Raven's Watch Mr. Lonely

@Bane @Nemesis

He's never felt lonely before.

He always considered himself a loner, a lone predator stalking from one place to the next, surviving at the fringes of pack life, the boogieman made real, the ghost haunting their borders. He would have been content staying that way — it brought him prosperity where sedentary life in a pack had not. It made hunting easier, it made living his true life as a strigoi easier. He never considered giving up that life.

Until he came to Teekon Wilds. 

Last autumn he met someone, a companion. Not another of his kind, no, but a thrall. A vassal that he had protected and nurtured through the winter into spring. His sweet, quiet baiatel.

In that guardianship he had met others. An alliance was formed, the promise of a pack where he could live free to do as he pleased, where his baiatel could be protected and wellfed. Swept into the excitement of it all, he didn't think anything of letting Bane go to find more members, expand their ranks. 

It was his folly that whatever spark had ignited in Raven's Watch had fizzled. What wolves had been gathered had disappeared with the warming winds, as Bane's absence prolonged. Even his thrall, connected to him by blood, had disappeared. Athanasius spent days tracking him before he knew he had to give up. He never even learned his name.

It was after all of this that Athan sat on one of the peaks of Raven's Watch, gazing out at the sea, wondering if it was even worth it to stay any longer now that he was truly alone.