Phoenix Maplewood I don't feel connected to all of your lies.

He could feel the rise and fall of Etienne’s breaths, even the dim thump of his heartbeat. Cambria had never held someone so intimately. It was at once comforting and overwhelming. He still hadn’t found the right words to say and didn’t feel like they were going to come to him anytime soon. He only hoped his touch sufficed, in the meantime.

When Etienne spoke again, he felt that too: a low rumble. He said he was still trying to get over his friend. Cambria wondered why he felt so attached to someone who didn’t like him for who he was; who’d told him he didn’t want anything to do with him; who’d evidently walked out of his life, probably without remorse.

Your friend sounds like a di— He caught himself, sipped in a breath before he could say “dipshit” and instead finished, —ngus. I know I don’t really know you but you… You’re stunning. You deserve better.

He left it at that. This friend really did sound like a dipshit, though Etienne cared for him and so Cambria didn’t want to start slinging insults. Besides, he wasn’t really one for that sort of thing. He would rather focus on the man in front of him, not the faceless one somewhere off in the distance behind Etienne.

There’s not much to tell, he said when Etienne coaxed him to talk about himself. I was born on an island, where I lived with my mother until she just left one day. I found my way off the island and somehow manage to survived on my own, wandering around and trying to learn everything I could. I only recently joined a pack for the first time. Do you know of Redtail Rise?