<13>

	Deep sadness crossed over Starla's white-furred face.  "So that's why she...?"

	Carson shook his head.  "Not exactly, but it may have been part of it.  You have to understand that, at that time, Rachel and I had no idea how else to help her.  Her urges were powerful and frequent, to the point where she began sleeping in our bed every night just to avoid having her go frantic again on her own.  Beyond this, to my own surprise, the method appealed to Rachel, and the both of us would indulge our carnal urges with your mother together.  Despite how it may sound, it was a process born of love, and the three of us were happy to find a pleasurable method that satisfied everyone.  However, at the time, we kept it a secret from Diana.  She was born only two years after your mother, and we feared it was only a matter of time for the urges to overcome her as well."

	"Wow... so, how did my dad fit in?" she prodded, enchanted by her family's... unusual history.

	Carson let out a light chuckle at this.  "One evening, your mother didn't return from her training regimen.  I immediately feared the worst and left our home to search for her.  I was halfway around the kingdom when a courier caught up with me to summon me back to my own home from your grandmother.  I walked in, and she simply told me to go to the basement.  I found her on her hands and knees, naked, knotted to the back end of the male who would become your father, Warren.  She'd been courting him for some time in secret, and she decided to sneak him in and indulge her urges with him under our noses."  A second chuckle left him as he smiled to himself.  "Knotting hadn't been part of our teachings, and they learned the hard way about it.  They'd been down there for half an hour entrapped with one another."

	Starla let out a soft giggle, finding it difficult to imagine her stern mother so... vulnerable.  "Did she get in trouble?"

	"Should she have?" he quipped back.  "She loved him, and he loved her.  That's all that mattered at the time.  We had a long talk about it in private, and we agreed that it was best not to tell him about our family rituals, and instead she would simply turn to him thereafter.  Everyone was all smiles when you were born, and even if accidental, you were very much wanted, Starla."

	Her snowy fur bristled happily at her grandfather's words.  "Okay, so... what about Aunt Diana, then?  Were you and Grandma able to help her, too?"

	"We didn't have the time to figure that out," he lamented with a shaky exhale.  "The forsaken continued to harass the worgen many years after our retaking of the kingdom.  In a surprise raid on the city, about eighteen months after your birth, your grandmother was caught by surprise and killed by an undead rogue.  The militia was called in to counter the attack.  They were eventually driven off... but not after Warren was slain in combat as well."

	Starla's ears drooped nearly down to her muzzle as she looked into her own cup.  "I had no idea..." she echoed quietly.

	"It was painful for all of us," Carson added, his voice sounding huskier than before.  "Dora was left to raise her two year old child alone, and Diana had just reached her adulthood without her mother to guide her.  I invited your mother to come live with us again to help raise you, and she happily accepted.  And, of course, that happened to be right about the time Diana was... discovering herself."

	"Did she tear up the cellar, too?" Starla prodded.

	Carson shook his head.  "Oh no.  [i]She[/i] decided to leave the house that night and dive into a cold pond to calm herself.  The splash woke me up and I came running out to help her, and instead she leapt, naked, from the water and... history repeated itself.  Thankfully she only tore up my eyepatch at the time," he added with another chuckle.  "She acted quite differently from Dorothea when the urge took her.  Your mother was feral, but she was relatively gentle with her desires.  Diana... well, she wasn't satisfied until she had claw marks running down her back.  It didn't help that we were both mourning Rachel's death, and as such we took to each other for comfort along with urge sedation."

	Starla shifted in her seat somewhat uncomfortably.  "What did mom think of that?"

	"She was aware," he assured Starla.  "But we agreed to keep things as quiet as possible to avoid, well, waking you more than anything.  Diana was just as enthusiastic about the arrangement as your mother had been at first, but... truthfully, to this day, I fear it sparked jealousy within your mother.  Her mate had passed, and now her sister was regularly mating her first mate, essentially."

	"You think that was it?" Starla asked innocently, her canine head tilted to one side.

	Carson's eye closed in thought.  "I... cannot say for sure.  All I truly remember is how it came to a head.  One evening, Diana was begging for release, and as usual I obliged her begging in the privacy of my bedroom.  For this particular tryst, Diana's clawing was more intense than usual.  She was begging me to rough her up, be dominant, and essentially let down my own restraint with her.  I had never been one to deny my girls anything... so I did.  We were in heaven until my door swung open, and Dorothea caught us mid-union.  I remember the haze of feral instinct fleeing as I noticed her standing in the doorway, shocked speechless.  Without a word, she fled."  The elder worgen cleared his throat gruffly before he could continue.  "I could tell something was wrong.  I immediately ended our tryst and pulled on a robe, but by the time I was downstairs, both you and your mother were gone.  And that was that."

	Starla's brow furrowed in thought.  "But... you said she knew, right?  You think it was jealousy?"

	"I wish I knew for sure," he admitted.  "Diana was just as upset about her sister's flight, and, feeling guilty, she decided to end things not long after she felt she no longer [i]needed[/i] to mate in order to feel satisfied.  She remained in the heart of Gilneas and took to magic, and she created the spell I use on your clothing.  We still send letters every month or so, but last I knew, your mother doesn't speak to her either."