Phoenix Maplewood Thinking 'bout the last time I saw you smiling

Her steps were heavy and she did nothing to mask them. It was next to impossible to move quietly with a belly of pups, and whether she liked it or not, Saena was bound to run into her pack mates sooner or later. She would prefer later, but that wasn't how being an alpha female worked, and now she was a solo alpha to boot. There would be a lot of work to do, and somewhere in there she had to take time off to give birth to her pups and ensure they survived.

She barely noticed the increase in her breathing, or the fact she was bordering on panicked hyperventilation, when she first spotted Shreya. She hadn't really formally met Reek's grandmother, which made her doubly surprised to see the elder wolf was still around. She'd expected the woman to go with her grandson, and wasn't sure exactly whether she was glad or upset that Shreya had stayed. Probably a little of both, because she could use the older wolf's expertise and experience but she was also loathe to cling to anything that remained of Reek.

Still, when the woman dropped a haunch of deer in front of her, Saena decided she was more glad than anything. Though she was ravenous, she shook her head lightly and said, "it's yours, you eat it. If there's any left I can eat that." In the height of autumn was the only time Saena would necessarily guard or take food from others, when all wolves were most active and most aggressive. With spring around the corner, she was back to being genuinely gentle, if not completely depressed. "'m not very hungry anyway," she lied, even though Shreya could probably see right through it.