"I know Edith said you would be staying at the clinic... but I think it best we keep you with one of us at all times," Lottie said as she arranged a bed for her.

Lo glanced behind her at Dena. The female hadn't spoken much. From what Lo could remember of the introductions, she had one male pup with her mate Gus. She couldn't remember the pup's name, but he was small. Barely a toddler.

She glanced briefly at the window. They weren't far from the clinic.

Lo suddenly wanted to go back there... Here, she felt awkward, like she was imposing.

"Enough with that face. I want you here." Lottie scolded warmly. Lo immediately looked down. How could they always read her so easily?

Was she so obvious?

She had always thought she was good at hiding her emotions.

"Drink," Dena said as she handed her a cup. Lo looked up at her with a frown. She was much taller than her.

Lo studied Dena's face before she looked at the cup skeptically. Distrust was ingrained in her, she couldn't help it.

"It's water," Dena said with a level tone, despite her eyes looking a little annoyed. Lo hesitantly took it and sipped it just to appease her. But it did seem to help her stomach. So she drank more.

"Lay down," Lottie said as she patted the made bed. Lo glanced at it with a frown.

"Or how about a bath?" Lottie asked. Lo suddenly felt strange.

She didn't like the way they were assuming what she needed. She wanted to say she wasn't a child.

But she kept quiet.

Dena said something to Lottie in that language she didn't understand. It just made her feel even more uncomfortable.

She knew they were talking about her.

"I'll give you a moment... let me know if you need anything," Lottie said as she left the room. Dena followed her out and closed the door.

Lo stared at the door for a moment, before she glanced around the room. It just had a bed, a dresser and a small table and chair beside the large window. Through the trees, Lo could just barely see the moonlight reflecting off the lake in the distance.

Lo looked to the bed. It would be the fourth one she slept in-in less than a week.

Were they just going to keep tossing her around?

The instability was making her feel even worse... her wolf was still restless being packless, and she missed her home... She missed her own bed, the one she shared with her mother.

Lo took a slow breath as the grief hit her unexpectedly again. That deep sadness in her chest that felt like a spike through her heart.

Lo moved over to sit at the edge of the bed as she felt the warmth of tears start to spill down her cheeks again. She gasped and tried to gain control of her emotions, but she couldn't stop.

The tears just kept coming.

She clutched her chest and brought her knees up to bury her face against them and forced herself not to make a sound as she cried. She didn't want them hearing.

-

"Dammit," Hutch growled. Noah glanced back at one of the Lykaia enforcers.

"We need to send a messenger now... stall all the others who planned to make the move, and have them send any enforcers they can spare," Noah said firmly. Tristan glanced to the window of the small hut they were speaking in. It was closest to the gathering, and was currently unoccupied.

They were expecting two more groups of Lykaia wolves in the next few weeks. They purposely staggered them to give them time to get homes built.

Their homeland was that overpopulated...

But with the vast amount of land there, they could easily move everyone and be fine, even have room to keep growing their population. If Tristan could get their territory thriving, his father said that it might eventually be the plan to move everyone out in the next ten years, so when Tristan and Emma took Alpha, their two territories would be close to one another, and the Adalwolf would take over their old land to give them breathing room as well.

If everything worked out like they thought, everyone was supposed to benefit from this.

Now he wasn't so sure.

They'd have to deal with this threat first. And it hit him hard, how long it took them to hunt them down before...

The Vargas were exceptional at covering their tracks.

"You're sure it's that many?" Hutch asked as he turned his attention to him. Tristan glanced at Nathan.

"Possibly more, we haven't even got to the south side of the land yet; there were more cabins out that way, not as many as the other areas... but we don't have an exact count," Tristan said. A tense moment of silence followed, before Noah turned and punched the wall with a fierce growl.

"Dammit!" He snarled.

"And we have no idea where they could be?" Hutch said as he rubbed a hand over his forehead. Tristan could truly see the stress in his grandfather.

It was showing his age more.

"No, though I doubt they are hitting woodland packs. We would have heard something by now. I imagine they are going after desert or mountain packs. If we are lucky... those packs will have killed off some of them." Sawyer said angrily. Tristan felt restless thinking of them going after mountain packs.

That means they would be close to his homeland.

"I can't stay past next week; I'm needed at home," Hutch said firmly as he glanced to Tristan.

