Blacktail Deer Plateau At least for a week

Nieve could only fix Reyes with a confused frown when he talked about bitches fitting right in with Rusalka. That wasn't true at all, she thought. Once upon a time, when she was too young to remember much of it, Rusalka was filled with wolves with strong personalities. Caiaphas, Raleska, Rosalyn, Erzulie, Eurycrates, Vercingetorix... they'd all been strong personalities back then. Nowadays, Raleska was quiet and reticent, Rosalyn was calm like a lake at dawn, Erzulie steady but comforting, Eurycrates and Vercingetorix and Caiaphas all dead. The Rusalka that Nieve knew was filled with wolves who cared about one another, reclusive and secretive, but not one of them was disrespectful.

She would soon learn she had the wrong idea about her home, but even then, she didn't think Reyes was right at all. Whatever he was thinking of, it surely wasn't the Rusalka she'd grown up loving. She chose to make no comment on it if only to avoid getting into a debate about the type of wolves who lived on the plateau. Instead, she focused on his offer.

Truly, it was tempting, but she shook her head in the end. That'd only make us as bad as them. Nieve wasn't a pushover, which was precisely why she'd held her own and kept her title in spite of Ying's disrespect, but she wasn't going to stoop to the level of a bully just for payback. She didn't have the coldness in her heart for it, and more importantly, she was better than that. So was Reyes, she thought, though the frenetic energy in his eyes at the mention of beating someone up made her feel uneasy. Where'd you go? she asked, eager to get off the topic of Ying.