Stone Circle layaway

It'd taken several days of long reflection for Day to realize that what he'd been feeling had a name: heartbreak. It didn't register at first. He'd been worried about the kids and hurt by the mother's apparent betrayal, but he hadn't thought about missing her, not at first. Despite everything, Day had just never thought of her like that - as a lover, as a friend. She'd been his partner. The mother of his children. Everything but who she ought to have been, first and foremost. And, despite everything, she'd become that - or had started to, before she went away.

And now Day missed her, pined for her, felt his heart creak when he heard her name or caught the dying whispers of her scent on the breeze. Surprised him every time, too - to know that he'd loved her after all. But there was nothing he could do about that, even if he could make up his mind about what he would've done differently, if he could go back and do it all again. Those options weren't open to him, and so, he chose not to dwell on it.

The worst of the storm was over, and Day was managing to get by the same as he always had, though he was a little more reserved than he had been.

Today, he was hunting. Really hunting, as the kids were now old enough to know how to stick around and not wander off into a snowstorm. He trusted them to entertain themselves for a few hours during the day, and even if he hadn't, he trusted his pack mates to stop them if they ended up doing something dangerous. So Grayday pushed the kids from his mind and trotted through the snow, his broad chest breaking a path through the fresh, crusty layer that'd built up overnight. All trails would be covered, but he wasn't going to let that deter him. Sometimes, you just had to grasp at the wind.