Shadowwyn Moor moulin rouge

It'd been easy enough to convince the pack that'd usurped them to keep her around. Without any tangible connections to her old pack, she wasn't a threat to them as long as they kept an eye to her, and she wasn't a threatening enough animal to be a problem herself. When the smoke had cleared, she'd swallowed her pride and prostrated herself before them, bowing her head and steeling her nerves just long enough to prove her usefulness.

She knew the lands and the prey, and as far as they were concerned, she was also a beacon to any of her family who might try and return — she'd been aware that they'd been using her as bait to suss out any survivors and well and truly chase them off, but then, she'd been using herself as bait, just to find a way out. It hadn't been an easy thing to do and thinking about it still made her feel scraped raw, so she gave her head a bit of a shake and nipped Eshe's shoulder none too gently as she parroted their mother's disapproving I see. As far as she was concerned, and aware, she was the only one who'd put any effort into trying to bring whoever was left back together. It wasn't in her genetic make up to turn tail and run away.

"I'm glad you're alive, too," Bhreac said, sighing, and already knowing she'd forgiven Eshe for any perceived slight. Despite her optimism, it was an overwhelming relief to know that she wasn't alone. Eshe's next words, though, surprised Bhreac, and she bristled slightly, looking at Eshe with a frown.

She opened her mouth to respond and then snapped it shut again, taking a beat to process. They were both loyal — and she'd thought, with her own recklessness, that Eshe was loyal to a fault. And yet she'd left their home so easily — she'd left Bhreac, even if she didn't know it, because she hadn't bothered to really look. Of course, Eshe had come back, at least, and that's how Bhreac had found her, but the whole thing still rankled her. And to find out on top of that that her sister had immediately shed her name and her past and her loyalty like a second skin and slipped into a new life as though it were that easy, after Bhreac had lived with the wolves who'd attacked and slaughtered their family in order to maintain her loyalty — well. That was a blow.

Bhreac wanted to forgive and let go, and it certainly wasn't her wont to hold a grudge, especially since she was genuinely so thrilled to find her sister alive, and in one piece. It was a gift she hadn't truly expected, and yet. And yet...

"Brilliant," Bhreac said, dripping sarcasm. "Really, that's great. Truly wonderful. I'm so, so... happy for you. I'm glad that while I was stomaching life with the animals that killed our family out of loyalty to you lot, you were letting me go. That's incredibly kind of you. Very considerate. You are... just brilliant, Eshe."