Blacktail Deer Plateau Grief plagues us all

Osprey's death was horrific enough, yet Peregrine's recent discovery—Pura draped across the grave of his mother and his sister, happily gnawing on their bones—had left the Alpha male absolutely hollow. Dead inside, he thought to himself, I'm dead inside. He just couldn't erase the memory from his mind and it tortured him. The worst part was that he felt so tender toward his remaining children, yet at the same time, he could barely look at Pura right now.

He hadn't told anyone about what had happened and didn't have the least desire to share the gruesome image with anybody else. He was slowly beginning to realize that if he didn't unburden himself of it, though, the image would brand itself on his brain and never go away. It would torment him forever. Peregrine made the grim decision to tell whoever showed up first, unless of course it was Pura himself or his two little girls.

Thinking about them made Peregrine's heart ache. Now was the time to keep the other three as near and dear as possible. Yet Pura had snacked on his loved ones' remains and both Ty and Saēna seemed to be having trouble accepting Osprey Jr.'s absence. The Alpha wondered if they were simply too young to understand the concept of permanence. In any case, he'd asked Dante, the aspiring Counselor, to check in with each of the pups to help them cope, especially because he was useless himself at the moment.

A soft noise distracted Peregrine from his thoughts and he sat up to receive his visitor. It turned out to be Blue Willow and he gave her a sad look. He didn't think he would ever be able to smile again. "Willow," he said, "I'm sorry to do this to you but I have to tell you something disturbing I discovered. I have to tell someone or it's going to destroy me." He sucked in a quiet breath, met her eyes apologetically and said, "Yesterday, I found Pura at the graves. He had dug up both Osprey's and Pied's remains and he was... chewing on them." He shuddered, just as disturbed now as he'd been when he'd first walked in on the macabre scene.