Blacktail Deer Plateau By the grace of God

Saena's ears perked up when the deer suddenly looked over its shoulder and then bounded away. She numbly watched its tail, distinctly inky at the tip, disappear into the trees, before her head turned to find the source of the commotion. It turned out to just be Blue Willow passing by. Momentarily, the two females seemed to not notice one another—Blue hadn't seen her and Saena, despite staring directly at the Beta, seemed to be looking through her—but it was remedied when the Healer suddenly spoke to her.

Snapping out of her trance-like state, the teen lifted herself on the log somewhat so she was half-crouching, half-sitting. "Thanks," she said softly, then added, "I never meant to be gone long, I just needed space. I only didn't say anything 'cause, well... Junior said dad was pretty angry when she told him she was leaving. I didn't want to make him angrier." That all seemed so long ago, now, and all Saena could think about anymore was making Peregrine and his mate miserable.

Luckily, she didn't bring it up. Instead, she shuffled her feet on the bark in front of her and said, "Look, I'm... sorry I freaked out at you a while ago." Ty's still a creep, she thought bitterly, remembering how the girl had attacked her own sister and then claimed to hate them both. She didn't dare speak of it until she spoke to Dante, though. "Everything felt really unfair, then. Now I know better."