casting shadows.

They need her. She is the key. But they're so afraid.

Apart from him.

She has no idea who he is. Some cowboy who ended up in space apparently. But he touches her skin, a small brush inside of her wrist. It's like waking up. For a moment they pool into each other. Minds opening. A dark expanse between them but they see each other. The lights they keep hidden in the depths of themselves.

--

It's a few weeks before she sees him again. Expecting to see fear in his eyes but instead their is simply uncertainty.

"You came back," she murmured. Slow. Her tongue is heavy, the seditives still heavy inside of her. The mask muffling her voice. "You saw too much."

There is a moment of silence. Maeve wondering if he was going to instantly walk away. But then his lips quirk into a smile. Something warming his features. He is beautiful. This solider. This keeper of hers.

"We are going to raise this little ons strong," Lex whispered to her. "Unlike your other mongrels. They will be put down."

It was thick and ugly, smelt wrong as it closed around her throat. A moment of nothing and then the sudden stab of pain as spikes speared her flesh. Expertly placed, just the right depth to hurt but leave no damage.

The power of it slid over her. Dark and twisting. Claiming. Dampening her wolf and forcing submission. Maeve feeling that sense of obedience sliding through her.

"Kneel."

And she did. Body responding, even as disgust rolled through her.

She missed being human. Missed the knowledge that by this point everything would be numb. Instead she's chugging it back hard and fast, chasing it with quick pulls of weed.

Anything to make the world stop for while. The pity in people's eyes. Katya' s being the worse. She had been a mum for mere moments and had failed her daughter. Just as she did everything. A daughter. A wife. A sister. A mate. A mother. Useless. They would be better without her.

The world only spun a little as she rose. As she stumbled out. People moving out of her way as she made her way outside. Across the territory to Maeve. To the witch who was willing to do whatever it took.

"Can you use my blood to find her?"

"They have tried tracking. They could--"

"What if it came with a sacrifice? I know blood magic is something."

"It is. Dani... It isn't that simple."

"How can you make it so someone can find her?"

"Dani... what you ask..."

It was staying pregnant.

The moment she had told Gareth - a nervous, uncertain thing - was forever etched in her heart. The smile he had given her. the look. The reverence in his hands as he had cradled her.

Now there was blood and pain. Banging on the bathroom door as she huddled in a corner. Knowing her body had taken this from her. That she had failed.

She doesn't ask him to leave her, or go away. There is no point. Not when he finally breaks down the door. When she looks up at him. Bloody hands, tear stained cheeks.