Bitterroot Valley you hit me yesterday because i made you cry

Even after Reif's not-so enthusiastic reply, Valiant didn't regret asking after him. He regretted that things didn't seem to be going great for him, of course, but that was just how things worked, wasn't it? "The same, kind of," he admitted with a feeble wag of his tail. He came a little closer, disliking how this felt like meeting a perfect stranger even though that was really what it was.

Of course, he should have suspected a question like the one that followed. Atwood, he thought to himself, experiencing a familiar pang, but he was more hung up on the first two names. "I'd thought..." they died, he finished in his head, but he didn't trust any of his memories from that time period. It didn't seem right to share this assumption with Reif, either — not when he wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry," he said with a shake of his head, his heart thumping a little uncomfortably. "I haven't seen — well, anyone, really. There were no traces of them at the willows. Not my dad and Aeryn either. Some new pack is taking over."

This was said with a tiny thread of bitterness, but he was quick to shake this expression away, even if the emotion remained.

"When did you last see them?" he asked, a lump forming in his throat.