Stone Circle Momma is there for you

Murdock was nearby. He couldn't bear not to be, after almost losing his precious girl to the bison, the wolverine, this pettiness that had risen up between them. If she'd died, she would've died believing he had cast her off - that he hadn't loved her as fully and completely as he'd loved his own dead daughters and good, sweet Chemukh. And that would be silly. They were dead. Steph was alive and real, and she needed him. That much had been made clear.

But Valette had rightly pinpointed the reason for his not having visited. He didn't feel welcome in the alpha's den - partially because of what had transpired between himself and Steph, but mostly because of how he felt he'd failed both of them. He'd stood there while Steph had run to her doom, and now she might never be the same. She'd gotten  hurt - and not the little hurts of childhood, but the raw wounds of survival. It made his heart ache to picture her lying in the den, reduced to inactivity by his own inaction.

But he couldn't keep his distance when Valette called for him. He arrived a few minutes after her howl, his limp carefully disguised so that he would not bring even more of his shame to her. After a quiet chuff to announce his presence, he stood silently outside, wishing it didn't hurt so much to stand.