Bitterroot Valley Hubba bubba

Almost the second that Vega revealed her former pack was the source of her desire, the maplewood's lead bitch stretched out her neck, seeking a scent wafting off the other wolf's coat. There was nothing telling and certainly familiar. If Vega had left her pack recently, she'd either gone to great lengths to remove their scents from her coat or she hadn't worn them heavily to begin with. Either way, the female was really and truly a lone wolf again. Bearclaw Valley remained hidden from Saena, for now.

"I'm sure that's not it," Saena offered. It was easy to think that all packs were familial, but Saena didn't think Vega had a reason to lie. Even if it was a lie, it was a convincing one. "Though I've never heard of a pack that doesn't treat their own like family, it probably happens more than we know." She couldn't say much. She'd been in exactly two packs in her life and one of those, she led. Having been bereft of a stable family for the majority of her life, Saena saw her pack as a second chance at it. Maybe others weren't so invested.

"Maybe you could find what you're looking for with us," Saena thought aloud. "We're not very big but we've been through a lot together. We watched our home burn down, found a new one. Haven't been there too long yet, so there's still lots of time to break in. It's definitely like a family, and there's no reason someone couldn't join that family." Pups might've complicated the matter, since pups drew a very evident line between who was trusted and who wasn't, but the alpha female was too young to breed and the amazons had about as much interest in males as they did clods of dirt. They only had each other, which Saena felt fostered the sense of family. The thought of joining a family that was tightly knit together by the loss of a home—nevermind that Citali and Nochtli weren't part of it then—was intimidating, but Saena hoped Vega thought otherwise.