The Heartwood i've loved everything about you that hurt

Mal did know of Lily's fate, but since she was mostly in the ranks of the silent figures that ignored him, he didn't have as much ire about her.  She'd sort of tried.  Kinda.  And then given up again, as far as he knew.  There were others that were more important to note.  Considering how they seemed to be able to convince everyone to follow them, they might have made you do it anyway.  Or something worse. Maybe he'd be dead too.

Yeah, it's mine, he said, with a slight upward tilt of his muzzle.  Or at least that was the plan.  People seemed to sort of be following him.  And really the only one to speak against him had been Ibis, and if she was gone, then who cared?  Probably better off without her.  Mal might not have a clue what he was really doing beneath the surface, but he felt he'd do a far better job than a good deal of the wolves he'd met when he'd been at Elysium or traveling.  We have a different forest near here.  Not this one, obviously, which always seemed so barren.