Usually I was only allowed to sleep inside during the Winter months, but because I was pregnant my, whether Rogue believed it or not, my caring family, let me sleep inside by the fire.
“Ah…” I whispered, rolling over with my bulging belly facing upwards. I stared into the ever-flickering flames. Unpredictable, beautiful, untamed… they were just like Rogue. I breathed a sad sigh and looked away. Why couldn’t he just accept that I was a dog, and that I belonged with humans? In fact, he didn’t realise it, but hebelonged with humans, too. He was more dog than wolf.
I gritted my teeth as a searing pain ripped through my belly. This sort of thing wasn’t unusual these days, but almost as soon as that pain died down another one came, and I didn’t know it was possible, but it hurt a whole lot more than the first. It was nearly time.
I didn’t really want to wake my humans, but I think they wanted to be there during the birth. A barked at the top of my voice, and in a matter of minutes my humans were racing down the stairs, a bundle of blankets in the mother’s arms.
I won’t give you the details of the birth… it’s an impossible thing to describe. But some two hours later, there were four tiny, pinkish figures lying at my side, with two watchful human parents watching in pride and two human children gazing in awe.
“What’re we gonna call them?” asked one of my human children, the female one.
“And who’s their papa?” asked the boy, suddenly reminding me of Rogue.
“I don’t know, Matthew, but I hope it’s not that vicious stray…” said the alpha, but his hopes were far from the truth.
I padded nervously around the yard, fearful of leaving my pups for even a few minutes… but my people were right, I needed a break and some fresh air, and I trusted my humans to care for them well. It was only for a few minutes, anyway.
My senses had become much keener even though it had only been a few hours since the pups were born, I was alert to every rustle and scent in the dusky air. So he was foolish if he thought I wouldn’t notice him.
My exhausted state forgotten, I twisted myself around and jumped, my silver-grey body colliding with Rogue’s. As he crashed to the ground he yelped in surprise, staring up at me as I pushed his shoulders to the ground with heavy paws.
“W-what are you doing?” Rogue asked, trying to wriggle free.
“What are you doing?!” I snapped.
“I just came over to visit! And… to get your answer.”
I stared at him hard, “The pups were born.” I sighed, loosening my grip a little, but not completely.
“What? That’s amazing! Where are they?” he said, his face sinking a little as he looked over at my house.
“Inside. I’ve been with them all day. There’s four of them, three boys and-”
“Inside?” he said, cutting me off.
“You are unbelievable! You’re more concerned about your petty little hatred of humans than you are of your own puppies! They are safe in there!” I said, hopping backwards off him.
“No, Maria-”
“No! You don’t care about them at all, do you? You haven’t asked anything about them! For all you care, some of them might not’ve survived!”
“Are they okay?”
“Yes!” I screamed. “Come back when you give a crap about your children!” I snapped.
“Maria, you’ve got it wrong! I only think that since I’m their father-”
“No. I don’t care if you’re their father, you’re not acting like one and I know you never will!”
“You can’t do that! I deserve to know my own children! And they deserve a life… away from captivity!” he snarled.
“See Rogue? This is your problem,” I paced towards him, “you don’t want what’s best for them. You want what’s best for you. You don’t care that in the wild, they’re going to be hungry, cold and with no friends but each other. You don’t care, because you’d be happy. They’d be miserable, oh yes, but you’d be happy.” I said, my eyes now locked with his, my teeth bared and my tail raised high, slowly swinging from side-to-side.
“Is that what you think? That I can’t look after my pups?” he said, his voice now as cold as mine.
“No,” I said, my voice dropping below freezing level, “I don’t think you can look after my pups.”
Saying that triggered an immediate response from Rogue as he leapt towards me, teeth bared. But I saw it coming and swerved, finding more agility than I knew I had, then grabbed his leg with my teeth and tossed him to the ground. He skidded across the dirt and before he even had the chance to launch another attack, I scurried up the back-porch steps and barked in my booming voice at the door. It was opened almost immediately and I rushed indoors, quickly over the pine flooring to the little bed where my pups lay.
I quickly lay down by them and licked them
lovingly across their tiny foreheads. I wondered if it was like this when I was
a pup. I had never known my father much at all, and I hadn’t seen most of my
siblings since we were eight weeks old – though, one of them, my obnoxious
brother Corey, lived in
One-by-one my humans went to their beds, the alpha last of all. He left one of the smaller windows open so that there was some fresh air in the house for me and my pups. Once the house was completely quiet, all the lights were off and my pups were sleeping soundly, I put my head down on my paws for some much-needed rest.