Jade Fern Grove I'm a mascot for what you've become

Equinox had returned to the rendezvous site long before he had intended to. He traveled south, but did not make it far before the smell of blood — not an insignificant amount, threaded with the known scents of Kvarsheim and the unknown scent of the surrounding packs — forced him to return.

He could not forge south if violence was on the table, but he felt stripped of his manhood, in this and more. He was only now realizing that even the tenuous respect he had been given in his father's pack was because he was his father's son. It had been ignorant to believe it was hard-won or even earned, no matter how he had molded himself to the diplomat's role.

Status mattered less to Elphaba than it did to Equinox, but he struggled to believe that he could provide for her if they had to start over. He had seen the way some places treated their new recruits, and although it was necessary he did not want them to have to establish themselves somewhere new. The hardest part of it all was that nobody understood where they came from, or that they had proven themselves there.

He thought about the point Elphie had made when they left Kvarsheim — feeding kids is work. For once in his life he was too caught up with the immediate future to worry about what that meant for their own children. Instead, he spent his time devising plans on low-effort ways to make themselves useful.

Her voice broke through his ruminations and he descended upon her swiftly, perhaps faster than she would have liked. She was trailing something when he found her and he knew better than to disturb her when she was working, so he fell in step a good distance behind her instead.