Haunted Wood that ending wasn’t worth the wait

valour's jovial greeting startled famine enough for him to drop the small carcass he'd fished from their collection. some part of him was embarassed enough to ignore the food.. though he still planned to eat it once he was alone again.

he picked up the unidentifiable remains and placed them gently on top of the other food items, snorting his response: sounds dumb. alpha pup, valour had called him; despite having fought for this rank only weeks prior, it now sounded much less appealing. 

famine didn't know why he'd lost interest in taking over, but something about it didn't feel right. the only remaining pups were either brand new or otherwise uninvolved, and he'd gotten the rank by default rather than by merit. something about alpha being given rather than earned made it feel.. insincere. 

whatever. wanna train? he asked, now starting to walk away, vanity's been helping me a bunch, but i don't wanna bother her. she was a mother, and a good one -- better than his own mother, anyway.