The peppered wolf limped. The gaping gash in her leg began to fester and ache. Maggots had made their home in the hole Djinn had left, and yet she knew better than to scratch them off or try to wash them clean. The gross little wrigglers would fight the infection for her, clean away the dying flesh... But that didn’t mean she had to be comfortable with it, or endure the other pains associated with it. So she made her way to the willows, slipping cautiously between the curtained leaves, looking for the perfect tree to provide what she needed, as well as a shaded, mildly protected place to rest.

But she did not expect to cross the trails of so many.

There had not been a pack here the last time she had been, and her brows drew together in worry. She knew she was not trespassing yet, but she couldn’t be far off it. All of her senses strained as she looked for the tell-tale markers that would tell her to steer clear, until an all to familiar scent passed her nose, and then another. The flighty wolf flinched at both. Kiche? Kanosak? The two men she had been searching for, yearning for, were here? Together?

Somewhere deep in her chest, a pain welled. Kiche had vanished and so she had kept herself to the very fringes of the territory. Hoping, searching... had he been here all along? And Kanosak, her sweet, loving brother... were they in cahoots? Had she finally found him after all this time? She held herself back from the borders, confusion and pain dancing plainly across her fevered face. She had her own needs to tend to first. She would deal with her physical pain first, and then she would contemplate what to do about the two her heart pined for.