it's a small crime, and i've got no excuse

"I never said I had a spotless record," he grunted in response - Bazi rolled her eyes. Of course he didn't. The Teekon Wilds did not attract such wolves, and she had no doubt that a few skeletons had trailed Scimitar to Swiftcurrent Creek. A fragile silence settled between them - Scimitar's stern expression wavered, and Bazi exhaled a measure of her rage in a short, sharp puff of a sigh. The conversation had passed a milestone without either party formally acknowledging that anything had happened - both too proud, or too stupid, or both. Kieran would have found them utterlyl exasperating.

"You're not a Creek wolf," she eventually declared, looking him over like a farmer surveys a new cow. "It just doesn't suit you." The smaller wolf shrugged, breaking her gaze from Scimitar and refocusing it in the distant east. "There'll be something out there that does."