.

If Kjell wasn’t asleep, than he was wishing he was wrapped up in its sweet embrace. Rest had become his greatest frenemy – to feel so good, and yet it stole all of his time. It was an endless cycle, and one he could not escape. One that he wasn’t certain he wanted to liberate himself from at all.

The wolf yawned. His stomach gnawed at his insides and insisted he wake, and so he did. It was with a lazy stretch that he regained his feet, shaking winter’s chill from his thick, swarthy coat before he set off. What to eat? It didn’t matter much. His jaw cracked as he yawned. Kjell put his nose to the wind, keen to scent something nearby when something all too familiar, and entirely unexpected, tickled his nostrils. Signy!

Kjell made an about face, his lazy walk a much more invigorated lope as he came to the water. He hadn’t even the time to lift his muzzle again when a chirp caught his attention. Here! Right here! How had she made it this far when he had no idea where he even was? The male gave a woof, and without a second thought, splashed into the water. The quickest way was a straight line.

Had she the voice, Pip would have been a mess of squeals and yips and happy yelps. @Kjell, as rough as he looked, was a balm to all that was going wrong. In her heart, she felt a great bit of guilt. She was on probation. Whatever that meant. But she was certain it did mean she wasn't supposed to be off pack territory meeting with one of the very wolves that had been driven off for assisting in breaking pack law. And yet, it was worth it. Just to see his face. Just to know he was alright and safe.

That he came to meet her without hesitation lifted her soul in a way she couldn't describe. Though she could never describe or explain it in the language she used, Pip had been awfully depressed ever since the pack meeting. Without the support of her mate, she'd felt lost and alone despite being surrounded by family. Seeing Kjell settled every shaky piece of her that had unraveled in their time apart back into the place it was meant to rest.

After her embrace, Pip pulled back and immediately set to sniffing him all over with worry. Was he hurt? Finding nothing obvious, her soft orange eyes settled on his before she remembered herself and dipped her head shyly. Would he notice? Her belly was swollen and her scent at the very least markedly different than the last time he'd been with her. Did he know that she carried his children? Did he want any?

Sudden, nervous doubt set in. Did he want any? What if he didn't? Could she do this without him? Physically, yes. Veho had demanded that the pack provide care. But emotionally? Would she want to raise pups without him? No. Most assuredly no. And so she looked to him with every ounce of hope and anxiety and uncertainty about the future.

Thankfully, the water wasn’t too deep, and Kjell wasn’t forced to swim. It wasn’t easy, bouncing through the cold, winter water, but he didn’t seem to care. His tail lashed behind him wildly; he felt all the world like a love-struck yearling, reunited with his first love. But – Signy was his first love, wasn’t she? The timeline might be a little off, but the wolf really hadn’t cared for anyone outside of himself until he’d met the mute.

Popping back out of the pool, he greeted his mate with kisses and nibbles, ears straining forward as he hummed. Kjell had no intention of brushing up against her, not while he was drenched and shivering, but it only took a moment for him to step back and survey the younger wolf to realize her state had changed considerably. Sunset eyes blinked once, twice, and he tipped his head to one side, as if perhaps he wasn’t seeing things correctly.

But, no. Signy had gotten quite a bit rounder, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. His mouth opened, and closed, and opened again. For the first time in a very long time, the dragon found himself at a total loss for words. “Are you, ahh--- You doin’ okay, gem?”

What a stupid thing to say.

The lovely - and equally frustrating - part about Kjell was that he was so quiet with his body language around her. Pip had yet to determine if this was because he was always trying to be so careful not to startle her or if he was so thoroughly at a loss that his body wasn't even sure what he wanted to communicate. He always had a way of keeping her guessing while also letting her know just what she needed to know. In this particular moment, it was less endearing a trait and more suspenseful.

He'd noticed her swollen belly, that much was clear. But how he felt about it was carefully locked away aside from surprise and concern. The surprise, she understood. She, too, had been caught off guard. The concern warmed her in a way only Kjell seemed capable. But both did little to reassure her of what she really wanted to know; how did he feel about it?

She would remain in suspense, she supposed, until she at least did her duty to assure him that she was alright. Shyly, she ducked her head and nodded, peering at him from behind her lashes while her tail waved slowly behind her. Physically, at least, she was fine. Emotionally?

In that respect, Pip supposed she held her feelings close as well. There were too many to deal with at once. Shame was there. For having broken pack law, no matter how unintentional. Anxiety for what the future would hold for her and all the uncertainty associated with it. Endless, unfathomable love for the male in front of her that she was even too frightened to explore fully. Hope and fear and longing. How she wished she could beg him to return to her at Grizzly Hollow. To make a case at the borders and join the pack so that she may no longer be pulled in two directions by her heart.

But overall, she was alright. Managing. Better, now that she could see him.

Where @Kjell hesitated in brushing against her, Pip stepped fully into him, her side flush with his own as she mingled the scents of their coats and accepting the sharing of cold and wet along their fur. When she circled around to his other side to brush there as well, soft orange eyes regarded him with adoration.

I love you, she longed to say. More than words could say, as luck would have it.

Well, Kjell supposed dryly, at least the pregnancy wasn’t causing her any hurt.

