"Ms. Farrow?"
I glance up briefly as the stern Pineheart rises and follows the nurse through the door. That brief mont made my ga character tumble over a log again.
> This clumsy fox can’t even land and hop off of a solid surface! I feel insulted. At least holes and traps make more sense... <
[Restart] is imdiately tapped, like it has been dozens of tis. Determined to beat my previous score, I hardly notice the other woman’s approach.
"You’re really good at that."
A soft voice startles just a bit. Looking up, I realize the copper-haired Pineheart has moved to sit closer.
Too close - compared to the distance everyone kept before. Her eyes are on my phone screen, where my fox has just crashed into a hunter’s net while I was distracted.
> So now both of their pack mbers have killed my fox. I should rember it isn’t real. I should, but I still kind of want to complain... <
She smiles hesitantly when I’ve said nothing to her for a bit. Tilts her face away again, adopting a more submissive pose.
"I’ve been trying to beat level twelve for weeks. The part with the three traps in a row is impossible."
I glance back at my phone, noting my high score is only on level five. If this were my world, and she were one of the noble foxes... I’d think she was trying to coyly show off how much better she is.
"I haven’t reached that far yet."
"I’m Mira! Mira Thornfield."
The close quarters makes this introduction oddly intimate, but I only feel mildly wary. Nothing like the large feeling of threat and primal draw I had standing in front of Kyrie.
> I really have a problem with danger, don’t I... <
"Citra. Citra Lomdi."
Her eyebrows lift then pinch at this. Cautiously, she turns her face with a near pout.
"Not Helene anymore?"
The question catches off guard. My fingers tighten around the phone as Vrika bristles in my mindscape.
I stare at her, the she-wolf still unwilling to et my eyes. But I’ll learn nothing if I don’t ask.
"You know ?"
She nods before casting a quick glance for anyone else listening... before leaning closer. I’m sort of confused whether she is bold or not?
"From the last conclave. Thirteen years ago. We were both ten."
This Mira pauses her short bursts of information. She risks studying my whole expression for a half second.
"Both waiting to see if the Lunar Goddess would grant us wolf spirits."
mory stirs in the recesses of Helene’s consciousness. I sift through them quickly.
Children under sixteen from many packs, gathered in nervous clusters. Pack Alphas standing proud and alert as their youngest mbers were presented.
The testing of Ogas to determine who would receive the limited number of wolf spirits the Goddess bestowed each conclave. An event that ended this body’s aspirations for a ’higher learning’ field and bound her tighter to the Duskpaw.
Filled her head with the idea that she must beco what the pack needs instead. With the idea that she should find a mate.
"I rember. Were you not the girl who cried for your father that you wanted to go ho when they called your na?"
Mira flushes and tugs on her sleeves. Drawing into herself more, like the helpless child Helene rembers.
"I was scared. We all were. But you..."
Her gaze flicks to my hair, placed up in twin-tails and not a pack braid.
"Your mother had your hair done perfectly for the ceremony. You said you weren’t afraid because your wolf would be the strongest."
I say nothing to that, unsure how to navigate with these mories that aren’t truly mine. Certainly, Helene did think that.
Her parents had assured her, over and over. So much that it absolutely has to count as brainwashing.
It turned out that she did get a wolf, but it would have crushed her back then if she had failed.
> Maybe that would have been better, still. She might have gotten over it. Her parents would still have been terrible people... but... <
Sycophants - two of the most obvious of the Ogas in that village with no real benefit to the pack... yet always claiming their attachnt to it ran stronger because their daughter had a wolf.
> Actually, Without that, they may have taken it out on her. Damn, but was she blind to the evils in her life. <
Willful ignorance or just ignorance, it doesn’t matter anymore. I look sadly at Vrika for having dealt with and cared for her before leaving my mindscape again.
"Well, it’s not the strongest wolf. But I’m not sure I would trade it away, if given the chance."
The woman fidgets beside , before clearing her throat.
"What... happened to you?"
"How is that, now?"
"A lot of people are talking about how you ran from the Duskpaw. How you supposedly did sothing... to your mate bond?"
Ah... well, that makes sense. I’m sure soone like Chad didn’t have a smartphone just to talk to our other pack mbers.
Which ans there is a ’network’ out there talking about werewolf social matters. One that has already started spreading information.
> Misinformation! <
"Jace is not my mate. Not anymore. He rejected ."
"But they say the bond-"
"Is broken. On my end, at least."
Mira stares at with open fascination. It’s honestly a little disconcerting, even though she is kind of growing less irritating.
"I’ve never heard of anyone breaking a mate bond without both parties agreeing. How did you do it?"
A scoff escapes that makes her flinch.
"Is that what they are saying happened? Because I said the words. And I ant them. I bear no mark, as you can tell."
Every word is spoken with absolute conviction. Because not a single one of them has been a lie.
"If he did not *an* it when he kicked on the ground, lifted in the air, and threatened into accepting what he seed to want... that is not my fault."
"Still... the reports claim you used so sort of strange thods?"
Shrugging away this copper-haired woman’s continued attempts to dig, I find myself unwilling to explain my unique circumstances. It’s strange.
"I don’t know what to tell you. Perhaps the Lunar Goddess decided I deserved better and he did not."
While the Intuition ability from the system is not giving anything like a warning, I simply feel no need to tell her much about myself. My real self.
Mira nods slowly. Then claps her hands together with a final firm nod - as if this explanation makes perfect sense to her.
"The Goddess can be rciful that way. My cousin was able to form a new bond after her first mate died in a territory dispute. Even though the pack was sure she would wither away in heartbreak."
"Good for her. If there is a route to move on, people should always take it."
My hand moves unconsciously to my hair, and she sees it as another opportunity to comnt on it.
"Is that why you’re not wearing the braid? Because you’re declaring yourself as... walking separate from the Duskpaw entirely?"
"Sothing like that."
This woman is surprisingly chatty when the other one isn’t around. It’s almost starting to get on my nerves again.
> Though that could just be that she keeps bringing up things to do with that man, at a ti when I’m trying not to think about him. <
On second thought, that ti is always. So this would always irritate .
Mira seems about to ask another question that is prid to make feel the need to be rude to her, when she notices that the corner of a package had shifted partially out from my backpack.
"Are those phone stickers?"
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