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Gaved had come to find that he rather liked this wooing business. At least with Stygg. He was still at odds with Dalla, but he was enjoying his time with Stygg. They hadn't spoken much more of her ambitions to become Freeborn, but Gaved was still turning it over in his mind. The thing was, he had to be sure that she would stay with him. He wouldn't be able to stand it if he elevated her to Freeborn and she left him.

Because it would be a blow to his honor, of course. Not because he had feelings for her or anything silly like that.

"Stygg," Gaved called, arriving at the entrance to the den she shared with Badoura. He hoped Badoura was absent. He knew that she was trying to turn Stygg against him, and it was immensely aggravating. "Would you like to have a walk with me?"

He had gotten much better at this pleasant-chatting thing.

Stygg was a hot, hot, hot mess.

There were babies. Growing. Inside of her. And they had to be Gaved's babies, because nobody else had put their manrod inside of her except for him. And this was a terrible thing, because Badoura was being really mean about Stygg spending too much time with Gaved. It wasn't like it was her fault. She had to do what he said.

However, she also liked going out on walks with him. And talking with him. The only thing she wasn't really happy about was the fact that he put babies.

Babies.

Inside of her.

Stygg saw Gaved in the doorway to her den and she promptly - promptly - burst into tears.

Gaved took a step backwards, startled. Stygg hadn't reacted to him like that in a long while. When he first got her, she was bawling and sniveling all over the place. Since then they had come to ... an understanding, in which Gaved didn't hit her or shout at her and she did not irritate him by caterwauling like a cowardly idiot.

He felt a flash of the old anger when she started sobbing, and squashed it. Things were different now. He couldn't just smack her, not if he wanted her to be fond of him. And he did.

Gaved, not accustomed to comforting weeping females, stepped cautiously into the den. He stood back from her a few feet as though she might explode. "Stygg, are you..." He cast about for something he could deal with. "Are you hurt?"

"Do I look hurt? I'm not hurt! You.. You put babieth in me! They're growing in my thomach and now, oh Godth."

She listed to the side like a drunken ship on the sea.

"What'th Thorgrim going to thay? What'th Lena going to thay?"

Stygg was silent for a moment, looking like she might yuck all over Gaved's feet. Just.. all over them. She hadn't been feeling all that great lately, and now that she knew why, she really hadn't been feeling that great lately.

She suddenly looked as if a lightbulb went off over her head.

"What'th.. what'th Dalla going to thay?"

Oh. Oh. Oh Gods.

Of all the people that might have shouted at him, Gaved had never expected one of them to be Stygg. He was taken by surprise again and gaped at Stygg while she yelled.

Babieth? Was she saying she was pregnant?

Gaved sat down hard, stunned. He had begun to fear that Dalla was right about him, that there WAS something wrong with his, er, lionhood. This was proof that there wasn't!

Or was it? What if Stygg had gone around his back and seduced some other Reaver, just as he had feared?

"You. You did this on purpose," Gaved said accusingly, narrowing his eyes at Stygg. "You said you wanted to be a Reaver's wife! This is what you were planning, wasn't it?" His voice was getting higher. "Are they even mine?"

He wasn't sure which would be worse -- the admission that they weren't his and that he was indeed probably infertile, or that they WERE his and now Thorgrim would go berserk. Not to mention Dalla. Gods.

Stygg could put up with a lot of things. She could put up with cow-towing to Gaved. She could put up with his rutting and his terrible mouth. She could put up with cleaning up after him and his wife. She could put up with Runa's horrible bitchface, and Dalla's snarky comments, and Badoura's disapproval. She could put up with Thorgrim's distaste. She could handle all of this.

But she could not - would not - tolerate Gaved's outrage at this moment.

She cuffed him.

Hard. Claws extended.

"You did thith to me, Gaved."

The son of a b***h.

Her paw struck him right in the face, opening slashes across the bridge of his nose. He snarled, his eyes watering with the sting, and backed away. No non-Reaver female had ever struck him. Certainly no thrall. His first furious thought was to strike back, beat some respect out of her, but she seemed simply too angry to be hurt. How had sweet little Stygg turned into such a she-devil? Bewildered, his cuts smarting, Gaved backed down.

"Why are you angry?" He demanded, squinting at Stygg out of still-watering eyes. He felt dizzy. "I'll have to make you my saltwife, of course ... my cubs won't be thralls." He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. This was like some crazy dream. "I thought Dalla would have my cubs," he added, a bit plaintively.

"Thorgrim told me you were barren, anyways!"

Stygg promptly burst into tears again.

"He'th going to kill me, Gaved. He'th going to kill me becauth I'm having your babieth, and you can't even take the newth without blaming me, thaying that maybe I thlept around. You know I haven't thlept around. I would never do that to you!"

She wibbled.

"Your dad ith going to be tho mad at uth. Tho mad."

The world was ending. It really was ending. She was going to be a mother - and she didn't want to be a mother!

Oh Gods, Dalla. Dalla was going to kill her too.

"And your wife, oh Godth Gaved what have you done?!"

Gaved, for the first time in quite a long time, felt awkward. It was not a comfortable feeling for him. His ears laid flat against his head as Stygg cried at him.

To his horror and confusion, he realized he could feel the tips of his ears turning pink.

"I only said that because...well..."

His ears were really burning now.

"You know, I haven't had cubs before, so I thought. Well. Dalla said there might be something. About me."

He coughed.

"So they really are mine?" He had always figured he would have cubs eventually, but now that the moment was here he felt dazed. He shook his head again, still struggling for balance. "Thorgrim and Dalla will have to deal with it. I can have a saltwife. There are lots of outlander saltwives. I'm not going to have thrall cubs! Especially not if they're my only cubs!" His voice was firmer, some of his old confidence returning. He took a step towards Stygg, unsure if he should comfort her, or if she would smack him again.

Stygg scowled through the hurt that his previous words had caused. She gave Gaved a very strong Look. She wasn't sure where the sass had come from, but there came a point in everyone's life where it was important to take control (at least a little) of things. This was Stygg's way of taking control.

She was going to be a mother. That meant something.

"Dalla'th thupid," she uttered angrily, rising to her feet. Her stomach wasn't huge - not yet - but it had just started rounding about the middle. "Dalla'th thupid, and can't have cubth."

She sniffled. Wibbled. Went a little starry eyed at the mention of claiming her cubs.

"Are you theriouth?"

She wasn't going to have thrall babies, oh Gods. A surge of relief went through her.