Dawnlark Plains "you will burn and burn out;

Oh, okay. So Imaq left her homeland because she was forced out (by her own father!) for being "dirty." Whatever that meant. Lane had a hunch that it might have something to do with Imaq's mixed heritage, particularly because she was so insistent that the "evil" would be passed to her own cubs. 

Whatever Lane's preconceived notions about mixed wolves might have been, she did know that there was nothing evil about it. Imaq's heritage was what it was, and it was certainly no fault of her own. If anything, her father wolf ought to be the one to blame, since Imaq's bloodline was a direct result of his indiscretions in mating. Pardon the crudeness of it, but if he didn't want mixed kids, he shouldn't have fucked a dog. And he certainly shouldn't punish his kids for having the misfortune of inheriting so much shepherd blood.

Lane had probably jumped to a lot of conclusions in her interpretation of Imaq's backstory, but in her mind this is what it would be, until Imaq developed the language to correct it.

Lane tilted her head as Imaq began a question about Rye, but didn't finish. "Rye's fine. He's healing well. He should be back to normal in a few days." Was that what Imaq had wanted to ask about? Probably not. She probably wanted to know whether Rye was bigoted like her own father, and whether Rye would punish their children if they dared to look like their mother.  "He's a good man. A kind one," Lane assured Imaq, although to be honest the shepherd probably knew Rye better than Lane.