Sleepy Fox Hollow when you wake, you're bargaining

Mahler wasn't wrong about that. He and Wintersbane chose Sawtooth Spire despite her misgivings about its dangers, but that had been their pack, not hers. Nova Peak was promising, but when a potential threat made itself known on the cliffs, he had failed to defend it. When she had begged him to run away and start anew with her, he plunged his roots deep into the earth of the bypass and refused to leave those who had stayed.

To be chosen over land was a monumental relief to Wylla, she who had long suffered her own feelings of inadequacy.

He pressed her cheek back against his and lifted her head up to survey the rock. This would be their home, then. She was not prepared to lead wolves who were not her own blood, and she suspected Mahler was tired of leading as well. So they would build not a pack here, but a family. A different sort of pack.

We are home, she agreed, craning her head back to look up at the soaring peak that protected the hollow's eastern edge. From here, it was imposing, but would provide them a steady source of food. Should anything happen to the water here, the crisp, clear Windholme was a good secondary source, and there was a lake to the north as well. Lusca would be proud of her, she thought. Kesuk Grove was a pure family pack, and now perhaps Wylla and Mahler would begin their very own, beholden to no one but themselves and their children.