Lost Creek Hollow only suffering can teach

what did she care? why did pain flash in her eyes, as if she was the one who deserved to feel it? indra was the one leaving. indra was the one abandoning him. merrick would never have done what she did to him now. why wasn't she more loyal to him than she was to laurel? without littermates, perhaps the boy would never understand.
his mother's low words came, and merrick heard there the play of her emotions. but still he was motionless, and merely watched as the rich-red hue of her features disappeared into the coldly dappling light of the forest.
only when indra had gone from view did merrick relax, bristle, his bottom lip quivering with a boyish sorrow. but he refused to cry, and so whirled and took himself deeper into the weald, to be alone for as long as he chose.