Nova Peak If you must live, darling one, just live

Stag was prepared for Wylla to tell him to use his head, but he was not prepared for the sob that nearly broke her composure, nor the implication she was leaving.

His throat constricted. Rough, discomforting emotion surged through him.

She was leaving.

Like his mother had, like his father had -- like Ego, and Mesa, and Monarch.. His entire family had come and gone, wolves had walked in and out of his life over and over, and yet never once has Stag considered the impossible: that there might be a time Wylla was no longer in his life.

He didn't feel needed, not now - and he was even less inclined to stay in a pack that had so handily demonstrated they were rats rather than wolves. It was disquieting to think that once, he ran among them -- that once, he believed the loyalty he felt pounding in his heart would be given back in equal measure.

This time, Stag would not run. Stag kept his head up, his voice level -- but Wylla would be able to sense how distraught he was to think of leaving Phaedra behind. "I'm going with you."