"I've been gone far too long, and I need to secure our borders if they are indeed so close to us." Hutch said. His territory bordered the mountains too.

"What of the meeting? Should we cancel? Or in the very least warn them..." Tristan said.

"No. It's very unlikely the surviving Vargas will try anything for sometime. Their Alpha link abruptly breaking will cause chaos, they will need to regroup, choose a new leader among them... We likely won't hear anything from them for some time." Hutch said.

"Should we send the families back?" Tristan asked. Having vulnerable pack members here was making him nervous.

"When your father gets here next week we will discuss it... but in the meantime, we need to secure the land and ensure there are no hidden entries we are unaware of. We may need the workers here to get everything functioning, and we need to send out scouts in every direction." Hutch said.

It didn't sit right with Tristan. Something inside told him it was the wrong decision. But he couldn't argue with his grandfather.

"Should we question the females? Maybe they know something." Nathan asked.

"Edith says the ones we sent home are far too broken. It also seems they were isolated and restricted where they were allowed to go. It's unlikely they know anything significant. I doubt they even noticed when raiding parties left the grounds." Noah said.

"That sounds like speculation," Nathan said with an annoyed tone.

"We do have one here we can question," Nathan added firmly.

Tristan suddenly felt all eyes turn to him. His wolf felt restless about the idea of someone talking to her, and he didn't even know why.

And could they even trust her to tell the truth? It was true she did seem less broken than the rest, but it didn't mean she was not brainwashed to spew whatever they may have taught her to say.

She did seem docile...

"Lo trusts Edith, and it's clear she does not trust males. If she knows anything, I'm sure Edith can get it out of her... I'll have her talk to her tomorrow." Noah said. Tristan couldn't help the increasing restlessness.

"No, we need to do it now. The sooner we send our messengers the better, I want them running the road tonight or early tomorrow morning. And we need all the details we can get." Nathan insisted.

"Edith is still grieving, at least give her until tomor-" Noah growled back.

"I'll do it." Tristan interrupted without even thinking. His wolf was looking for any excuse to get close to the little female.

All eyes once again turned to him.

"Tristan-" Noah began.

"I don't think she can lie to me." Tristan added with a hard tone, trying to save face.

Dammit... he needed to get control of his wolf. But there was truth in his words. He'd seen the odd expression on her face when she answered him without thinking before. When he'd left her in that hut...

"You really think she'd lie? Why the hell would she protect those vile wolves?" Sawyer growled. Before Tristan could answer, Nathan beat him to it.

"Because they were her pack, and who knows what they trained them to say if caught." Nathan countered. Sawyer was staring at him angrily now.

"I doubt any of those females considered those males pack. I doubt they even considered each other pack. You saw how they acted. They barely even looked at each other, or even tried to comfort each other at all through everything.

As if they learned not trust or depend on any one but their own blood. I bet that bastard did that on purpose. If they didn't talk to each other, if they didn't trust each other, they couldn't cooperate. They couldn't try to escape." Sawyer said.

"We found a healer's hut. If we could figure out which female it was, I imagine she would have been a good source of information." Jay spoke up. All attention suddenly turned to him.

He stood beside Cal, Grady, Gus, and Morgan. Aside from Cal, the rest were all border guards. As was Dena, but he knew she was preoccupied at present.

The thought of Lo's faded scars suddenly came to the forefront. He knew what being struck with silver could do to a wolf. It was a permanent maiming. His face was proof of that.

Tristan had found it odd... but at the time there were so many other things to concern himself with. Like the anger it stirred in his wolf that he had to carefully contain.

If they had a healer among them, she was likely very talented to make the scars barely visible. He thought back to most of the other females. They, too seemed relatively scarless considering the abuses they suffered there.

"Who? Have you identified her?" Nathan asked with interest.

"No, it was one of the enforcers who reported it to me. He said he found a hut that looked like it contained things our healers may be able to use, and the amount of scents that lingered there, both faded and fresh, seemed it was a hut that was well visited. I was on my way to get Edith when I heard about Ivy, so I thought it could wait." Jay said.

"Where?" Cal asked.

"Near the lake, Southeast of the old pack house. It's tucked in there pretty deep, away from a lot of the other cabins." Jay said.

