Rind.

"We're not bonded. We're mated. There's a difference."
Kellan had his back to Gustin, was scraping at something small on the workbench again.
"Well, what's the difference?"
Kellan grunted. In the two days since the end of his heat, he'd been obsequious but uncommunicative. All further questions about Ideste or even Arem'mir had been met with a stony silence, and so Gustin had resorted to asking questions about the Wolfish life. Kellan swung around on the workbench to face him.
"A mating is a joining of the body. A bonding is a joining of the spirit."
"Well, which one means I can't get taken by anybody else?"
Kellan swung back around and began scraping again at the bench.
"A bonding."
"Which is what we don't have."
Kellan grunted.
"Well, I want one of those."
Kellan's back tensed and he stopped scraping. He shook his head and resumed.
"No."
Gustin frowned and nestled down deeper under the furs.
"Yes."
Kellan ignored him for a minute.
"No."
Gustin threw the furs back.
"No?! I'm the mother of your child!" Kellan's head snapped around. Gustin rolled his eyes. "I could be the mother of your child." he clarified. Kellan stared at him for a minute, nose twitching. Then he went back to carving. A moment of silence passed.
"Kuskellanar, I think we need to."
Gustin's voice was tinged with command, and worry. Kellan put down the carving and turned to face him. Gustin sat up in bed.
"The caravan is going to be back."
Some kind of emotion flickered across Kuskellanar's face.
"A strategy is in order."
Kellan scoffed.
"You think I will not protect you. I am a wolfe of Arem'mir. Although we are not bonded, we are mated. I will guard my mate. And my litter."
Gustin tried to choose his words carefully.
"First of all, there is no litter. Second, it's not that I don't believe that you will do everything in your power to guard me. But I believe that guarding might be easier if there are some rules in place that may make me less appealing to them. Third of all, why not? For someone who was so thrilled just hours ago about taking care of me, you sure seem quick to turn the offer down."
Kellan shook his head and looked troubled.
"It's not that I refuse you, Gustin, but a bonding is...permanent, and holy. It cannot be entered into lightly, no matter how expedient it may seem." Kellan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "We should come to know each other before we bond."
Gustin scoffed.
"This is crazy. This whole thing is crazy. I just went for a walk. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for any of this."

Kellan looked sympathetic for a minute, then stood up, stripped off his clothes and shifted in the middle of the floor. In animal form, he spoke.
"Can you hear me, Gustin?"
Gustin considered denying, but decided that he had no reason to lie to Kuskellanar. At least not today. Reluctantly, he nodded.
The wolfe laid down on the floor and curled his fluffy tail up over his leg.
"Then perhaps what they say is right. Perhaps you are the Synthesis."
Gustin shook his head.
"No! I am not the - " he bit his lip in frustration. The animal Kellan cocked its head suddenly, cool grey eyes narrowing on his shoulder. The wolfe rose and moved forward, leapt smoothly onto the bed and used his muzzle to push Gustin's chin to the side, then licked his tongue into the hollow of neck and shoulder for a moment, and snorted. The wolfe sat back on his haunches to shift, and the human Kellan reappeared naked in front of him, still closely inspecting the junction of his neck. He made a sound of worry.
"Well?!" Gustin sucked in a few good, semi-freaking-out breaths. "What are you looking at? What's wrong with my neck?!"
Kellan frowned a little and traced a thumb, lightly, over Gus's skin.
"It appears your worries were unfounded, human."
"Gustin."
Kellan glanced up.
"Gustin. It appears we have already bonded."
Gustin bent his brow deeply down. This thing got more confusing by the second. Good thing he hadn't come here on an information mission, or he'd be sorely out of luck.
"What?"
Kellan shrugged.
"It appears that you are my bondmate, and I am yours."
Kellan got up from the bed and began looking around for his pants, seemingly unconcerned with the turn of events that had taken place there.
"Wha - but that is - how do you know?!"
"My mark has not faded."
"It hasn't faded??"
"No. You have healed, but the mark has borne itself into your skin. This is how things were done, a long time ago, before the plague on Arem'mir, between a wolfe and his mate. A taking, a marking and a bonding in the time after. If the Moon blesses, the mark stays."
Clearly bored of talking, Kellan turned back to his carving, now beginning work on a large slab of old wood he'd scavenged before the snow. Gustin's mind continued to race.
"But...I thought a bonding had to be consensual. I didn't agree to anything! You didn't, either! How did this happen?!"
Gustin was still utterly, utterly confused. Kellan shrugged from the carving table.
"Moon must have wanted me to bond with you. She gave me the urge that wolfes do not feel with human mates, to mark you and take you for her, as my own. She must feel, as you do, that we are short on time."
Gustin felt a vibration and realized he was shivering.
"So if we're bonded...does that mean you can't leave me?"
Kellan paused over this. Clearly, Gustin had no understanding of what it meant - the bond, the mating. He didn't realize that even without a bond, Kellan was his mate. The wolfe would never have left him to begin with.
"No. I will not leave you, Gustin."
The breath he'd been holding released almost quietly enough not to be heard by wolfish ears.
"But your marking may give us some future trouble."
"Why? Why would it do that?"
Kellan didn't speak for a minute, and the only sound in the room was the rhythmic scraping of metal on wood. Gustin spoke up again, his voice this time laced with suspicion.
"Why would it cause us trouble, Kellan? What does it mean?"
The scrape-slide continued. The sun slipped in through little windows, casting some light on the floor. Gustin waited.
"It means," Kellan spoke slowly, never breaking his carving rhythm, "that you have fulfilled the second tenet of the Prophecy."
Gustin had very little time to actually feel stunned, because just then, there was a frantic banging at the door and the voice of Adotre filtered in from the door's other side.

