The Heartwood i've loved everything about you that hurt

Bit of a blink at one of those questions. It's a pack. which he said in a way that was slightly perplexed, as if he didn't seem to be 110% sure what Alarian was really looking for answer-wise. Not like, crazy or whatever.  Just a place where we're gonna all be safe, nobody's gonna be ignored, and we'll all work together and make something better.  Borrow a bit of phrasing from Ceilidh there, even if it wasn't a real quote.  He liked the feeling of it though.  Mal's promises didn't come with any great glory about being the best out there or helping out every soul out there (at the detriment of others).   Mal just wanted somewhere where he felt he could actually trust people.  Oh and full of people that are actually worth being around, because I've talked to a lot of pack wolves around here now and most of them haven't exactly been great people.

Pause.  What do you mean, your ward?  It was just kind of a weird phrase to him, but let's be real, Mal didn't have the best education.

He'd get an explanation, and would indeed end up welcoming them into the pack.  Seemed like things were gonna go well!  Or not.  Alarian ended up vanishing after heading off to the coast to scout.  Maybe Mal should have been a bit more forceful in saying leaving solo was a bad idea.  That or those that were adults when he was a child were just not very reliable.  He believed the latter.