SSWM - 999
She had always known Haven, ever since his first breath. There was very little that she did not know about him, and certainly nothing before his departure from Crimson Dreams was unknown to the mother. The blue eyed woman had seen him walk his first step, heard his first word. She had taught him about knights and dragons and princesses and the honor and valor he lived by. There were times when Anu had feared for him, saddened by his choices and at the very same moment more proud that she had been able to watch him make them and grow into the wolf he had become, and the upward progress she knew he made every day. He would fall in love, if he wasn’t already smitten by the young Dreaming Princess. He would be a father, and he would be an excellent one. Anu wished for all these things for him, wish that he would always and only know happiness. It was what the mother had wanted the first moment they had met, before he was even born. And she could only hope that she would always know him as she did now.
Her own past was slightly clouded, unrevealed to the word and more specifically and importantly her son. He would have been surprised to know that she had one been one to indulge in cannabis. Drugs and alcohol had led to promiscuousness and things that Anu neither remembered clearly nor wished to uncover in the vault of her mind. Away they would remain, far from her consciousness and far from the ears of Haven. He did not know that while in Jaded Shadow, just a few months older then he, she had met her first love. A female, beautifully painted gray with the eyes of honey. Her heart had been stolen away by the small fey, permission had been granted that they may hold the title of mates and then as quickly as it had begun, it had ended. Though, in their brief mate-ship Anu had suffered at the hands of those that did not understand their love, the scar along her thigh was testament to the fact that not every beast would be accepting of her form of love.
It pained her to think that Haven did not accept her, even with his younger age and his forever-sweet intensions. To not be accepted by him would mean that one of the few beasts that truly mattered to her did not understand who she was, and could not be happy for her as she was for him. It would be rejection of a feeling that Anu could never reject herself, the notion that something that she felt was so real, so right, wasn’t believed to be by someone she held so dearly. But as her son spoke Anu listened with her eyes forced to his face. She would rather see his face then wonder later if it wore some sort of disgust. It was hard to believe that it was only he would held any sort of problem, for Anu was certain that she had her own. Though it was hard for her to recognize them, Colibri held her problems and was not perfect, just as Anu would never be. Was there someone better? Anu did not believe so, not for her and not at this moment. Anu shook her head slightly, Haven had no problems that were his and his alone, Anu shared each he held.
Remaining silent as he continued Anu watched the slight confusion settle into his features. A new idea was coming to light. It was not as much the idea of her being with another younger female that made him unsure, it was the thought of her being with anyone other then his birth mother. She nodded then, thinking briefly of the now Phoenix Valley member. There was so much space and time between the two females now that Anu did not think of her as anything more then someone connected to Haven, Brooklyn, Mati and Salem. She was the once Commander, and she was the mother of her children, nothing more. But she was much more to those children, and Anu could not ignore, nor forget that.
Her featured turned soft, looking up to the green eyed male that had always been her unspoken favorite. It was going to take some getting used to by everyone. Anu had not taken anyone into her heart for some time, and even her courtship with Colibri was something slow and each wolfess moved tentatively towards something committed.
“I know that it isn’t easy. It’s another change and another addition to the family, sort of.” Anu fumbled with her own explanation of it, though she understood all too well what he was worried about. But Coli was not his family, not until he accepted her as a member himself. Anu would never push such a thing on him,
“I would never expect you to see anyone as you do your mother and I.” A step mother was not something that Anu had never wished for the grown pups that she and Naniko had raised. The four did not need anything more, more then what Anu would do for them now. If Haven wished to see Coli as a friend, then Anu would find happiness in that. If he wished to know her more deeply, and claim her as a family member of sorts then Anu would be even more pleased. But that would be his choice, and Anu would do nothing but plant the seeds of a flowering relationship between the two, though it was obvious that they already knew each other. What sort of friendship they held now was unknown to the older Dreamer. She paused, her demeanor growing soft as she thought about what the future might bring for either of them. He would be happy, Anu was sure of it. She would do what she could to make that a reality.