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

She had come to the same conclusions in a millisecond as Stag drew now. Part of her knew it was impulsive, maybe a little childish, to leave her home and her children just because she was sick and tired of being scorned by the pack, let alone the man who claimed to love her. But the majority of her knew that she was not compatible with a pack that allowed her to work for them, but shunned her when she needed something from them. More importantly, she had suffered disrespect too many times in her life in spite of her efforts to swallow that bitter pill again, much less from Mahler's hand.

Even the thought of his name made her throat sizzle with an unnamed but potent emotion. She nodded dumbly when Stag told her that he would find her in the morning. She hoped to be well clear of this place by then, but would be mindful to make her path conspicuous enough for him to easily follow. Possibly for another to follow, but she dared not breathe any life into that notion. If he had had any intentions of stopping her, he would have done so already.

Without another word, as much because she couldn't bring herself to speak as anything, she quit Stag's company feeling no better for it and retired to a faraway part of the territory to sleep away her last evening within Sagtannet's bounds. Sleep never came for her, however; try as she might, she could not slip into its numbing embrace.