Blacktail Deer Plateau home, and my music's playing

a feather fell from his muzzle, dislodged as his grin grew wider at her words, whirling to the ground, ignored by the wolf that stood above it. love. and how long had it been since he had heard those words, unencumbered by family crisis or followed by a but?

she said think, and he knew, and oughtn't he to be troubled by that? yet, he wasn't. he knew that in her own way, dawn's supposition was as sure a knowledge as his.

"i love you," he murmured, drawing close after licking his lips clean of blood. he pressed his nose into the nape of her neck, into her leaf-littered pelt, and smiled. "i love you."

and despite all the troubles in their world, those words were all that mattered. she, and her big, bold, beautiful family, were all that would ever matter to him,until he drew his last breath.