"Retrieve something from the home so the messenger can match her scent. But we should still question that girl." Nathan said. Noah looked over at Tristan, and he didn't look happy.

"I still think Edith should do it," Noah said firmly. Tristan glanced at his grandfather. He was observing him curiously.

"Go talk to her," Hutch said. Tristan ignored the heated looks from both Sawyer and Noah and quickly turned to leave the room.

He hated that his wolf felt excited about this.

The night air was cool as he made his way through the trees toward Lottie's new home. Both Dena and Lottie were outside talking in hushed whispers. Dena was holding her sleeping toddler, his little nephew Miles. Gus had brought him to her before he was pulled into their hasty meeting.

"Is it true?" Lottie asked him. She seemed worried. Tristan felt the frustration dig deeper.

None of this was going like it was supposed to... like they had meticulous planned. For months. His expression must have shown it, because before he even answered, Lottie growled.

"We have families here... pups. I can go into labor any day now. How was this not addressed before we moved so many of our vulnerable here!" She growled.

Tristan took a frustrated breath. The Alpha blood in him was irked by her tone, but he kept himself steady. She had valid points...

"It was an oversight. We thought we killed them all. And we don't even know for sure how many are out there... It took time to sort through all the living spaces. We couldn't have known." Tris said.

"We scouted them for months," Dena said angrily.

"I know." He growled back. God did he know. He was there doing it too... long long days, staying still and hidden, covered in all kinds of things to mask their scents.

Those days were torture.

"So what are we going to do?" Lottie demanded.

"Grandfather wants to discuss it with father when he returns for the meeting. He doesn't think we have anything to worry about for some time with how disorganized they will be after their pack bond shattered with the death of Alik, but he wants to secure the land, and we need all the workers to get everything up and running to sustain it." Tristan said

Lottie huffed and looked at Dena. His two sisters always had a way of nonverbally communicating he could never understand. He didn't have time for this...

"I need to talk to her," Tristan said and nodded toward the door behind them. Both Lottie and Dena's expressions instantly darkened.

"That is not a good idea," Lottie growled lowly. Tristan couldn't help but be slightly taken aback by their protective behaviors.

They barely knew her.

"We need to know who the healer was. We need to find her and question her. She may be the only reliable source we have, it's likely none of those other females will be useful, and I also need to know what she knows, if anything." Tristan said firmly. Lottie and Dena exchanged a disapproving glance.

"Tris-" Lottie began, but he just stepped around them and continued. He was tired of talking.

"You are such a stubborn ass," Lottie growled as she grabbed his arm. He paused and shot an annoyed look back.

"She just cried herself to sleep. Let the poor female have a few hours of peace." Lottie said fiercely. Tristan felt the sharpness in his chest. The restlessness.

He finally let himself concentrate on the sound of her, and realized her heart rate was slow and steady, but her breathing wasn't even. She wasn't sleeping well...

Tristan felt the strange ache inside him. His wolf wouldn't not let him see her. Not now that he was there so close to her.

Especially not after hearing that.

He doubted he could physically even make himself leave. The beast inside him was getting harder to control.

"I... won't disturb her... just give me a minute," Tristan said in a calmer tone to appease her, though he couldn't hide the strain of his wolf. He avoided their eyes. He didn't want to show this moment of weakness, even to his sisters.

Lottie stared at him hard, he felt the burn of her gaze, before she slowly let him go.

Tristan quickly pushed through the door into the house. The smell of salt was strong. She had been crying. A lot.

As he gently pushed open the bedroom door in the back of the house, he realized it wasn't had been crying, it was-was crying. Even in her sleep, tears fell down her cheeks.

The restlessness of his wolf hit him hard. He couldn't stop himself, even if he wanted to. Tristan ducked beneath the doorframe and quietly took several steps into the room until he stood over her.

Her hair was sprawled messily over the bed, she was partially on her side, her arms tucked close to her chest, legs bent slightly at the knees.

She looked vulnerable, and young. It gave him a strange feeling deep in his gut. A fierce and unfamiliar one.

How could he feel so protective over a little female he'd just met?

She was sniffling quietly, her breathing coming in soft little huffs every once in a while. He felt the stress of his wolf, the deep hatred of her discomfort.

And the sudden ache in his hands to touch her. He clenched his fists in an attempt to refrain, but ultimately he couldn't stop himself.

