Great Bear Wilderness since the darkness covered us

He knew holding her gaze was as good as a challenge. But it was hard to resist, hard not to fall back on an old habit where he felt the necessity to override whatever core principal she thought she could hold over him. Yet he still tore his gaze away from her own after a fleeting moment, not wanting to evoke such ire. Those places and times where they had happened before were places and times he didn't want to go back to.

But she sounded bitter to him, even in light of the even keel she possessed. Maybe jealous, if he wanted to slant the way she asked her questions. He had dangled what she wanted over her, so maybe it was somewhere in her thoughts that he and Harlyn had left for that very reason. He could have laughed and honestly, almost did. He was fond of Harlyn, yes, and they had their trysts well beyond the reaches of the Spine or the wilderness he resided in now. But there was nothing to come of it, at least nothing he anticipated.

"We parted ways a while ago," he said, at least unable to keep some of the humor from his tone. "Why, did you think that's why she went with me?" He had never asked her why she decided to come along, but he hadn't turned her away either. Perhaps it was him leaving and her being beneath Cara's rule that had prompted her to go along. Perhaps she had merely wanted to pursue him, see what he was like beyond the status of a leader. And they had parted just as easily as they had banded together, as their paths had taken different turns.

"I just came around to see how you were. I noticed something of concern on my way here," he said after a pause, more or less baiting her to take interest in something else other than him. He wondered if she knew of the wolves on Silvertip now, if the wolves of the Spine were not too engrossed in themselves to have noticed that a part of their heritage was now the start of another's history.