Silver Creek out for a paddle

Shreya's eyes were keen on his face as she told the story, watching him for reaction. She seemed to approve of his response, and he wondered if others had reacted in a way that had lost approval. He was certainly biased against the figure who had betrayed, but perhaps others had different views than he. She answered his questions after a moment of silence and his eyes flashed to hers with surprise at the reveal that Reek, the alpha male, was her grandson. Heston was torn, listening to her. He couldn't imagine what it must feel like to have watched the pack be betrayed by your own kin, to disagree with him and then have to flee from him.

Heston wanted deeply to characterize Reek as the villain in the story, to simply see the bad and burn the word into the male's very being. Evil. Things were not so black and white, though, Shreya's feelings for the male certainly weren't and this challenged Heston's emotions. He would not admit that the betrayer of his past might have his own story, his own shortcomings or ability to change. He would not let the male be anything but a killer in his mind. And so Reek, who seemed so similar, having someone say that he had the potential to learn...it confused him in a way he didn't entirely like. Reek and his own villain from his past were not the same, her reminded himself. 

He tried to accept what Shreya said, tried to understand that while Reek had hurt the Silver Creek wolves he might still be good. He wasn't the villain in Heston's story...but he was only partially successful. A piece of Heston thought that perhaps Shreya only thought that way because he was kin, and she couldn't rightly damn or hate her own blood. He spoke not of this to Shreya, merely nodded to her words and let the surprised expression fall into one of concern.

"I am sorry then, for both your loss of your first home and for...the way it must have felt to have Reek do that." He glanced away for a moment, thinking silently. "Do you think Reek would be...angry to find you all here? Would he still support the rival pack?" He was asking about threats, things to watch out for. Should he ever encounter Reek on the border...would he need to be worried about attack? "Saena. Did she...does she still live as well?" Had she died in the journey? Or from the famine? Or had she simply passed her title to Spring because of other reasons? 

He felt guilty about his flare of anger and hate at Reek, knowing now that he was Shreya's grandson. He liked Shreya, even from this short meeting. Yet the feelings still rolled in his belly, unwilling to die completely. He'd never before been forced to try to see the grey in a matter of such betrayal, and it unsettled him.