Sheepeater Cliff I got troubled thoughts

She introduced herself with the name Nochtli. It strangely suited her in a way that names seldom seemed to do any more. She seemed friendly enough and had picked up on his emotions well enough. It was enough to make FitzDutiful laugh in exasperation. "Indeed it does. I'm a counsellor by trade but sometimes we make the worse patients and fail to realise when we have to talk to others."

Lately he had been wary of letting others know of how his pack was doing but, especially in this circumstance, it wasn't at the forefront of his mind. She was a lone wolf, who was she going to report this to? True, she might seize upon the challenge, but this was personal anyway.

"A few month ago my mate was carrying our children. She seemed to want to kill herself and I had to stop that from occurring. Later she attacked the beta, a wolf higher ranking than herself, and I seriously wounded her. I didn't think I would ever be able to forgive her but now my children are almost old enough to fend for themselves."

He sighed and looked at the floor, playing with a stone with his paws. Ashamed, his next words came. "The beta and myself planned to send my mate away when my children were old enough. Now I find myself not wanting to. I want her to lead the pack with me and for my children to have a stable home. I don't know how the beta will take that, the two of them have never got along and how do I know if my mate regrets the damage she did."

Another sigh.

"Anyone else would have been expelled the moment the attack occurred but she carried the pack's future with her. My future. Now it seems so long ago, I can forgive but I can't forget."