Grief does not change you, it reveals you

As his pale fae met him, he breathed in the scent of her fur and it was as if all was right once again. He whined as he nosed the scar, his own protective nature lamenting that he had not been there to stop it, to keep her safe from everything. Her scent was as sweet as ever, tangerine and citrus and sandalwood. He licked her cheek, settling on her fur with a content sigh, as her closeness calmed him. "I'm sorry... I too had a dangerous encounter with a wolf pack, wounds still unhealed and painful now. And I am sorry, but I would rather have died than put you in harms way. I love you, after all."

She was real, the smoothness of her fur against his as he felt @Tempest against him and it was everything he remembered it to be and hoped it would've been.