Whitefish River cor in absentia

To Dauntless, who had spent very little of his adult life in a pack, it was difficult to imagine that one needed to be a thing more than an able hunter to be an attractive protective joiner. Talk of trades threw him, and he wheeled back a step in apparent discomfort, stealing another glance at Evergreen.

"I'm good at it," he hedged, not quite sure how to answer. In the end, he bit the bullet and admitted, "I don't have a trade. I haven't been in a pack since my birth pack. I stopped here because I can smell some of my siblings. An older sister and a younger brother."

But he was beginning to doubt he was the sort of caliber that was accepted here. Dawn had been his father's right hand, after all. He didn't know what had become of Winterbourne, but if Dawn and Aditya had taken over his care when their father died, it only made sense that he'd be incredible.

"How do you decide if someone is fit?" he asked, his ears pressing forward in determination. He wasn't Dawn, but he was his father's son. "A test? I can bring something back here. Or we could spar."