Blacktail Deer Plateau wisteria; growing [m]

while the silence spread its softening wings between them, astara thought.

she thought of vengeance, of their future -- she thought of merrick, how he would fit in, and jealously -- if any other wolves would dare administer affections upon him. this thought darkened her heart, and she lifted her gaze to her companion as if to reassert he were hers. it was then he cheekily nipped at her flank -- instinctively astara's tail flew up and a razored ridge of fur lifted along her spine.

dropping sinuously into a playbow herself, astara offered merrick the steeled glint of one bared fang -- and then she lunged after him in a scatter of flurried paws.