Northstar Vale tea leaves

Of course he was — they rarely married down outside of the desert. Even there, it was not seen kindly. A pureblooded wolf could take a coyote mate and be seen as indulgent, but a coywolf would only be seen as pitiful. This was how it had been where he was from, anyway.

"Where are they?" he asked, knowing it was a rude question but needing to know the answer. He felt odd confiding in her, but who else might understand these things?

"With kids... sometimes I think I couldn't do this to someone else," he admitted. "But other times I can't think of anything I'd rather be. We're the best of both worlds, aren't we? And we're beautiful."

This, he knew, was the truth.

"But a lotta wolves don't think like that," he said quietly. "And a lotta wolves are gonna be bigger than me. Bigger than my kids."