Redtail Rise other loves, other vices

Lavender was gone. Blackbear sucked in a soft breath and let it out, saying goodbye to her sister in her heart. She could only believe the smaller girl dead. Dauntless, though, was out there somewhere. Blackbear believed this as well, and hoped that she would see her litermate again one day. The younger ones would know her one day as well. She filed their names away in her heart, and lingered over the names of her cousins as well. So many pups, and no Daddy to love them. Would Shale raise them all as his own? Blackbear worried that he did not have the same spark of love that her father has carried with him, but then she looked back at Aditya and didn't worry any longer.

"It had to be you, huh?" she said in soft, wry tones. "Any one else... any of them, I could've run from. But it's going to be hard to walk away from you."