"Oh, my darling." She reached, and Ivan was already leaning, already transferring that small warm weight into her waiting hand. She drew the snake cub close, pressed her lips to the smooth scales of his forehead, and felt the little body go instantly, meltingly soft against her chest. "Hush now. You're as jealous as your father. Do you know that? Just as dramatic about it, too. But I love you. You have a little brother now, and you're just as loved, just as mine. Always."
The snake cub answered with a soft, cooing hiss that vibrated against her collarbone, and the ache behind her ribs unclenched into a bright, spreading glow. He coiled tighter, his tiny tail wrapping her wrist the exact way Exile's did when he wanted to hold on and pretend he wasn't.
"Exile," she murmured, looking past Ivan's shoulder to where the beastman stood near the wall, quiet and attentive. "Can you wrap him for me? One of the soft ones, the blue. He'll want to be held while his brother finishes."
