I couldn’t stand to be around her – not without thinking of Helios and what he had done. My distance was kept ever since I noticed the steady growing of her belly and the change in her scent. I knew that she was with child and it ate me up inside to know that they may not be mine. I was far past blaming her for the chance occurrence and never again had the thought of ending her life entered my head since the night we came limping back home together. She was my universe and I just a passing star admiring her glory. I could not imagine a life without her now that she had dug her blackened claws into my heart. It just killed me to even look at her, to see her face made my insides churn, and to catch her scent caused me to recoil inwardly. They could not be his.

I had stayed away for as much as I could throughout winter and early spring, and only returned to the cavern I had claimed as ours so many moons ago just to drop a carcass at the doorstep. She needed her strength and I provided it for her and the unborn ones, she needed protection and I still kept nearby, but I did not keep her company. It was too difficult for me. I will be damned if Helios ever gets away with what he had done, no matter if we are family by blood. Hell knows there is nothing I will not do for my dark lady.

I stalk amongst the shade of the lively, green trees this day in search for something akin to a distraction. I had been shirking my duties as an Exotican since I had first met Malleah and it was due time that I picked back up where I had left off. Red overlain eyes scour the tree line for any sign of movement only to be interrupted by the distressing call of my lover. My ears perk upon my handsome head for a moment as I stand at attention and when her cries end I immediately turn to run in the direction of home. As I near the abysmal den I can tell that Malleah is no longer alone, the thick stench of birth lingering upon the still air as I peer into the darkness. I am nervous, if for the first time ever in my life, and a deep-seated anger readies itself in the back of my mind as I prepare myself for what I am about to witness. If they look anything like him then they will suffer the same fate as he. There is no doubt within my damned soul of that fact.

I creep closer to the entrance and finally step within to see Malleah laying with a singular cub nestled closely to her teat. The initial sight of the babe soothes me, her top coat being dark like my own and splattered with a deep gray that is my signature, though her mother also carries this trait. It is when I move in closer to further observe the creature that I notice the pale coloring of her face and underside, the sight of which causing my heart to sink and my eyes to instantly dart to Malleah in question. ”Your side? Or his..?” I ask begrudgingly as deepened chords rumble through the caves. I will not touch the whelp until I am certain. It will know no love or affection from me until the day has come that there is no longer doubt within my mind of its origin.