Blacktail Deer Plateau We kill dragons

For Blue Willow, but others can hop in too if they'd like!

Saena ran and ran, somehow finding the energy and resolve to make it to the shadow of Blacktail Deer Plateau before the combined pain and exhaustion of her ordeal overwhelmed her. She was barely just at the plateau's doorstep when she collapsed with a cry, folding her mauled paw under her chest and crashing to the ground. Blood still flowed freely from the deep wound in her side, and she was littered with dozens of scrapes and bite wounds from Fox's assault. Her mind screamed at her to get up, reminded her that she had to get home, but she couldn't. In her fear and desperation, she'd gone to the Plateau, home of the most skilled healer in the Wilds, and it was here she would lie until she was found or she died.

She pressed her scratched cheek to the earth and felt the thrum of pain on the side of her neck where Fox's first snap had landed. Fury still burned in the injured Alpha's chest, fury and fear and mistrust. The longer she was away from that hellish place, the more she imagined it was all set up. Peregrine had taken her to see his children, invited her to help them, only to send his psychotic wife down to kill her when her guard was down. It had to be true, or else Peregrine would have arrived and seen his mate was a murderous bitch.

She couldn't guess why, though. Her reception at the Caldera just weeks before didn't suggest foul play at all. Had it been the case, Fox and the Caldera wolves would've killed her while she was already in their territory. Saena closed her eyes, whining plaintively, mentally grasping at a realization that was just out of reach and finding no purchase.