Can't stop now

[Lovely]

September 2, 2007
afternoon

Ari and Marc were enjoying a bit of playful, 'carefree' time which led to a not so playful crash - Ari's bike into a tree when she tried to show off downhill with no hands. She wasn't aware the bike didn't have brakes..

laughs at her. ".... in your old life, you wouldn't have survived that." helps her up.

wipes some blood off her lip and growls softly, pulling away from his 'help up'. Just because she survived didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell. Her hand reached to grasp her arm and found that it had to go further around her middle to reach. She looked down at her belly and the shirt that was stretched over it. "Why didn't you tell me there was no brakes?" She snapped at him and tugged at the shirt that was too small over the tummy that seemed to have popped out way too quickly. She wasn't that far along.. and damn it if the button of her jeans wouldn't clasp when she was getting dressed. "..and why didn't you tell me I looked awful.. just let me go out in a shirt that doesn't fit and look at me.. I'm a whale!" Her hand curled and pointed to the pooch of belly that stretched the shirt to a taunt outline of the rounding.

"You're no whale, Ari. You're quite beautiful. I'm sorry about the brakes. I'd forgotten until you'd started down," he said, reaching to clear the bloody mar on her cheek.

"I am a whale.." She pouted, even stamped her foot to the ground as he cleaned the mar from her cheek. "That's not normal.. it's like someone shoved a bowling ball in my stomach.. and it feels all .. wiggly inside.. If it's this big now.. what is it going to look like in eight months?" She didn't realize yet that it would not even take half that time for the child to come into the world.

He cupped his fingers beneath her chin, grinning gently. "I wouldn't say I shoved a bowling ball in there exactly," he chuckled a little with a bit of boyish embarrassment that betrayed his years. "In eight months you'll be nursing a handsome young child... possibly more." He didn't want to alarm her with the muttered addition, though it was quite possible.

She blushed and leaned closer to him, letting her arms unfold and reach to rest at his waist. "No.. but it was still big.." She smiled as her head tried to tip down to hide the increased heat in her cheeks. It took a moment longer for the second part of what he'd said to sink in. "What?... possibly more.. do you think there's twins in there?"

"Depends on the wiggle? Wolves are what they are, Arianne, no matter how human we try to be. It may be time for you to see someone who can guide you better than me in such matters." He had, afterall, adopted a team of other children he was still learning to father beyond the one she carried.

"Someone who can... Marcus! You're the only one I know.. besides your boys and Biff.. and I don't think I'm going to ask any of them. Nicky has been ..this for less time than me.. who the heck am I supposed to ask about this?"

"Someone," he said again. "Not everyone hates or fears us. Some actually nurture and care for us in times of need... which this becoming quicker than I think you understand. Only ever someone I trust, Ari, I assure you. Please don't get scared now."

She lifted her gaze to his for a moment and her lips trembled a bit before she started to speak. "How am I not supposed to be when you say things like that? How quickly..is quickly? Please talk to me.. help me understand what's happening."

[Lovely]

The bikes were forgotten and the tree now a place of refuge for the moment. He offered her a seat beside him on the upraised roots. "I only know what I know and that as wolves, we're very quick at most everything... including birth. My brothers who had their young... I'm sorry. I must sound like a boring science program. My cousins and nephews were carried only a few months, not like humans. Some had litters that were quite... .large.... I'm going to terrify you and I promised I wouldn't. We're not 'people' Arianne. I don't care how your uncle decided that he would try to medicate that fact away, but we're not... you're not. You're a wolf mother."

She didn't sit at first, feeling too anxious to do so, but when he finished she all but fell down beside him. Her color paled slightly and she felt the world pitch as her knees buckled and she sank, though not fainting dead away. It was more than she had expected and quite overwhelming.

His reflexes were ever-sharp and quick to keep her from collapsing, pulling her instead to his lap far more gently than her fall from the bicycle had been. His embrace was as protective and careful now as his expression was concerned. "I'm sorry I laughed. You need my help and I'm not very good at giving it. I'll do better, that is a promise. More than a wolf sire, I'm a wolf prince and I should be sworn to... " He wasn't exactly a prince any longer, but a displaced king with a brother vying for capture of that same throne. He suddenly seemed shaken himself, wondering what Biff did have planned.

She curled to him once he'd caught her and pulled her protectively into his embrace, safe in his lap she closed her eyes and leaned her head to his shoulder. "I don't give a damn about your rank or titles right now.." She whispered, softly nuzzling to his neck, seeking his warmth and further comfort. "You are the father of this child or children I carry.. you're my lover... my love.. and I need you to help me through this." She lifted her head to bring her gaze back to his, she felt a bit woozy still and she trembled slightly. "I believe I'm over a month along.. how soon will they come?.. is there any way to know how many?"

