Ouroboros Spine i will breathe you in the smoke

He answered truthfully, although he didn't have any reason to. Ptarmigan listened carefully, perhaps for the first time showing a sliver of her true self. He wouldn't recognize it, and she scarcely recognized it herself, so laden with hatred had she been these last few weeks. If it wasn't hatred for the wolves of the Spine that treated her like some sort of malign beast, then it was their hatred for her weighing on her mind.

“Maybe they need to be knocked down a peg,” she quietly mused, stiffening in anticipation of an unfavourable response. Ptarmigan could throw them from their leadership at any moment by asserting dominance over them and assisting the rest of the Spine pack in doing the same. By Mordecai's admission, Cara had considered leaving the valley. What sort of Beta did that make her?

And Kaname had been unhelpful, and since their first and only encounter, she had seen no sign of him. She had entertained the notion that he had walked off a cliff, but knew that wasn't true. His scent still was within their lands, yet it was always accompanied by that of the Beta female. What they might have been up to was anyone's guess.

“Do they deserve to lead?” she asked, more straightforward than before. Kaname was old enough to leave lead, but Ptarmigan had her doubts about Cara. Not only was she a yearling, but she gave off a distinct aura of entitlement that painted a poor picture of her, not that she had said anything arrogant yet. “If they aren't fond of those who follow them, and they aren't fond of she who leads them, maybe they would be content... Elsewhere.”