Silver Creek And moth-like stars were flickering out

Saena adjusted her posture on her haunches, but remained seated beneath the tree while Heston spoke his pleasantries. She dipped her head in acknowledgement of his formal greeting, but allowed him to finish without interruption while she mulled over how to speak to someone who knew her but whom she was unfamiliar with. He had only been a part of the pack a short while by his admission, which explained why Saena hadn't met him, and his explanation that Spring and Shreya had shone light on her story brought a measure of relaxation to her shoulders and stiff back.

She didn't remember Shreya as well as she ought to, but she trusted Spring. She'd appointed the woman as her second for a reason, after all. A wolf that Spring trusted was one Saena ought to be able to trust as well, and while that wasn't always the case, she felt no reason to mistrust Heston. "I met with her a few days ago," she confirmed. It was very possible that Saena would have crossed the borders without Spring's permission had she grown impatient enough, but the girl had led for over half her life, and was used to doing as she pleased. She'd followed protocol this time, fortunately for both her and Heston.

His words about Silver Creek brought a dark silence upon Saena for a moment, and then she shook her head. "It was cowardly," she countered. She'd cared more the safety of her children than her own ideals. While that was probably true of all mothers, Saena knew that Phoenix Maplewood could have crushed Reek's fledgling pack, and having forgotten about the larger threat that had been their true reason for leaving, she no longer remembered why she'd been so afraid.

"I should have fought for my home. For my pack. We would have won." But you didn't want to face him, a tiny voice murmured knowingly in her mind. You didn't want to kill him. That had been Saena's mistake. She'd hated Reek but the thought of killing her former mate had turned her away from defending the maplewood and set her upon this course instead. Her reluctance to end his life had changed the day he'd taken her daughters from the creek, though, and her expression changed from pensive to stormy at that thought.