Arrow Lake but all my tears have been used up

For @Stigmata. Can finish on your reply, if you'd like. <3

Her search for Thorn had led her only to the uncertainty of what had truly happened to her comrade. There was no trail to follow, and no word of his departure. It was a bleak outcome, and the diminutive Gespent’s thoughts could only linger on the mountain lion that had brought her to the precipice of death. The twitch of her jaw was all that would reveal her silent fury as she had once more made her way home without their beloved pack mate, and her irritability was widespread to any who glanced upon her.

As it would come about, it was more than her grief which drove the woman to solitude and darkness, and as the itch of her skin intensified, Ketzia recognized at once what was occurring—for she had managed the season once before. She had considered the standing of the pack—three mothers within their ranks already, and she had believed nature would have perhaps respected such law.

How foolish.

As the afternoon sun begun to drift further down the horizon of the mountain, igniting the paler hues of the sunset, Ketzia remained firmly rooted to her den, pacing with the fervor of a beast awoken. Her skin twitched, rippling her pale coat—the scars along her hind burning in a way they had not before.

She hoped he would not come. Believed firmly he would not dare—not after everything. And yet the scent of him soothed her instantly, and as the wayward Regent of the mountain discovered her, she did not give pause to her anger in him, or to the world in that moment—instead she wove around him, crooning softly to him, announcing her heartache for not just their lost friend, but for the relationship they both had seemed to have lost from one another. Every nerve that had once before denied him gave way to the man who had originally captivated her so to his mountains—as she had learned now, tomorrow was never promised, and she refused to regret stealing a moment with the stony warhound.