Blackfeather Woods Once a year we celebrate

It was almost laughable, in a way, to think that the one that had wanted him gone so badly had ended up having himself cast out instead. Though there existed no longer a being within the woods that wanted him gone as badly as the former leader had, Xan still felt as if he didn’t belong. He’d not been born within the darkness, and had been brought to it only because of his father. At times, he believed so strongly that it was only because of the elder Inuit that the word had ever been given for him to stay. He was an offering, a promised soldier in a war that he knew nothing about, and it was only for those reasons that he’d been given a place there. Within Blackfeather, Alexander did not exist—there was only Kove’s son, and that was how it’d always been. The thoughts had existed within his mind for such a great amount of time that he no longer knew when they’d first appeared, or from where they’d come. He knew only that they were there, and that they’d then been shattered by the other male’s words.

Meldresi had seen something in him.

Not because he was his father’s son, but because he was himself. It was true that he’d been promised to the Brotherhood, but time and time again had there been an opportunity for them to get rid of him; to send him away with their teeth, or to end it permanently by killing him. Yet, neither of those scenarios had played out. Chance after chance had he been given, but never had he taken them—until now. Another chance was offered with motivational words and, whilst it was likely that his doubt would not vanish entirely for quite some time, he’d reached out for it.

“I want to join the family,” he’d decided. “I want to become a member of the Brotherhood, like my dad. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”