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Kaena had often contemplated what had happened with Vitium. Was it her fault in some way? The coyote woman did not know; perhaps she had made some vital mistake somewhere in raising him. Yet Gabriel served Inferni and held the family far more dear to his heart than Vitium, and in his youth the Aquila had spent more time elsewhere than in the clutches of the clan. No, maybe instead there was simply something wrong with Vitium's wiring, some programmed error that made him bound for screw-up. She remembered the strange creature he'd professed to love, like a canine but unlike any Kaena had ever seen before. Hyenas were still a foreign subject for the silvery hybrid. "He's got a funny way of showing it," she said quietly. Vitium was no returning prince; if he had wanted to show his love for the clan and his own blood he should have crawled back to Gabriel on his knees, licking his chin and whining like a puppy for the Aquila's forgiveness.
The golden-furred canine responded negatively, surprising Kaena somewhat—for most of her children she thought maybe she'd held the highest hopes for Corona to find happiness and settle with something in life. She'd spent formative time in Chimera, though the hybrid woman had no idea what it was like growing up there, and little did she know that lifestyle might have been more wild and twisted than anything Inferni could provide. The tawny-furred canine's question brought a smirk to the hybrid's face again, and she shook her head, though there was a distinct twinge of sadness on the hybrid woman's face. Her mothering days were over; if she did have new children they would be ten years her junior, and their eldest sibling, the lost son, Kerberos, would be seven years their senior.
Kerberos was almost an old man—it would be asburd for his mother, three years his senior, to continue to have children, though the wistful look over Kaena's face displayed sure evidence she did not mind this so much. She missed motherhood; she wished she had cherished it then as much as she did now. "No. I've got most of my hopes on grandchildren these days," the hybrid woman admitted, a crooked smile flitting across her face. "There are a few more of those, I think, but none here," the coyote added. This was saddening; of the many grandchildren she had only Halo remained among Inferni's ranks. Her children seemed to want to return, though, and perhaps in turn their children would, as well.
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