Nova Peak If you must work, work to leave some part of you on this earth

She'd readied herself for a negative reaction, having already suffered it from Phaedra before they came to an agreement, but she wasn't expecting Thade to tell her she couldn't leave.

If he wasn't her son, she'd laugh in his face. The pack had spoken, and Wylla had already begun to twist the story in her own mind to better serve her. It made it easier to deal with the consequences of it if she convinced herself that she'd had no choice but to leave Sagtannet. Truly, she didn't feel like she did. Without Mahler's support, her hold on her rank was tenuous at best, and now the entire pack had seen that they could challenge her authority with impunity. She would need to fight for every scrap of respect or loyalty from the wolves who lived under her protection now. She'd been there before. She couldn't do it again.

You have to, she told him firmly, but her voice was as fragile as cracked glass. A facade. She was barely holding herself together, and Thade's reaction wasn't helping any. I wish it didn't have to be this way, baby, but it does. Your father does not want me here any longer. That wasn't strictly true. It was something she read into his lack of support, another exaggerated assumption of the meaning behind his inaction, but it was her truth. I'll never be really gone, though. I promise. I'll stay close enough that you and your sister can always call upon me, and I will answer, if you would rather stay here.

A lofty promise. It was extremely unlikely she would be able to keep it. She intended to stay close enough to be available for her children, but it depended a lot on how her former packmates treated her if they found her in neutral ground, or if she ran into the Rusalkans, or if she happened to range a little too far in search of food one day. A cold stone found its way into her throat at the thought of struggling to find enough to eat on her own. She shoved it away, unwilling to think about that now.