“Nah. Jes’ what you remind me of. Ain’t like a coyote or a cactus or anythin’ else out there.” And that’s what you named wolves after. After their parents (or someone their parents knew, if they were kinda dumb, like her ma, or didn’t have appropriate father figure for a name) or after something around. Like her. Her tail lashed until she remembered she was trying to catch fish, and then she stopped again, licking her lips as she stared downwards. She wanted to look at Buzzard, but with her luck, the fish would chose then to move close, and startle off if she tried to turn back.

Not that they were moving much right now anyways.

Her ears flicked, and Little Crow chanced a look back at the older wolf before golden eyes dropped back to the water below. “Mm, maybe. ‘m lookin’ for my Mama – ran off, the fuckin’ bitch – but she wanted back t’this pack, see? So I wanna know what’s soo good about this pack an’ these wolves. Kahgeekha, this guy, she liked him an awful lot.” She snorted softly, body tensing as one of the little shiners started to venture closer. Too small. “Left me for him without a word. And I ain’t about that life.”

“I ain’t gotta clue what he’s tryin’ t’do, but he sure messed my Ma up.” Where they proper mates? Just friends that her mother was making moon eyes at? Maybe he the alpha and she woulda been a whole lot better off if the woman had just stayed there – but would she even be the same wolf, if there was a different guy who’d donated half himself? Little Crow didn’t like a lot of things, but herself? She wasn’t so bad. She didn’t mind at all who she was.

Her ear flicked sideways as Buzzard offered himself up to her cause – shit, she was just hoping for some information, anything more than a little wispy nimbus cloud of knowledge just out of reach – but muscle didn’t sound that bad, frankly. She was small, and fast, and she was mean, but she had no idea what these strangers were like. What the pack was like, and she might need more than just her little ol’ self if push came to shove.

“Reckon I’d like that real fine, Big Buzzard. Now, whaddya want in exchange? I know these things ain’t free. Never are.” Her Mama might have left, but she didn’t raise no idiot. Namir might have said something else just then, mouth slightly agape, but a big flash caught her eye, and the little wolf streamed into the water without a second thought.

In she went, like a little bolt of lightning. The first bite caught the fish’s fin; Abbadon had only taught her how to fish at all a few mere weeks ago, after all. But she was a quick study, and just plain old quick, period. Her first strike was enough to wound, and after a few blind snaps, she found the floundering fish and surged back upwards, water streaming over her neck and shoulders as she stood, tossing the limp creature back to shore. It gave a few feeble flops, but if Buzzard couldn’t finish off the bass like that, he didn’t deserve to eat it at all.

“Trust, huh?”

No. Fuck no.

But if she said that, he’d probably high tell it out of there, for hurt feelings or some misplaced sense of the way things should be. Trust was the sort of thing that got a wolf killed. Trust was the sort of thing that got a wolf abandoned by the only family member she had at all.

“Mmm, don’t think so, Buzzard. Ain’t gotta be specific terms, but I ain’t goin’ in blind. Mama didn’t raise no damn idiot.” She offered him a side eye, not moving as she waited for the fish to regain their confidence and venture closer again. “I ain’t givin’ you no damn pups come spring. I ain’t a walkin’ pup sack.”

“Tcht.” Namir clicked her tongue against her teeth, offering the other yearling a gratuitous roll of her eyes. She wasn’t offering, there was no reason for him to get all dramatic and shit. She was one of those nasty little furballs that latched onto teats and cried all day – this was the deal her father struck with her mother. This was the sort of thing her dam had warned her about. She’d seen other men with those hungry looks; Buzzard, though, he was kind of a weird one, wasn’t he? They all wanted that. To start their pack, until they could find real love, or something equally as stupid. Pointless.

Her tail lashed. “Stop actin’ like I jes’ asked fer yer paw in mateship fer ferever an’ ever, y’big dork. Jes’ layin’ down the hard limits. I ain’t gonna end up like my Mama.”

No way, no how.

The rest of what Big Buzzard had to say, though, that was fine. That sounded like something she could do. “Well, that I can do, mister. I ain’t called Lil’ Crow ‘cos I look like a bird. Y’know what crows do?” She shifted forward, body hunkering low, as she eyed another large looking bass. C’mere fishy.