Mourning Dove was a worrier. She tried not to let her worries pass onto her pack mates and often times she found that her worries weren't even things to worry about. She would worry about a hunt, but undoubtedly bring something back. She worried about having friends or making good impressions on her pack members, but no one seemed bothered by having her around. On the contrary, while she didn't exactly stand out as a somebody within the pack, she was at least treated well by her fellow pack members. While some days she doubted if she was liked or tolerated, it stood to reason that if someone didn't like her, they would avoid her and no one was doing that.
She showed up to local gatherings, like the recent puppy shower for Rain Song and Sparrow and the gathering of the Point. Ah, the gathering... it had been there that she'd finally asked Dusk Owl, the elder wolf and a renowned healer of the pack, to... assist in providing her with pups.
In a perfect world, she would have found someone that would love her for the rest of her life, to be her perfect mate. She had thought that she'd wanted that with Dusk Owl... but he was so much older than she was and she was certain he had more important things to do than spend the rest of his life with her.
I'll probably just be among one of the first to ask him for pups, anyway. She'd been thinking. Now that he's opened himself to any she-wolf... I know it's for the good of the pack, but what about the good of me? She supposed she may have been naive to think that love was something you could get so easily from another wolf. They'd exchanged pleasantries and taken walks together, but...
I want something more than pleasant walks. I want to be cared about... to be cherished by whomever I take as my partner. Maybe that would come after the pups. Maybe she would be a brilliant mother, such that it would cause someone to swoon by the looks of her. She'd heard that some mothers were able to glow after their pups arrived. If she glowed enough and looked as radiant as she could, maybe she could get someone to fall in love with her.
He is doing me a favor, by helping me along with these pups. Mourning Dove thought. And I am doing him a favor, in passing his genes along. He may be old, but he's handsome and smart and a pleasant wolf. He'd made her smile during troubling times. That's why she'd been so attached to him in the beginning. If only the attachment went both ways. At least I can dream of love until the puppies get here. She thought. And I'll be the center of attention for a little while when they do. She thought with a smile, continuing on with her day as she would, until something remarkable happened to change it.
((WC: 506))