"Oh, you cheeky thing." Her voice came out shaking, laughing, crying all at once. "Just like your father. Just like him. Wherever he is, he'll be back soon, my chubby little one. He's going to lose his mind when he meets you. You're so handsome. You're the most handsome little panther cub I've ever seen."
The cub's whimper dissolved into a soft, hiccupping sound. His little mouth found her breast with the faultless accuracy of something that had been born knowing exactly where home was, and latched on with a ferocity that made her gasp. The pull of him was immediate and deep, that sweet, aching tug that told her body to keep making, keep giving, keep filling this small, miraculous mouth.
She looked down at him and felt the world narrow to the space between her arms.
