Neverwinter Forest Intrepid

He felt his stomach twist into a knot when the red wolf did not appear to recognize him or, more accurately, the mother he greatly resembled. However, Impala did not lose hope. Turquoise hadn't even exchanged names with her lover; they hadn't spent more than a day together, so perhaps he might not remember her right away. And he almost certainly wouldn't know about the three fruits of his loins, two of whom were long dead. In fact, Impala was the only evidence of Turquoise's solitary foray into heterosexuality.

"I take after my mother," he explained. "During the spring of last year, she mated with a stranger and produced my sisters and myself. That stranger, my father, had red fur, yellow eyes and scars." He left nothing to the imagination with his brief, pointed explanation. "My mother has golden fur, a stripe down her back and turquoise eyes." Was he jogging the male's memory? Or was this wolf simply a doppelgänger thrown into his path by chance?

The circumstances were suspiciously coincidental. Perhaps it was all too good to be true. The young hunter found his heart slowing and sinking into his chest. He spared the she-wolf a sideways glance, gray eyes lingering on her bloodied fangs. She didn't seem interested in the conversation at hand. But he remembered that she had summoned her entire pack. They might arrive at any moment to feast on the deceased moose, crowding him away from the wolf he thought his sire.

Impala's smudged snout pointed back at the russet male, his tongue pressing against the back of his teeth as he silently anticipated his response.