Jessie was restless. She had been, ever since Hotei’s death. Sleep did not come easy to her and neither did peace of mind. The time that she was not sleeping, the woman tried to be as productive as possible. She would generally do border runs, her paws leading her along a path that she was quite familiar with. Tonight, however, Jessie was strolling throughout the territory, her head turned to the stars above her head. She sighed softly. When she felt that she wasn’t in the presence of any other, she sat down and continued to turn her gaze towards the stars questionably.

With no one to watch her, to observe how she was doing, Jessie let the sadness wash into her heart and into her gaze. While she wanted to scream at whoever was listening and ask them her questions, she remained quiet, wanting to remain on her own. So she spoke softly, ” Why did you take him from me? Things were finally right…and then you just had to go and fuck everything up.” Her voice was laced with pain, sadness. The widow was still deeply mourning her lost partner. While he was not young, he had not been old enough to be taken from her. And yet, that was exactly what happened. Jessie broke her eye contact with the sky and looked towards the earth, her lip curling bitterly. What had Hotei done to deserve dying? What had she done to deserve losing him?

It was the last thing she wanted: to be bothered. But she had been practicing communication since her depression, with Drestig. While their most recent encounters had been more than awkward Jessie had been making an attempt to be more civilized. But then, there were moments when she needed to be left alone when a great darkness entered her soul as it acknowledged the lack of its other half. The voice that broke through her thoughts was an unwelcome one and she forced herself to not turn around, to not snap at her and scream and bare her canines at the woman that she had never gotten along with and maybe never would get along with.

Spieden’s question almost made her laugh but she restrained herself, giving the other woman points for even coming to check up on her. Sure, it was her job to come see how she was doing but so many others had neglected doing so, if she had just gone on, it wouldn’t have been any different. The grey woman’s voice was dejected when she responded, ”I suppose you could say that. I’m not dead, after all.” She frowned before finally turning around to look at her alpha, back straightening so that she looked less pathetic than she felt. Perhaps simple pleasantries would get her by, ”And yourself?”