Kuromaru's ear folded back, and he squirmed his way off the futon to sit at Ryouma's feet. "I don't know. I wasn't there, and she wouldn't say." He reached up, flicking his tongue over fingertips. "But she smelled very bad. Like--" Like she had once before, but that was a secret. Kuromaru had made her practice lying all the way back to the clan. You didn't tell secrets. They didn't tell this secret.

But she hadn't smelled like that, not really. There hadn't been any blood, and there hadn't been any pain. No sex, either. Just... the rest of that smell.

He rubbed his face on his foreleg as if he would help him explain. "She smelled like omega pups." Solemnly, he looked at Ryouma.

Ryouma was looking confused.

"You know! Like when they get in trouble!"

That didn't seem to help at all.

He wilted, ear flopping. His mind ground to a halt around trying to explain it again. It was omega. And omega was omega.

"You could smell her clothes," he suggested weakly. "They smelled like fear worse than she did. I buried some of them outside..."