Marc undertood better than he could explain and tried to console her. His concerns only fanned the fire; she was still learning to distinguish scents and their sources and reasons. Marc was furious with her uncle, setting her up for such a glorious fall, but how could the man have known their paths would cross like this? The sigh was partly hissed. "Lovers... and fighters, Ari. You trust me enough I hope to lead you."

He was angry, it rolled off him in a nearly staggering wave and she had to stop herself from jerking away from him. She did shift further out of his embrace, looking over his face -trying to find the answer to what she'd done to make him angry. Was it because she said she didn't care about his title? "Do you want to fight? I thought our fight ended the night we met.. I suppose I could be confused about what happened.. though it seems obvious." Is that what he meant by leading her -into a fight.. did he find her less appealing when she wasn't all tough and ready to hunt or kill?

He shook his head, though his expression stayed sullen. "Not fighting you. We are fighting them... those like my brother... like Justice. I want to know that you trust me and I see that you don't, not that I've given you many reasons you should, except this." His fingers stroked lightly across her belly. "I will not lead you into a fight, yet we sit waiting for one. It infuriates me that you were not prepared for this, by no fault of your own."

"No.." She insisted softly tilting her face to watch his fingers stroke lightly over her belly. "Please don't say that I don't... I do.. I'm just as you said.. not prepared.. so much I don't understand." Her fingers drifted to rest over his and she looked back to try and catch his gaze. "You're angry.. I can smell it, feel it -so much it nearly makes me tremble.. that is what I question. I don't know why. If I have done or said something... I'm sorry that I am lacking and inexperienced, when you need someone strong at your side."

He grinned and seemed to chuckle. "It's not you," he insisted through the grin, lacing her warm fingers into his own. "Though you are learning. I am angry... fiercely so. Your uncle... I'd like to give him a piece of my mind about this, but there is little time right now. You've done nothing to anger me and don't you dare try to leave, thinking you have... that -will- raise my ire. Feel and smell this anger from me and learn from it, how it changes and understand the difference. It takes time... that's all, just time which we don't have that much of right now. Wiggling, as you put it... and trying to come soon. You need help and I will find it for you."

[Lovely]

Ari nodded, gripping tightly to his fingers for a moment and then relaxing the grip back to normal. "I won't try to leave, I don't have any desire to be without you." Each breath took in his scent more and more and she tried to be observant to the unique 'flavor' of this anger. Slowly she curled back to rest against him, her head on his shoulder and her hand still twined with his. "If I am this...unknowing now, how will I take care of them when they arrive?"

"Instinct and cunning you already have. I will help you teach him.. them...," he looped his arm around her with her hand snuggly in his own. "You will know most of what you need to do by the instincts that already drive you and your sister. The rest is secondary, but no less important. Faith, trust, loyalty... are learned and that is ours to be sure is taught well. It's something Biff never quite learned from our father, but he wasn't born into it, either."

Ari closed her eyes and nuzzled softly against his neck, letting a small sigh exhale out over his skin. "I never expected, or thought... anything like this would happen. That I would fall in love.. that I would be a mother." She admitted quietly, she had never dreamed that she would have a family of her own. "do you think he.. Biff .. you spoke of fighting against him.. why?"

"Control of the pack. That position is earned, not given. He doesn't sit quietly or take orders from others well. I don't expect he'll want to listen to me and there are a few in the pack who already side with him. I fear those loyalties will be dearly tested before this is over and there are few of us left as it is... though we can try to replace as many as we can." He teased someone, trying still to reassure her though the more he spoke, the darker the picture was he was revealing to her. "How are you for riding on? We should move from here."

"Marcus." She began softly, shifting in his lap to face him and brushing her fingers over his jaw lightly. "My being here.. with you.. it's making it worse, isn't it? I don't think they approve of me much, do they?"

"No. I mean, no, it makes no difference, really," he said with quiet honesty. "I'm not the nicest man to work for and I'm not exactly easy to get along with. Pride, I suppose, but my father bred that out of them.. seemed to cherish the fact that they don't understand that and certainly not loyalty. You, they do see as a threat, more than me. You can replace all of them and likely kill each without so much as blinking. They know the hunter you are and to be 'beneath' either of us makes them pale and fierce, and that much harder to control when Biff lives so differently. He'll lose his head faster than most if he keeps it up."

"Are you sure about that? The way I catch them looking at me now and then since I have been with you.. perhaps it's just me, not understanding everything. I have so much to learn." She showed him a faded smile as her fingers played with his collar and buttong in thoughtful motion. "You don't think Biff.. will change at all now that he's found his girl? Something.. someone he can be loyal to, find comfort in.. in ways he couldn't with the boys? It seems your father preferred to keep all of you from having that. I notice a distinct lack of.. sisters or females at all.. "