Try to stop time in the aftermath.

Set before Malachi's promotion. Tried to keep this as vague as possible.

When they'd first noticed Tuwawi's absence, the situation had hit Malachi as surreal. He knew the lynx attack had struck no one harder than the fire-kissed mother, and no one so close to home. But her disappearance disturbed him, and that she'd left her pups with such abandon troubled him even more.

And now, as Malachi snuffed the forest floor for the millionth time that moon, Tuwawi's scent lingered as frail and her son's and husband's had so many weeks before. Malachi's brow furrowed and he felt an sickening anger burn in his heart. He'd not had the chance to know the small family well, but that didn't mean he hadn't come to love them as his own. He'd pledged his life to theirs, and now the life of every member stood shattered in this Glacial land before a mountain that burned only with mocking hope. Tuwawi was gone, and they didn't know where, and they didn't know if she was even alive, and those thoughts alone made his stomach reel and his throat burn with the bitter taste of bile.

A growl slipped from between the Kalderon's lips. Those wretched cats were tearing this family apart, just as they had his own in the Vale. Without a second thought, Malachi raised his head from the sodden ground and sent out a forceful call for the only wolf he knew held authority above his own: @Danica .