Fairspell Meadow that's where the pain comes in, like a second skeleton

He considered ignoring the call, feeling his despair more today than usual. Most of the time he could block out thoughts of Alarian, but the few hours he of sleep he had managed to get the night before had been filled with memories of his mate. His scent, his scarred face, the first time they had met—all of the good things and conveniently none of the bad. So when he had woken, he had been frustrated and desolate. He had stuck to the outskirts of the meadow, hoping to avoid contact with anyone so that he wouldn't lose his shit and blow is cover. He was always so impulsive when he felt this way; he needed to find some kind of outlet, but it would have to wait. Right now, he needed to maintain appearances and respond to Maegi's summons, regardless of how it grated on his nerves.

Not many had beat him there. Just the other leader, the injured one he hadn't met, and two pups were gathered around the gaunt woman who had called this meeting. Her weakness irritated him; she was not a leader in his opinion, and he wondered how she had manged to keep the pack serving her for so long. He caught enough of the boy's words to get the gist of the subject of conversation as he took a seat near the edge of the gathering. She wanted to know where they should go now. He didn't disagree that the meadow was a bad place to spend the winter. But they didn't have many other options. Why don't we wait a little bit longer and see how things go, that way we can move back to the woods if things ever calm down. And if it gets much farther into winter, then we can move to a different forest. Somewhere close by so we can keep an eye on things at home. He offered his words calmly and with a shrug despite the pit of darkness festering inside him.