Phoenix Maplewood You couldn't stand to be near me.

He could always leave. Atreus bobbed his head once to acknowledge what he already knew. He stilled when Tulukiri said he would have to wait until he was older, lips parting as if preparing to protest. Void had insisted he’d survived without his parents from the tender age of two months old.

But he’d mentioned brothers in those early days. Atreus’s lips pressed back together. Perhaps he couldn’t swing it entirely on his own at his age… but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find some other wolves to live with outside of the rise. Now that he knew they were there—and where they were—he would have to give it some real thought.

Atreus wasn’t the most socially gifted young man, though he could recognize a cue when he saw one and only offered a distracted, Bye.