Broken Antler Fen move along home

Eljay felt his heart lurch into his throat when Reyes sharply corrected him. Eljay felt that it was unfair — he'd lost a son, he'd looked for hours upon hours upon hours for Elfie and hadn't recovered even his dead body in the process, never knowing just what had become of his son — but he didn't know how to react. He froze and watched as Reyes disappeared out of view.

Teya had always made Eljay feel like he could do it — be the pack's Auspex — but in that moment, Eljay wasn't so sure. He should've at the very least let Reyes know that that reaction was not okay, no matter the circumstances. Instead, he just stood there like a sack of potatoes, flabbergasted and hurt and not able to respond at all.

Reyes disappeared, leaving Eljay with the urge to cry and feeling like a big idiot. He decided not to go home to Maia and the kids for a little while, instead trailing along the borders of the pack, and feeling a lot of his old anxiety flare up. He hadn't felt this way in a long time, but now, he wondered if he really could lead these wolves, could stand up for them when they needed him to, if he couldn't even stand up for himself.