Life at her lake was one she surely missed. Feeling the small pebbles beneath her paws as she walked through the shallows while she patrolled the borders was bliss. Traveling the mountains once again and feeling the rocky terrain that she loved beneath her legs. However, it wasn’t the same. Though the lake and mountain welcomed her, the pack that she had created was filled with strangers and she was the outcast. This place had always been home for years, but the love she had for this place wasn’t the same as it had been before when it was filled with strangers. Perhaps when she made amends with Vespertio, she should search for a new place to call home where there were no souls that she had harmed. But where in all the Lore could a place like that be? There had been so many that she had harmed that it almost seemed like an impossible task. For now though, she must stay here to earn the forgiveness of her love. For as long as that may take.

This evening, Athena didn’t travel up the mountainside to watch the sunset in her outcrop. Tonight, she rested on the large boulder along the lakeshore where she had once had a heart to heart conversation with Rhysis many years ago. That year she had been his faithful servant, now he was the one man who she would have the hardest times forgiving if she ever saw him again. That man was a monster that she had almost turned into. His thirst for power and dominance was just like the hunger that had created this pack. However, her need for power was diminished. Athena no longer had the thirst for being above all others and governing them. There was never happiness in that life for her. She had learned that the hard way many times over. Her father had been right. After all these years that she thought he had been wrong when he swore she would never find happiness and will always be a failure. Here she was with her happiness that was no longer hers, but another woman’s and three children’s father.

She guessed Vesper was probably sound asleep with his family in the den that she didn’t have the heart to go near. She was trying to pick up herself up piece by piece before he changed his mind and sent her away. Little did he know she was being held captive by the mistakes that were drowning her inside. The memories and thoughts of what could have been haunted her and sleep slipped away from her every night. The moon was full tonight as it rose above the mountain and reflected off the glistening lake. She was trying to make it better piece by piece, but she was afraid there was too much hurt and there was no healing what she has done. She needed to let him go and let him live his new life with his new wife and children. Little did he know, she loved him till the sun died.

"Speech."