Bramblepoint I'll follow you way down to your deepest low.

When she tried to apologize, he shook his head. He was more than done with his mother's bullshit, and wasn't going to have anyone else apologize if they needed to vent about her. It was validating, in a way, to find someone else confess that they had issues with Niamh as well. She'd made him feel like he was weak, and as though he was little more than a disappointment but whenever someone else had a complain about her, he began to realize that it was his mother who was wrong. Maybe he wasn't weak, or a disappointment- his mother's way of viewing the world and other wolves, in reference to herself, was what was warped. 

But he did wince when Towhee said that Reyes- a name that was only vaguely familiar, and called to mind a dark, reddish fellow he'd probably seen in passing when he'd been at the Caldera last- had broken his mother's leg...And that he'd actively partaken in a very serious fight against a wolf who was pregnant. No matter how much he resented his mother, he did believe that it was very wrong to harm someone that much, especially if they were pregnant. A broken leg could lead to death. He felt his throat tighten; only moments ago, he'd (albeit jokingly) offered to help Towhee kill his mother to make all of the monstrosity stop. It was wrong of him to even think that, considering the fact that she was now carrying his younger siblings. 

So he sighed heavily. -"That does complicate things."- He admitted. The thought of breaking another wolf's leg intentionally made him feel queasy- he'd never been able to follow through in a serious fight, but obviously Towhee's mate had possessed that quality...And that worried him a bit. Wolves that could harm another wolf to that extent frightened him. And a wolf that would do that to a leader when they were pregnant also concerned him. Who exactly was this Reyes? He didn't think Towhee the sort of wolf to be easily wooed- she was independent, fierce, very likeable of course, but he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her flirt or wax poetics. Part of him wanted to find this guy and see what it was about him that Towhee saw...But part of him also wanted to make sure that a wolf that dangerous went nowhere near her. 

He decided, in the end, that in not knowing the whole story, he was better off not trying to figure it out, but that he might be best off just trying to help Towhee deal with the fallout. He couldn't change what had happened, and given the fact that Towhee herself didn't even seem to have the entire story, there was no point in him asking more questions about the details. She asked about his relationship with Niamh and he sighed and shrugged dejectedly. -"I was never tough enough. And she never let me forget that,"- He said with a fairly flat tone. There was more to it than that, of course, but it wasn't something he wanted to get into. -"I think maybe she blames me for Dad's death. We were away when he was attacked, an' it was because she wanted to straighten me out an' toughen me up as a kid. So I think...We were gone because of me, an' if we'd been here, maybe she could've stopped it from happening. I don't really know."- He said. It was the first time he'd ever voiced that thought out loud- but over time, it seemed to make more and more sense. -"She never said it, I just...Assumed. I used to sorta blame myself for it too."-