Nova Peak Feels like I'm the only one that's sick of playin'

Mahler didn’t come, and that was just as well for her. It made things significantly easier. She could almost smile with genuine interest, conjure forth a little of her warmth that so rarely touched her features. It helped a lot that Taikon was an exceptionally polite wolf.

Maybe it was because she wasn’t used to seeing a respectful display without having to demand it, but she was taken with him in an instant. Oh, not in that way. He was handsome but not really her type. No, she was just so impressed with his border etiquette that her smile broadened and her discomfort with his similar appearance to Elke slipped away. Now that was more like it.

I’m sorry about your old group, she said. It wasn’t a pack she had ever heard of, but she sort of knew what it was like to lose a pack. Well, actually, no she didn’t. She’d been the one to abandon all her previous ones. It was sort of similar, though, she thought. Sagtannet is a small pack made up of families, she told him. We keep to ourselves, don’t meddle too much in the affairs of others, but we protect what’s ours. Does that appeal to you? Then, like an afterthought, she wondered, What sort of things do you hunt? It was more of a formality than anything. She didn’t want to make it seem like Sagtannet was desperate by welcoming him in without seeming at least a little critical of his skills.

But, truly, he was practically a member already.