Silvertip Mountain Children running from their school

She was on higher ground. She should have been more aware that she was being followed, for once she had prided herself on being stealthy, but in her haste she had forgotten herself. Jinx had lost her touch, a definite side-effect of leading a pretty carefree life in Swiftcurrent Creek. When Fox located her and demanded her attention with a short call, bidding the Beta to turn and face her Alpha, her prevailing thought was, shit shit shit.

But if Jinx had lost her edge as a sneak thief and a spy, she hadn't lost her penchant for lying out her ass. "Fox," she acknowledged, keeping her voice level even though some surprise managed to sneak out past her tightened lips. "Who is watching the Creek?" No doubt it was Njal. No doubt his ego had flared up at that. Jinx had no qualms with the broad northerner, and in fact respected him, but still his challenge in the immediate wake of her miscarriage stung her childish pride.

Pressing on whether she got an answer or not, Jinx began the careful weaving of her lie. "Tuwawi informed me that a good friend of mine who led a pack in the forest just south of here departed." Chakra had been an acquaintance at best, but Jinx felt confident Fox wouldn't know that. It would be her own failure if it turned out Fox was aware of everything already. "I came to check whether she had come back. She hasn't."

It felt horrid to lie to someone she respected and trusted as much as Fox, but Jinx knew the consequences of her plans... And, being a selfish and greedy wolf at heart, she was unwilling to have any part of those consequences. She would make a seamless transition from Swiftcurrent's Beta to Silvertip's Alpha, blindsiding them all in the process, or so she thought. "Thought I'd check this place out while I was here. There was once a pack here, as well." Tonravik's, she might have said to begin an off-topic discussion, but she hadn't known the name of the dark woman who once tried to tame this mountain, and hadn't cottoned on to her identity when she challenged Jinx outright in the Creek.