Yet, a dark part of his brain reminding him. He’d seen birth. He heard the noises. It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. There was a cost to bringing puppies into a world. And usually, only alphas were willing to pay such a high price-- The dragon’s thoughts came to an abrupt thought, brows furrowing again as he looked the woman over once more. No hurt, no physical harm – but what about the other wolves? How were they treating her? She still smelled the same, carried the same pack stink she always had, but were they cruel? Were—

What if they took her pups? Their pups?

Kjell rumbled deep in his chest, moving in his best attempt to curl around the woman as they both stood. It was awkward, at the very least, so he reached forward, nibbling on Signy’s ruff. His. She was his, and that litter was theirs.

“Th’ pack – they treatin’ you okay? They ran me off, but--” Suddenly that encounter with the alpha and his lackey made a whole lot more sense. At the time, he’d begun to assume the male was tired of a loner lurking around his borders. But he’d gotten one of the subordinate’s pregnant, and-- He’d deal with that later. “You tell me if they ain’t treatin’ you good an’ I’ll fix it, yeah?”

It...was complicated. That much was evident in the hesitation of her nod. Yes, they were treating her well. But shame still had a heavy place in her heart. She wasn't sure Kjell could understand; did he know of pack life? At least enough to be concerned for her well being in the face of her pregnancy, she mused, so he knew more than she had.

Pip leaned into her mate as he nibbled sweetly along the thick fur of her neck. Once upon a time, she would have shied far from such an action. Even her siblings had not been given such license to be so familiar with her. Joining the pack had done great things for the mute's confidence and she'd found herself in more ways than one. But Kjell helped her find so much more. He made her feel more loved than anyone ever had before. That she could be the source of so much affection would always feel like a shock to her. What good was she, after all? A wolf with no voice was a pitiable burden. Or so she'd been taught. Veho and the others, Kjell...they taught her otherwise.

One thing was for sure. Her pups would never grow up feeling unloved. She would make sure of it. Even if she couldn't tell them how much they were loved, she would make sure they knew anyway. Just as the others made sure she knew.

But whether the pack was treating her well or not, she did want the male near. If not for her, than for their little ones. They deserved to grow knowing their father. They deserved having at least one parent tell them how much he loved them. He would, right? To an outsider, Kjell looked the part of a worn rogue. His scars, his missing eye, all of it painted an image of a roughened, hardened loner who cared for no one but himself. Pip knew otherwise. So easily, she could see past his looks and into his heart. It had always been in the right place.

As she had no way of asking him to return home with her, the tawny sea wolf gently grabbed the fur at his neck and tugged lightly as if to lead him back. She paused and looked up at him, orange eyes beseeching him to know what it was she wanted from him. He was brave enough, she knew, to stand up to her Alpha and say what he wanted. She only hoped he wanted to help her raise a family as much as she wanted him to.

Complicated was not exactly how Kjell read the woman’s nod – for a moment, he had to wonder if she were weighing out the pros and cons of what she said. There could be someone she was trying to protect; if not him, than a member of her pack. Just because they might have been rough on him did not mean Signy might be without friends (or family) within the ranks of Grizzly Hollow.

The wolf sighed softly, leaning into the woman’s tender touch before finally allowing her to relax his fraying nerves. He would just have to take her word for it, in this case, and trust that if she were truly in distress, the omega would find a way to let him know. He’d been serious, when he said he’d make things right – both for her, and their future litter. Before he could descend any deeper into his train of thought, the younger wolf grabbed him by the scruff, and tugged.

A younger Kjell would have rebelled against the notion that he was some pet to be lead around on a chain.

The man standing before Signy now could only rumble quietly in his consent, taking his place near her flank. His mother would surely think so little of him now; failing to kill Kjors, taking up with a woman who had no ambitions like his own damn…but Kjell was starting to think this is what he’d been missing all along. So many seasons wasted – he would stop that now.

“Lead the way.”

He would have to join the pack. For her.

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health

The surprise at his relatively easy relenting must have shown clearly on her face as she struggled not to gape. Pip had honestly expected more of an argument, and for good reason. Her Alpha had chased him from Grizzly Hollow no doubt with threats surrounding his return. Did she really have Kjell in such a thrall that he would be willing to risk life and limb for her whims? She smiled a bit tearfully, tail wagging as the low light caught the russet of her ears and ringed her head with a red halo.

Pip forcefully pressed against him, wanting to do everything she could to let her mate know how very much she appreciated the lengths he would go for her. And she, too, would do the same. Even if Veho was at his angriest, Pip would...stand up to him. She would not let Kjell come to harm by her family. He was hers and even if she was the omega, she would protect him. That was the law of the pack, was it not? Family was more important than any, and Kjell had become a vital part of hers.

A second wind gave the pregnant girl light paws as she sloshed through the water and back towards shore, back towards home. She hardly felt her hunger, fed as she was by his presence. Later, she would worry that she was bogging him down with responsibilities. Tethering a free spirit to a place, a home. But for now, she felt only the rays of the dying sun on her face as it dappled upon her fur through the trees and the trace amount of spray as it blew from the nearby falls. Were she not already tied to Grizzly Hollow, Pip imagined this would be a lovely place to lay down roots. But hers were calling her home and so she led on, her direction truer than any sea wolf that had come to the forest.

Figure you can end with your post and we can finally claim mates lp. x3 <3