Hoshor Plains kivva ⥈

She couldn’t take the words back.  Stubbornly, she didn’t want to.  They weren’t the careful diplomacy that a proper Auspex would maintain, and Maia knew it was idiotic to insult the woman who held all of their nearest neighbors in her influence.  She just couldn’t bring herself to care.

Wraen had been the best thing in her life.  Eljay was the second.  This woman had almost cost her both.  Maia wouldn’t let her grudge spread beyond the two of them, but of all of the mountain wolves, they didn’t need to get along.  She simply wasn’t a big enough person to let it go; not even for her daughter’s sake.

Another failure.  Her kids really did deserve better than her.

Maia watched her go bitterly, then turned and moved in the opposite direction.  She needed to cry and did not want anyone to see it, least of all Chickadee.  Her daughter was in the moon matriarch’s clutches now, and if she wasn’t lost yet, she’d likely begin to disappear in the years that followed.  It appeared that things hadn’t changed.  Her heart broke to think that her daughter might share Arcturus’s fate, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.  She was in love; Maia had no right to interfere.

At least Chickadee had Dwin looking out for her.  A sister could be worth a dozen mothers.

By the time Maia returned to the others, she’d have composed herself.  She’d wave off any questions - she wanted to talk to Eljay about this first.  He was the only one who knew enough to understand.