Tristan slowly and quietly knelt down beside the bed and instinctively reached over to gently run his hand over her head and back through her hair. Her tensed form relaxed slightly, and she took a soft shaky breath before she seemed to relax into the bedding.

Her tears stopped.

Tristan furrowed his brow as he intently studied her young face. He hadn't let himself truly see her until that moment. Maybe it was just that those crystal blue eyes weren't distracting him.

But there was something about her face...

Immediately he knew she felt familiar to him in a way she shouldn't... like he'd always known her. Like he had seen her every damn day of his life.

If he'd had the talent, he could have drawn her, down to the little freckle beside her ear.

Tristan stared at it for a moment. How had he known she had that?

He took a slow breath. It was confusing, and a little alarming. No others who had true mates warned him about this. The range of emotions inside him.

Maybe it was also the fact none of them fought it like he was. Tris grit his teeth at that thought and another wave of conflicting emotions came over him.

She seemed so innocent..

As Tristan began to remove his hand, she shifted her weight restlessly. Tristan paused and studied her as he let a few silky strands of her white hair slip through his fingers.

She sniffled again, and Tris frowned as he gently ran his thumb over her cheek... over her mark of fate. It was just one of the things that linked her to him. He glanced at her chest where he knew her mating mark was that he couldn't currently see with her shirt.

The one that matched his.

Tristan took a slow breath. The feeling that was growing inside him was foreign and not entirely welcome.

Why had he come here?

She calmed immediately into his touch. Her face eased back into a peaceful expression.

He wasn't a fool enough to not know it was his touch that was soothing her. And he hated it even more that it warmed his damn soul that he could do that for her.

He knew she'd been through a lot. And it was partly his own fault. He gently brushed his thumb over her cheek again, and she nuzzled slightly into his touch.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn't make himself move, at least not until she had fully settled into a comfortable sleep, and only then did he slowly remove his hand and ease himself away from the bed.

As he pushed up to stand and turned to the door, he paused at Lottie and Dena watching him.

Dammit... he hadn't even noticed them. Tristan quickly tried to move past them and out the door, but Dena stopped him with a hand on his forearm. Lottie closed the bedroom door quietly behind them.

"What are you going to do Tris?" Dena asked him in a harsh whisper. He wanted to play dumb, but he knew exactly what she was asking.

"I don't know," Tristan said.

And he really didn't....

"You were given a gift. Don't waste it..." Lottie said in that same hard whisper. Tristan grit his teeth in annoyance as he shot a glance back at the door.

"You are overthinking. Even still." Dena said. Tristan glanced to his nephew asleep on the couch when he stirred. He took an annoyed breath and headed outside. They quickly followed him.

The more distance he put from her, the more night air he breathed in that wasn't saturated with her scent, the more his stubborn resolve came back.

Tristan glanced back at Lottie, and her pregnant belly drew his attention.

... could he ever love a pup born from that bloodline? He didn't know. Even his wolf felt restless. His hatred for Alik and the Vargas ran that deep.

And he had given his word. He couldn't help that he felt honor bound. Emma didn't deserve to be cast aside either. She had left everything too.

Dammit... so many thoughts kept racing through his head.

He would have to figure something out... but for now he knew for certain he couldn't break the treaty, especially with the new threat over them.

"I can't abandon Emma," Tristan said firmly as he continued toward the path that would lead him to the pack house.

He didn't want to keep this conversation going. It was clear they would never understand how conflicted he felt.

"Tris wait," Lottie said. Tristan paused and glanced back. Lottie was frowning at him.

"I already told you-" Tris growled.

"We speak, but you never listen," Lottie said firmly. Tris felt the annoyance, but he forced himself still. He just stared at her hard in an expectant sort of way.

If she wanted him to listen, then he would.

"We all told you this would happen. And not to mate Emma-" Lottie began.

"I'm well aware, I heard you plenty-" Tris growled.

"No, all you heard was our objection to you mating anyone but your mate. We objected to Emma." Lottie growled.

Tristan studied her face, and glanced to Dena. She had a hard look of agreement.

"I don't trust her. Especially not to be around your fated. And she's very vulnerable right now." Lottie said firmly.

Tristan glanced to the door, where he could hear her soft heartbeat and breathing. A tense moment of silence followed.

Tristan dragged a hand down his face in stress.

