Bearclaw Valley windes blast and weder strong

any other wolf might have been put off by the shadows rolling across merrick's face, but surya was riveted. he saw within those lines his own anger, and within those words his own story. he nodded, slowly, letting a minute or two of silence fall between them before speaking again.

my mother had another man, before i was born, he said quietly, though there was latent violence in his voice. the man i called father was not mine by blood. and recently, he died—and i do not know if he ever truly saw me as his own.

he gritted his teeth, swung his head toward merrick. i want to kill him! surya cried out, hot tears standing suddenly in his green gaze. maadarchod. i really want to kill him, for what he did. for who i am.

fathers are created. but then, destroyed. and perhaps, never constructed at all. his agouti pelt had made him a marked man; rajendra had known from the start.