Swiftcurrent Creek you aren't the kind of boy who should be marrying the wrong girl

He’d known her for all of five minutes but Akavir had a feeling there was nothing predictable about the she-wolf in front of him. Flirting had never been his strong suit—and he found himself at a loss, particularly now when mother nature was no longer drawing her to him.

He couldn’t speak of her condolences to the situation his children were now in—it had been hard for them, and continued to be hard for them. And he didn’t know how to navigate that—and when he opened his mouth to admit such, he found himself… not.

Who wanted to admit how much of a failure they were?

Instead: “From a big family, then?”

A small bit of information from her, dangled before him. And when she mentioned she could help planning a valley gathering, he found himself visibly relaxing. “I was hoping you’d offer. Because I don’t know a thing about event planning.” But he did know the creek needed this—something like this—to distract them. That not everything was about fighting, being abandoned and dead coyote kits on their borders.