Great Bear Wilderness [m] forty-eight hours feels so much longer

Fox nearly jumped out of her skin when the female spoke. She had to quickly regain her footing on the log to prevent herself from falling face-first into the ripped-up forest floor. "You scared the bejesus out of me!" Fox exclaimed. "I don't like being snuck up on, y'know." But how would she know. The stranger knew next to nothing about her. She knew not of Redhawk Caldera, Peregrine, the children, although Fox suspected she knew that their tryst had been her first with another lady. Or with anyone except Peregrine, for that matter. Fox was no prude... she was merely careful about who she got intimate with. Then again, she'd been decidedly reckless with this one. But she'd also thought it was a setup by Peregrine, so there was that.

The Alpha hopped down off the log, landing easily on the damaged ground below, littered with sticks, leaves, and other bits of Mother Nature's debris. "I wasn't sure you'd come back, Starling," Fox said, more gently than the words used to greet the stranger. The name was fitting, if only because of her black coat and yellow eyes. There was another wolf Fox had attained feelings for with those same colors, but she pushed him out of her mind. Perhaps she just had a think for dark wolves.