JUST GIVE ME A PAIN THAT I'M USED TO

Sleep did not come easily. It seemed as though she was drifting in and out of consciousness, her body exhausted but her mind awake. The soft, quiet squeaks of the pups that fed at her belly made her feel strange, hours ago they had been inside her still, soon they would be individuals with voices and motives of their own. The thought made her shudder. They could be nothing like him, not even Pagan, the boy branded as an outsider from birth. If they shared his monstrous blood they would be culled, it was not weakness no, but depravity that had sired them, and she would not watch either of them grow into anything like him. Father, Mother, even her own blood ran more strongly in their veins. She was sure of it.

A thump outside the den roused her, violet eyes blinking open. "Father?" She rasped, but the scent that rose above the smell of blood and birth did not belong to her father. She screamed, a violent, feral noise, ripping straight from her chest. Jerkily, she moved to protect her newborns, growls and squeals betraying their annoyance at being moved. He was getting closer to them, his nose reaching out to touch them, and snarls and growls echoed off the walls of the den. They would not know him, if he touched them he would stain them with his impurity. He was trying to corrupt her children, to make them into beasts, dark creatures who aimed to rip innocence from others. Ehiyeh would not have it.

Whatever words he spoke fell on deaf ears. "Get away from them." Her voice was shaky and crazed, violet eyes wild with all the fear and rage that had been slowly building during her pregnancy. "How dare you c-come here after what you did." She spat. "Mine, mine, they are mine. You will not defile them like you did me, you... you beast, you savage!" Her breath fogged in the air, the whites of her eyes showing as she stared at him wildly. Her scream would certainly draw her father, or her brothers. They must be close by. Ehiyeh was afraid, she did not want to be here alone with him, with two little lives to protect from this demon man. She needed the strength of those who would stand beside her.

ehiyeh