Redhawk Caldera tell me every terrible thing you did and let me love you anyway

Towhee and X watched the borders like, well, hawks. She didn't need her ears to know when the wolves from Drageda arrived; she watched their approach from a distance, then made sure to hasten to the borders as they came closer. She arrived simultaneously with Elwood, nodding her head and coming to stand at the Alpha male's shoulder. She started slightly when she felt an unexpected but familiar weight settle on her opposite shoulder. Towhee cocked her head and smiled grimly at the hawk, then turned and began counting heads. Her heart beat with both excitement and fear.

A flash of red made Towhee jump again. She watched as the familiar svelte figure of Wildfire flung herself at the commander, pressing into the black bear of a woman. The mercenary's eyes dropped in embarrassment and—to tell the truth—a touch of distaste. When she raised them again to resume counting, she pointedly kept her attention away from the pair of reuniting she-wolves.

"They've asked me to go into hiding with the others," Wildfire was breathlessly informing her mate even as her eyes scanned for other familiar faces in the crowd behind the commander. When she spotted Artaax and Blixen, she gasped. She should have felt anger and fear—Thuringwethil had involved their children against Wildfire's wishes—but all she felt was a poignantly bittersweet joy at seeing them and a fierce pride. They were grown adults now, powerful Drakru soldiers.

Wildfire beckoned them to her almost shyly, tears springing to her eyes. "Thur," she murmured to her mate, "I'm going home with you after this." She still planned to go into hiding with the others, though she would do whatever Thuringwethil asked. And Wildfire would, of course, express her eternal thanks to her godparents before returning to Drageda. Right at the moment, the only thing that mattered was that Wildfire's family knew—before they marched off to war—that she would be going home with them after they'd won. "And bring our children—and yourself—back safe to me."