The Tangle And an angel for my pain

Chacal’s last words spilled over Njord like a bucket of icewater.

He accepted being disliked or disdained… hated, threatened, or maimed. Anything for the protection of his kin and people.

But to lose her trust?

That one rare currency he toiled to earn back. The one thing that tied family and pack together. If her trust in him had been eroded by this one argument, then it must not have amounted to much in the first place.

Njord thought he possessed more, yet it was untrue.

And he wondered - why did he work so hard for the women who looked down on him, their brothers, and sons?

Njord fell silent and gawked at her. He would have never said such a thing. The tip of his tail flicked like a snake’s as he held in all the words too terrible to utter. He had nothing kind to say to a leader who compromised the safety of her own in such an obtuse way. They would become sitting ducks, especially Swordfish and Quennell who would be too injured to flee.

He stared at her a long while before taking one fleeting looking into the darkness of the Tangle.

And then he lets it go.

Njord walked to Chacal in icy silence, his sea-colored eyes filled with venom as he passes her, direction charted back towards Sapphique.