"Wolfe! Wolfe! A message from the South! Traders! A caravan comes!"
Kellan and Gustin both raced for the door - Gustin reached it first, but Kellan was only seconds behind, and he gave Gus a particularly nasty glare when he strained himself trying to open it. Kellan scowled and moved him back with one hand.
"You'll be punished for that later, human."
Gus felt a little illicit thrill of heat at his wolfe's low promise.
Then Kellan slid the door open, and Gus felt a blast of wind which he was surprised to find was still cold, but no longer quite so icy. Before he could contemplate that little fact, the Layer slipped in the cracked-open door, shivering and chattering and shaking himself right in the entryway, flinging fur and bits of ice all over the room. Kellan and Gus both winced away from the blast.
"I tell you, Old Thing, the outdoors is no place for a Layer! Not one as delicate and handsome as me."
Kellan rolled his eyes and Gustin smiled, always entertained by the Layer's antics.
"Tell me about the caravan, Layer."
"In a minute. Stew first."
Kellan growled about this, but Adotre padded past him, still in animal form, dripping melted snow across the floor before he plopped himself down at the low eating table and shifted human once again. Gus dragged some of the larger furs off of the bed to cover the now proudly-naked Layer, then ladled up a bowl of stew for him, setting it down on the side of the low table closest to the main fire before returning to join Kellan on the opposite side.
"Thank you, Gustin." Adotre took the bowl gratefully in both hands and lifted it to eat. With the bowl raised, he paused, sniffed, and eyed Gustin.
"Won't you eat?"
Gustin shook his head.
"I'm not so hungry just now."
the Layer's eyes flicked to Kellan, who showed no reaction but impatience.
"You should eat, human. You must fortify. You are vulnerable."
Gustin made a face at the strange statement.
"I think I'll be OK."
the Layer looked him over again, then gave a theatrical sigh.
"Fine. Suit yourself. I guess Old Thing will have to tell you to do it. Although I find it the most ridiculous thing in the world the way damn bred betas act. Only taking direction from your mate and such as. Crazy! Ha!"
Kellan caught it before Gustin did and was halfway across the table in an instant, displaying yet again the wolfish speed Gustin wished he had. He leant forward, crouched on his hands, his face inches from Adotre's.
"What was it that you said, Layer?"
The Layer's eyes widened, then delight spread across his face, chased closely by mischief.
"Don't tell me you didn't know."
"Know what?" Gustin asked, interested and perturbed by Kellan's violent reaction.
Kellan's face tightened.
"I wasn't sure."
The Layer cocked an eyebrow.
"This whole place reeks of lemon. Smells like a damn spring orchard. And you didn't know?"
"I don't smell any lemons." Gustin sniffed around a bit, but got no scent.
"We wolfes don't smell the way you do, Layer. It's not so easy for us." Kellan snapped defensively. "Besides, we don't smell lemons. We smell sweet."
Adotre shrugged.
"Well. Scent again, then, wolfe, and tell me what you find. I've already told you it's clear to me."
"What is everybody smelling?" Gustin asked again, worried. "Is it me? Are you talking about me?" he wrapped his arms more tightly around himself. "Is something wrong with me?"
the Layer looked over at him with an expression tender and thick with longing, wistfulness, and adoration.
"No. Nothing's wrong with you, Gustin. Nothing's wrong with you at all."
Gustin looked nervously between the two nonhumans.
"Then what? What is it? What's going on?"
Kellan gave the Layer a warning glance, then turned his full attention back to his mate.
"Adotre has a smell of lemons. This tells us that you are pregnant, Gustin."
Gus didn't respond to this, just stared blankly back at him. Adotre felt the need to cut in, tail beating time on the ground behind him, face unabashedly gleeful despite the deep, dead silence.
"You are pregnant. You're with, Gustin. You and your mate. Congratulations. The Moon has blessed."
Gustin tried to nod, tried to swallow and speak and respond, but felt like he was only hearing echos - he couldn't properly comprehend what was being said. Pregnant? That didn't even make any sense. He tried to imagine what this meant for him. For Kellan. For his life. He couldn't. He tried to focus on the room. He couldn't. The edges of his vision started to black. Oh man. Not today. Not now. Not a good time to learn how to faint. But there it was.
"Oh...shit. Damn." was the last thing he managed to get out as his wolfe and the Layer lunged, the room turned upside down, and Gustin passed out in Kuskellanar's arms.

~:~