Swiftcurrent Creek I can't escape this now, unless you show me how.

Her throat tightened, constricted by the disappointment and shame that threatened to bring tears with the uncomfortable prick in her eyes. Durnehviir had longed for nothing but love and companionship from Constantine, something she'd hoped would grow between them following the conception of their litter the previous season. For a long time she'd convinced herself it had: he'd asked her to be his, they'd reared a family and led a pack together. But the swarthy Alpha maintained a distance, a silence, that hadn't been made apparent to her until the arrival of his wayward dove.

Constantine moved to intercept her and, stopping, she rose her watery gold eyes to seek his as he challenged her. "All I ever wanted," she started, voice thick with sorrow as she attempted to reign in the heartache, "was to be happy. To make you happy. And we had all that."

The dragoness gritted her fangs, brow furrowed as she pointed her muzzle downward to avoid the scrutiny of her former mate's glower. "Then Aria came back to you, and I was afraid," she paused to inhale deeply, "of losing you. I saw how your eyes lit up when you came to tell me she was making her home here, and..." Durnehviir dared to seek his eyes once more, her lips trembling as she failed to announce what she most wished to - that he'd never looked at her that way.

She saw Aria not only as a threat to her title as Alphess, but as a better suitor for the wolf who held her heart. "I am jealous of what you shared and I'm not proud of the space I put between us or what I said to you," her words were cracked, fragile. "I chose to sever our relationship because it would give you the opportunity to build a better one with her, without me there to hold you back - I thought it was what you wanted... but I've never regretted anything more."