Moonstone Quarry And The Light may Shine in Your Eyes

Mal's opinion of Memory was dropping like a stone. He was acting like everything was so very surface level -- did he think Mal was stupid? Trying to help him was pointless, he really did just want an excuse to keep being awful, like somehow that'd make things morally alright or something. No, Mal needed to find his way out and get away from this guy as soon as he'd be able. Stuff was starting to look more familiar -- if he had to, he was pretty sure he could just take off and be able to find his way in not too long. He'd keep it in a metaphorical pocket and just wait for now. Maybe Memory would just scram on his own.

You don't know a damn thing about my pack, he retorted sharply. And at this point, Mal intended to keep it that way.  This has nothing to do with people liking fighting or what the hell ever -- Nightwalkers want to screw with people and get away with it. If you can't see you're shacking up with people that are happy being seen as thieves and practically drooling for a chance to kill people, you're blind. They aren't afraid to show that face to everyone. Their possible alliance came with an implied threat. They had boldly spoken of stealing from him. They'd even misunderstood him in ways he hadn't wanted to correct. No one wolf was going to suddenly make Nightwalkers a pack that anyone should trust -- it would probably would be easier to dissolve it and rebuild on a more amiable blank slate than anything else.