Hideaway Strath I wonder why I'm so afraid

Charles could not help but think, me too, as Arlette said she hoped she wouldn't be as awful as her own mother. Yeah, mothers are the worst, Charles said with a roll of his eyes. Oh, he remembered so vividly the many lessons in respect his own mother had given him. He was never going back there. He had enough scars to remind himself of that. He genuinely hoped that Arlette'd be a better mom, but honestly, he felt a bit sorry for her. She thought she could do better but wasn't the whole point about being a mom that you became, well, a mom?

He hesitated to ask her about fathers. She had a father, right? She must know a thing or two about what it was like to have one of those, and what they were like. Would give him a bit of a head's up maybe.

The coywolf felt a little hurt when Arlette asked what uses sticks had, and then asked if he could find herbs. Charles swallowed away his fears of looking like a total idiot. Fake it til you make it, Charlie-boy. Are you kidding me? he said with a quirk of his eyebrow, as if she'd asked a really dumb question. Sticks are great! You can chew on them, they keep your teeth clean, you can teach pups how to hunt, you can play with them. You guys do do fun around here, right? He grinned, half-jokingly and half-trying-to-be-charming. He just really needed a win right now, and he really needed at least one wolf in this pack who thought he was a cool dude.

As for herbs, weeeell... Maybe if I know what they look like I can find herbs also, Charles said with a shrug. He'd never really tried. He didn't know what they were useful for.

Charles froze when Arlette mentioned the cougar attack and.. Kaito. He hadn't been close to many wolves in Easthollow, but Kaito was an exception. Charles swallowed thickly, clearly caught off-guard (even though he should've been relieved that it wasn't the Saints who'd done it). He swallowed dryly.

Kaito...

However sad, he was the closest that Charles had had to a father (and a real parent at all).

Charles didn't want to be reminded of him, but now he always would. He didn't even know that Arlette had been his mate. Oh. That's... Rough. A lot. Pretty bad. Pretty a lot. Charles swallowed again. Kaito was my— What, exactly? — friend. Not really. But he didn't know what else to say. It wasn't like they'd been close. But there were a few eventful meetings in Easthollow where Kaito was the only rock in a stormy sea for Charles. That meant a lot to him.