The Sunspire And I know the score

Mal wasn't alone. He recognized the pack scent enough -- or at least that of Donovan's. Saints. Lovely. So their little anthill had to be somewhere nearby? Mal watched the guy, tip of his head at the smile, the words. The fact this dude was also sort of weird-looking and so Mal jumped to the not-unreasonable conclusion that maybe he was Donovan's brother. Would that make his backup plan work better or worse? Not sure.

A lot of what? Cupid had been gone long enough that Mal had assumed he meant something more generic -- just other pack wolves in general maybe. Having it be wolves from his own pack seemed unlikely, given all the rain and time that passed. And honestly, he didn't want to find out Cupid had anything to do with the Saints. And so, best to not assume, he kept things nice and ordinary, and if he needed to play dumb, so be it, What are you going on about? Last I checked lower slopes weren't exactly dangerous. Well, it was slightly ordinary but nowhere near keen to close any space, and though Mal was at least going to be of some cheer. This dude wouldn't know any better what he was normally like, that for Mal it wasn't too much. Nah, Mal probably seemed like just some normal guy who wasn't big on giving hugs to strangers.