"But you-" Tristan began.

"Of course we were going to accept it after you mated her, we even tolerated her because you did seem to like her and she was cordial enough. But now that you found your gifted... you need to get rid of her and fast. The treaty be damned... I don't even think the Eyolf had good intentions to honor anything they promised anyway. I've always had a bad feeling about this. Nothing about this ever felt right to Dena, me and mom. But you were all so set on your revenge crusade I think you were blinded." Lottie said.

Tris ground his teeth and glanced back into the woodland in the direction of his home.

Emma had never seemed deceitful to him. But her mention of urlu immediately came to mind. He took it as her desperation, but it had truly unsettled him. He never thought she'd suggest something like that. He glanced to the house again, and focused on Lo's soft breathing.

His wolf felt restless.

"Think about it at least, please. And consider letting her go home with us if father decides to send everyone back until this gets settled." Lottie said. Tristan said nothing for a moment as he mulled it over. His wolf didn't like the idea at all...

He knew it was selfish. He did. But his wolf didn't understand that.

"Fine, I'll think about it." He said just to appease her as he turned and headed back toward the pack house. The others would have dispersed from the meeting by now. It was getting late.

But the thought of going home to Emma was suddenly unsettling. Partway through the forest he ditched his clothes and shifted to run it in fur.

He deterred from home again and decided to run the territory and do a hard lap around the border even knowing how long that would take. He needed some time to think...

It was passed midnight by the time he returned, but something still kept him from going home. Tristan glanced in the direction that Jay had indicated the healer's hut was. He headed in that direction instead.

And her scent immediately caught his attention. So strong it was startling.

As he approached, he should have known he wouldn't be alone there. Tristan shifted back the moment he neared the door. Nathan and Sawyer were there. It seemed they had been there for some time.

"Its unfortunate," Sawyer said. Tristan glanced beyond him to the open door, and a restlessness immediately stirred inside him. He was having trouble staying still.

The healer was her mother? Their scents still lingered there, strongly. Dammit...

This was Lo's home.

And the healer was dead.

"Anything useful inside?" Tristan asked instead to hide the disappointment.

"Some of it Edith needs to sort through, but we've packed up a good amount of it already and taken it to the clinic. What did Lo say?" Sawyer said.

"Nothing... she was asleep. Did they send the messenger?" Tristan asked.

"Yes. The enforcer that found it came with the group yesterday; he didn't recognize her scent." Sawyer said. Tristan stared at the doorway. He couldn't help that he felt compelled to go in.

"It's still possible her daughter knows something." Nathan insisted; he sounded annoyed. Tris shot him an irritated glance from his wolf.

"It can wait until morning." Tristan snapped. He felt Sawyer's gaze, and he instantly didn't like what he was insinuating.

"Edith will have to clean it out early tomorrow, and then we need to burn it down before your father returns," Sawyer said. Tristan gave him a perplexed look.

"Trust me," Sawyer said. Tristan felt immediately uncomfortable. There were a lot of mingling scents there, fading scents now. But there were male ones too. Territory markings and others.

It gave him a deep repulsive feeling inside at the thought that these females were shared throughout the pack...

A sudden and deep instinctual fear in his wolf pushed him forward.

Male wolves were driven by their instincts. An immature female who hadn't had a heat wasn't particularly interesting to them. But this pack was twisted...

"There's nothing useful-" Nathan began, but Tristan didn't hear him and continued.

Her scent hit him hard, along with a slew of others in varying intensity. Some were so faded he barely registered them, others were clearly recent visitors or repeat visitors. But it was the herbal remedies that slapped his wolf hardest.

His gaze swept the front room. Bottles and jars lined the shelves of a small kitchen. There was a table with three chairs and a small sofa. Nothing else. Tristan glanced at the two doors leading in different directions. Something drove him toward the left.

The moment he opened the door, he was hit hard by her scent. It was strongest there... along with her mother's. No other scents lingered in that room. It was clearly just the two of them that ever went in there.

His gaze once again swept the room. A large bed on the floor, stitched blankets, and pillows. On a shelf to the far right, sat a few childish things. A stitched wolf and what may have been her toys as a child. He stared at them for a moment. They looked to be stationary there, she clearly hadn't touched them in some time.

His gifted was sentimental, even in this hellish place.

