Shadow Claw: The Life Story - The Third Chapter

Ch. 5 - Pained and Gone

Play the music. ^-^ Might make you cry, this chapter. Idk, I didn't cry while writing it cuz I'm a stony bitch.

"Shadow, baby, please, stay awake. Come on, sweetheart, stay with me. You can do this, baby." Shade pleaded to me desperately, his voice only a void to my ears and his touch cold and forgotten on my muzzle. I roared in agony once more, tears leaking from my aubergine eyes and rolling down my oblivion fur. "Sh-Shad-Shade!!" I wailed blindly, the never ending pain making my body spasm and tremble. "Shadow, I'm here. Look at me, baby. I'm here - Willow! Now! - Don't leave me. Please, you can do this - WILLOW! I'M LOSING HER! - Shadow, can you hear me? I know it hurts, sweetcheeks, but it's almost over. I promise. Please, just stay with me. I love you so much, Shadow. Don't go." 

I struggled to stay in the darkness of the world - the Light Claws would not take me - and I clutched at Shade's . I took control over my breathing and focused as hard as I could on my mate. His red raw eyes, the dark circled underneath them, his messy black hair that was as soft as it looked, his calloused hands that held me tightly, his muscular chest - my eyes smiled - I loved him so much. I could not let go when I had him to be there for me. I loved him so much.

"Shade. I-I love y-you." I croaked, pressing my furry cheek to his hand.

"That's it, baby. That's it. You're so strong. I love you so much. You're safe with me; it's alright sweetheart." Shade caressed my cheek as my fuzzy vision gradually got better and better, adjusting to the dimly lit cave. His touch warmed my cold fur and his husky voice soothed my parched throat. I needed his touch, I needed him.

My affliction released me finally, and all that was left was a dull pang ache that I could hardly feel at all. Willow stood just beside my bloodied and greenish back legs - her back to both of us - herbs and remedies piled up along the walls and stone shelves. This wasn't my home, no, in fact it was the pack healers cave, where I was laying helplessly. I whimpered and made a move to get up but Shade hushed me, shifting and tucking his paws under my head. "There, there, my love. You're going to be okay." He licked my cheek and I pressed my muzzle to his front fur, purring ever so quietly.

Willow took on her human form; her wavy hair was an ombre of blues, starting from navy at her parting and fading to a cerulean cyan at the tips that hung at her waist. Her deep blue eyes stood out against her sun-kissed skin and baby blue shorts and shirt. Only, I did not notice the dead cub in her arms, its innocent little eyes tightly sealed and its ashy fur stained pale green. "W-What about... th-the b-baby..." I stumbled over my words, tears still dropping from my eyes, and I looked at Shade, "O-Our... our c-cub... o-our k-kit..."

Shade shook his head and gestured over to Willow. I let out a pathetic cry and leaned into my mate, who rocked me gently and whispered words of encouragement into my sensitive ears, making me cry even harder. "It would have been a boy, Alpha. An heir." Willow murmured apologetically, then strode out of the cave, most likely disposing of my stillborn cub. The last thing I noticed there, was that Shade's cheeks were wet, and he was murmuring that he had lost his heir and his first kit.

*

Later that day, Shade had carried me home, back to our cosy cave. I had protested and struggled against him, telling him that our cub had been taken away and we should go to find him.

"He's out there Shade!! You're not listening to me!! Our cub is all alone and lost in the forest! We need to find him!" I continued to wail and fight against him, until he pinned me down and growled at me darkly, his damp eyes still dripping hot tears, "He's gone Shadow! Our cub is d..." He couldn't seem to say the word, and it made me collapse underneath him, sobbing and hiccuping violently. The cruel truth of reality hit me like a wall of bricks and concrete. I may have known that my kit was never going to survive but I had a mental connection with him - I loved him and kept him as safe as I could.

"He's dead, Shadow!" Shade curled up to me, his usually perfect posture gone, he was slouched and in a state of depression. We both cried together, our tears mingling and pooling on the mossy bed below our paws. "I don't... I just... I just don't want to... to live... live anymore." Each word was like a spike to my heart, but I heard him say it, and it made me so... so sad.

"Don't say that, Shade." I breathed, my muzzle resting against his paws comfortably, "I love you, and you love me. We are together. We can try again, one day." It was my turn to be the comforter, so I rocked him soothingly, easing his sadness.

"Mea umbra." Shade licked my cheek.

"Mea lux." I licked Shade's cheek.

Light and dark.

He was my salvation, and together... we had conquered something that would tear alot of couples apart. Some things were just not meant to be, and this, well this, just was not meant to be.

I was not meant to have an heir.

For, later on in my life, I would have another cub, and she would be both the savior and the downfall of my dark life.