Sun Mote Copse Hidalgo

Colt's death had not been entirely unexpected. Nature was not kind to old, weak and severely injured. Despite efforts of the best healers, there was a point, which was beyond their skills. You could not save everyone. Ever since Wraen's conversation with Elwood, she had watched him carefully, waiting for that right moment to confide in, what she had done. A week ago it had seemed that, if she waited just a little longer, she could ease her heart from the burden. Then had come the news and then the bad news had come and all her good intentions weren't worth a penny. 

She did not blame herself, did not regret helping her. She only hoped that, wherever Kiwi was now, she was suffering physically just as much as people, who had gathered here to mourn the death of their leader. Now it was more obvious than before that killing her would not have changed a single thing. Sovereign would have passed away regardless and the fact that the attacker would have been dead as well, would not have been much of a consolation. Sometimes the crime is too grave to even it out. After all justice is just another god that people believe in, but which does not exist. 

Wraen had not approached either Finley or Niamh, giving them time and space to mourn on their own. She kept the kids busy, did all the small, routine chores around the pack and spent a little time alone. Thinking about Maia and where she was now, and wishing so much that she could be far, far away from the copse, where she would not have to deal with all of this. The Nest, as she lovingly called her pack's territory, had never felt so cold and unwelcoming as it did now. Home and her heart had gone with her younger sibling. She sought out the sense of family among Blackthorns and yet even they were not safe. You could not predict, when would they leave as well, she realised. 

She was unsure of her future or what to do next, when she joined the assembled group of adults. The only thing she knew for sure that out of respect for Colt and his memory, she should stay with Niamh and help raise her children. That would not raise him from the dead, but it would give Wraen some sort of closure to the secret she never had a chance to tell him.