He looked to Neve's side of the room. She had nothing aside from a few pots of now wilted plants, but along the wooden walls of her side of the bed were childish faded drawings.

"Think we should bring her things to her?" Sawyer asked. Tristan said nothing as he stared at the drawings.

He truly didn't know. Would she even want this stuff? After the memories she had now. Tristan turned and looked at the other door. Sawyer shook his head.

"I know what you were looking for; it's only Neve. We really should- Tris!" Sawyer growled as Tristan didn't listen and opened the door. There was just a bed there, nothing else.

And a lot of male scents lingered there, faded. He felt a dropping in his stomach when he caught that bastard Alpha's and had to keep himself from snarling; it reared his wolf... but now for a multitude of different purposes.

The scars on his gifted came to the forefront of his mind.

But to both his discomfort and guilty relief, the only female scent there was her mother's. Tris swallowed hard and looked back at Sawyer.

"It's why we need to burn it down before your father gets back. I've heard he's not doing well... and this will only make it worse." Sawyer said. Tristan once again looked back at the bedroom his gifted once slept in.

"Should we have Edith-" Nathan began.

"No... just move everything to the clinic and burn it down." He said with a hard tone. He suddenly had to get out of there.

He didn't want to think anymore of what kind of childhood Lo had in that place, while he grew up with loving parents and siblings. It was making him uncomfortable.

He started moving quickly toward the door but stopped abruptly at a slight creak in the wood. Tris didn't know what compelled him to step back and lean down to pull up a floorboard as if he'd done it thousands of times. He knew exactly where it was, as if on instinct. He stared at the book hidden inside it with a sewn binding and an animal skin casing with surprise.

Why had he done that?

"How the hell did you know that?" Nathan asked incredulously. Tris had no explanation. He was dumbfounded himself.

"I don't know, I... it just felt familiar to me," Tristan said.

Sawyer gave him a knowing look.

"Because it was familiar to her. You have a connection to her, whether you like it or not." Sawyer said. Tristan stared at him for a moment, before he glanced at Nathan.

"What is it?" He asked. Tristan pulled loose the ties and flipped it open. Sketches of plants and words he didn't immediately recognize. Some pressed herbs too. Sawyer moved up behind him.

"I think it was her medicine book. That must be the mountain wolf dialect." Sawyer said. Tristan closed it and quickly handed it to him.

"Get it to Edith." He said as he headed for the door again.

"There's a garden in the back... a lot of it died without being tended to, but some is salvageable. Should we-" Sawyer added.

"No, just burn this fucking place down tonight." Tristan snarled back before he shifted and took off running at full speed.

He decided to do another round of the borders. He wanted to get lost to his wolf for a while...

-

Lo awoke to the sound of tinkering and the smell of the same breakfast things she was cooked the morning before. She took a slow breath and glanced at the window. The sun was brightly shining.

She felt rested... for the first time in a long time.

It was just as she sat up and tried to rub the grogginess from her crusted eyes that she caught his scent. Lo froze... confused.

Was he there?

Lo took a deep uncomfortable breath. So many things went through her sleepy mind. Did he see her crying?

He must think her weak again.

"Lo? Sweetheart? Come out when your ready." Edith's quiet voice said from the front room. Lo frowned as she looked at the closed door. Wasn't this Lottie's house? Why was she here?

Lo slipped from the bed reluctantly and slowly opened the door. Edith and Lottie were at the table drinking tea, and Dena was at the stove cooking. Lo glanced at the open front door when she heard pups playing. Tumbling and growling in fur. Kit and Dena's toddler were out there.

"Come sit," Edith said gently as she slid a cup of tea across the table. Lo reluctantly moved over and did as she asked. She reached over and warmed her hands in the porcelain as she avoided their eyes.

She felt strange...

"Your mother was a healer?" Edith asked. Lo furrowed her brow and glanced up at her.

She knew her mother was thought of like that, but she wasn't truly. Her mother did not like the title and never wanted to be called that. She often corrected people, even though Lo liked to think of her as a healer.

"No... not really... but my mother, she um... she just knew things from her pack, her aunt was the mountain pack's healer, and she remembered things she had been taught when she was little." Lo explained. She kept her eyes on the teacup.

"She helped deliver the pups, and when females were whipped or hurt by the males, they would come to her, and she knew some healing balms and remedies," Lo said, still keeping her eyes away from the other females.

