Porcupine Ridge The hills of Hollywood on fire

As I spontaneously decide to remove Farstep's reference name and leave him without any reference name at all!

Diane's misgivings and upset with the situation escaped the male wolf's notice. He wasn't keenly intuitive to the emotions others felt, only the instincts that drove them, and feeling pain and uncertainty over the death of a competitor or the act of killing wasn't among those. He knew no remorse for his own ruthlessness; if anything, the beta wolf was proud he had crushed the head of the skinny dog, and the taste of its blood on his tongue was the sweetest thing he had taken in recently due to it.

While his expectation was that Diane would turn away from him and insist on tending to her wound herself, he was surprised (pleasantly) when she not only stepped nearer, but exposed her wound to him. The trust inherent within a pack was evidenced now, because for all Diane knew, Farstep could seize the injury with his jaws and exacerbate it. He was no vicious, mad creature to attack his own kind and kin without a reason, though, and he felt his fellows' pain as acutely as he did his own. So when he did touch her with a gentle rasp of tongue across her wound, it was with a stunning tenderness that seemed impossible following his previous murder.