Blackfeather Woods No number, no return address

Taikon was exhausted by the people in his life disappearing and dying. He remembered them all. He kept walking even when she had stopped, pushing through the pain of the thought of Zephyr being dead somewhere and them having no way of knowing what had happened. She was right, of course. He should have been begging the both of them to escort him. It didn't make any sense, since Zephyr had just yelled at Taikon for doing the exact same thing.
Finally, he paused, glancing behind him to face her. I do, he admitted. Why Zephyr would trust him and not Takiyok didn't make any sense either. He knew there was still tension between the two of them, but lack of trust seemed silly.
As Takiyok started again, Taikon matched her pace and resumed at her side, keeping close enough to her that he could feel the warmth from her body. He licked his lips nervously. I didn't want to stay, but you were hurt, and without Zephyr and Rowan, we'd both be dead. He answered. They had not planned to join a pack. They had wanted to find somewhere secluded to survive the winter together.
A crow above them cawed to announce their presence. Taikon sneered at the animal. He had never liked birds. Now they lived in a forest plagued with them.
He had noticed, and wondered, and worried that Takiyok had not gone into heat. Half the point of them staying here was to have some assistance in raising their pups, but Taikon had expected that they would already have arrived. He wondered if stress or something else had delayed it, but was too anxious to ask.