Nova Peak schädigen

What did he want? Why had he come back here, really? Not for her, she thought, not anymore; he was too wrapped up in Nyx, she bitterly imagined. Too concerned with her departure and her hurt feelings, and he had proven as much by pointing his finger at her. Did he even know how hard it had been for her to ignore them instead of harassing them? The price she'd paid in self-esteem to respect his wishes when it came to them? It was the best she could do; anything else and she might have snapped at them, and he would hate her even more. No, of course he didn't know. She'd never told him. He had never asked.

I vant. Wylla flipped her ears forward, searched his carved stone face with her single eye, and waited. Waited for him to tell her that he wanted her to leave, or that he wanted to remain for their children but wished no partnership with her in leadership. Waited for him to reclaim his pack from her grasp and denounce her. Waited for him to tell her instead that he wanted to leave Sagtannet and wander in between because it was easier for him than to spend one more second in her company. He must have found her despicable, she thought, to think so poorly of her.

I vill. Wylla held her breath and wished that he would tell her he would be a better man. A better partner. She waited for a vow that he would cherish her. She didn't want him to turn his back on Ciri and Elke, not truly, no matter how she felt about them—she remembered wishing her own father had been around when she was young, and resenting that he wasn't—but she wished he would say that his time with Nyx was at an end. Would he visit her as well when he went to Moonspear for his daughters? Would he whet his appetite with her body? How many times had he already done so?

I vill stay until you choose another.

The best thing Mahler could have done then was beg. It was cruel of her to want that from him, but at least it would have been an indication that he valued her. Those words fell like a guillotine, creased the skin just before her nose, shot lightning through her yellow eye. Had he begged, she would know he meant it. Had he begged, she would know he cared.

Is that what you want? she quietly asked, poised with finality on the tip of a knife. Or was it he that wished to find another and was looking to soften the blow that way? Surely both of them could find other options given enough time—she believed he already had his lined up, and she could think of at least one wolf who would be a loyal father if nothing else, for she did not love freely nor easily—but if there was even a sliver left to salvage, even a shard of him left that respected her and wanted it to work and could change for the better...

It was idiotic of her to think it would be worth it, she knew that, but she waited all the same.