Swiftcurrent Creek soft buzz · pack meeting

It was shortly after she arrived that Fox commenced. Her words were a full blow that she had only been half-expecting. They riled her.

With derision that crept forth from the previous meeting, she noted watchfully that Bazi was incapable of doing anything other than gaping, though she supposed after a slow moment that she wasn’t at fault, here—not if the alpha hadn’t even deigned to tell her right and left hands what was going on before summoning the rest of them. Serengeti looked to Njal to see if that theory was entirely true, but a voice she hadn’t heard before stopped her.

She only knew Tuwawi was ranked in the upper tier and she was the only pregnant female among them this season, but she captured the northern-furred female’s full attention when she gently pushed past her mate and spoke her mind. It seemed she didn’t know what had happened either, but she knew Ferdie and Jace. She also made no secret of her thoughts on their captive, whose presence only stood to endanger the fragile lives that would soon be born. Ren’s gaze steeled upon him, but the blame she cast sternly did not lie with Cutthroat.

She wove through her pack mates with prominent strides and stood to Tuwawi’s side. She did not stand paw-to-paw with her, however, but instead made her deep respect apparent by hanging back just a few steps. With as much inner strength as she could command in that moment, she strong-armed the indignation that might have contaminated her voice otherwise.

It only takes one wolf to instigate senseless violence, she said in response to the words Fox had initially unleashed upon them. But she was not about to lay Ferdie’s name to burn then and there. I was asked to seek Ferdie out when I was still on our borders. Those who knew him were aware of a problem before that point. Fox had said she hadn’t the patience to deal with him, yet the overall well-being of the pack was everyone’s responsibility.