She didn't want to see her face.

"From the mountain wolves?" Edith asked, her voice a bit unsteady.

"Yes," Lo said as she felt the tears start to brim in her eyes again.

"We would go into the forest and find herbs. She taught me what every plant did and its uses. She often wished we had other kinds that didn't grow here. We had a little garden outside our cabin where she grew some things. She also had all kinds of things stored in jars. Our hut was full of it. She taught me a lot." Lo said. It was just spilling out of her.

Talking about her mother felt soothing... she didn't know why. It was easy.

"Is... is our... my home still standing?" Lo asked.

"No, I'm sorry, sweetheart..." Edith said. Lo sniffled and nodded. She figured as much...

Lo didn't have much, but what she did, she had cherished. She felt an even deeper pang inside her chest knowing those things were lost to her now. The things her mother had lovingly made her...

And her mother's book...

"They brought everything to me at the clinic," Edith said as she noted her expression. Lo glanced up at her in surprise.

"Your belongings as well... and this." She added as she gently placed the very familiar book on the table. Lo stared at it in shock.

"My wolves know to bring me anything they think may be useful to me. I knew this was a special book, but I'm afraid I couldn't understand it." Edith said.

Lo just kept staring at it. Unable to move for a moment. She felt a deep tinge of emotion. She didn't think she'd ever see it again.

"I've heard they have wonderful medicines. Will you teach me some?" Edith asked.

Lily looked up at her, startled. She'd never been asked anything like that in her life. She'd never been helpful to anyone. The delayed reaction to her previous words finally hit her.

"...you don't speak the wolven tongue?" Lo asked. She and her mother mostly spoke it in their home.

"I'm afraid I only know some, but it is the woodland wolf dialect; I know the winter wolves kept to themselves, but we were forced to trade with humans during the droughts hundreds of years ago; we even had to breed with them to stay alive when starvation killed many when food and supplies became scarce.

The wolven tongue was left behind somewhere along the way; we mostly speak the human language now... aside from our loyalty declarations which we still use the wolven tongue for. Although humans have many dialects, we've seen many different groups of them come and go. This language is the one most common." Edith said.

A tense moment of silence followed. Lo had never considered the woodland wolves didn't keep to the wolven tongue. She felt foolish that she assumed all households were like she and her mother...

After another tense moment, Lo hesitantly pulled the book closer and gently opened it. The scent of her mother and all the pressed herbs that reminded Lo of her instantly brought tears to her eyes. She turned a few pages before she closed it and gently pushed it back toward Edith.

"Here, please take it. Make use of it." Lo said with a sniffle. Edith smiled at her. But it was a smile full of grief.

"I will, sweet girl. Your mother was an angel, and I'm very sorry I did not get the chance to know her as my sister." Edith said sadly. Lo sniffled and nodded as she tried to control the warm tears that began dripping down her cheeks again. Lottie reached over and took her hand, gently rubbing her thumb over her knuckles.

A gesture of comfort... but it had the opposite effect. It just made her cry more.

"But I cannot understand the mountain dialect. Will you translate it for me?" Edith asked. Lo looked up at her in surprise. She had never thought of that.

"I can't write in human; my mother didn't know how. She taught me in wolven." Lo said.

"Then I will teach you, and this will be our little project, you and I; it's good to have projects to keep your mind occupied in times of grief. When I lost my daughter, my little projects were what kept me grounded. We can start a garden, and you can show me where she gathered these herbs from." Edith said warmly. Lo glanced at Lottie, then at Dena. Both were smiling warmly at her.

Lo knew that wolves didn't often get sick, but it did happen. They were susceptible to certain types of illness. And two times a year, they helped deliver pups.

But the healer's job mostly was dealing with injuries. And in a pack of wolves, there were usually plenty of injuries to go around.

"We have four pregnant females that came with us, I'm sure your mother taught you about helping with deliveries too. If you'd like... we'd love for you to help at the clinic with us." Edith said. Lo sniffled again and nodded.

A strange sense of calm had settled over her as Dena brought the breakfast plates over and called to the pups outside.

She suddenly knew what they were trying to do, but it had worked. Giving her some sense of purpose made the sadness inside her lessen just a little...

They were giving her something she could almost look forward too...