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

Saena's keen eye followed the elder wolf's movements, and only when Shreya stepped away did she draw near to pull off her own morsel. It was hardly enough to keep her sated for the day but it would serve for now and she munched on it readily. By evening it was likely her appetite would disappear completely and a lack of food then wouldn't matter. Pregnancy had that effect.

Panning her gaze around the clearing, Saena briefly lost focus but was pulled back to herself as Shreya began to speak. The woman wasn't wrong to infer that Saena's assumption had everything to do with Reek. It made sense for a grandmother to join her grandson's pack and support him, not only biological sense but logically as well. A wolf, and indeed all animals, was most driven to aid its own relatives over others. Shreya's decision to remain therefore came as a surprise, and her reasons even moreso—a testament to the old wolf's pragmatism, and something Saena herself should strive to become.

"You are noble to do what you feel is right for you and not what your relative does," she noted, "and I would never hold you accountable for his sins. You've had a place here since the day you joined and that won't change just because of his greed." She had a lot of harsher words for what she thought of Reek, but she was too exhausted to utter them now. She'd run through them enough times in her brain. Tilting her snout, she continued picking at the piece of flesh as she asked, "you've travelled far, then?" She inferred it from the comment on paws slowing, and the interest pooling in her eyes was enough to tell she was quite interested in tales from abroad if Shreya had any.