Sleepy Fox Hollow all i can do when the plans break down is stay on my feet

Then you won't have to, said Wylla, doing her level best to soften her features for Siku. It didn't come naturally to her. She was much more the kind of wolf to tell someone to get over it and stop moping around, as her mother would have told her, but Siku had been through a lot. She had seen in other cubs from years past how this approach was not always the best.

Her relationship with Tiercel had deteriorated over such a thing. Siku was not her flesh and blood, and like Astraeus, she would never consider him family in that way, but she cared for the adolescent more than most wolves. Stag's name floated unbidden into her mind and she shoved it away.

He was a little like Stag, at that.

You are safe here, Siku, she told him. I promise. I know your father showing up was a surprise, but do know he will not be allowed to return here unless it is your wish for him to do so.