Blacktail Deer Plateau east will take me back

Grezig did not notice a change to Siege’s character. How could she? He hid it well, and she was not telepathic. She herself kept her face impassive at Liri’s name. She needed to get over this. Kavik was not for her, and now it wasn’t even about him, and that bothered her so much more. In her natal pack, if she had wanted something that someone else had, she would have fought them for it, and such a thing would have been acceptable. That was how disputes were settled, and if the loser didn’t like it, then… tough shit. They got over it or they left. So far, no one had left. No one had anything that anyone else wanted. Grezig never expected to want to fight a female over her mate. Grezig, until recently, had not understood nor thought herself capable of love. 

She realized that she was in her head again and silently chastised herself. “Forgive me,” she said to Siege, for she had surely been staring into space for at least a few moments. “I have been distracted for some time by a personal matter.” She cleared her throat, feeling awkward but seeing no point in lying. Besides, she hadn’t told him what it was and he seemed like the type to not ask. As is turned out, she was just as relieved as he was to go on a patrol and agreed eagerly. “Yes, please,” she said and turned to begin making her way to her usual patrol path. 

“No, I do not need to recover,” she said over her shoulder, waiting for him to catch up. “When I said that, I merely meant that I was a bit tired. I was gone for…” She thought about it. “Two weeks, tops, there and back. It was constant travel, so I was tired when I returned, but it has been a few days already, so I’m all right now.”

It was strange, she noticed, how talkative she was. Perhaps she was merely happy to be conversing with someone other than her alphas. And already she got the sense that Siege would be easy to converse with. He reminded her of herself… and of Kavik, a bit. No matter. She would get to know him better and find all the ways he was different from the dark male she’d loved for such a short time, before that love had turned bitter in her stomach. Trying to think of anyone but Kavik, she asked, “Where are you originally from?”