Not to find

"Then I pity your mother for her bad judgement, and for her sake I hope she did not know of his actions before taking him in," she rumbled, resisting the urge to pace in irritation. That Vereux could have slipped in so easily to another pack did not surprise her much. Few packs seemed as suspicious or demanding of their members as Yfir, frankly, so it likely would not be an issue to infiltrate one. But that lack of surprise didn't dispel the sour, resentful feeling that curdled within her that he would have rolled from his betrayal of Yfir right into a neighboring pack, as though taunting her.

She shook herself sharply as though shaking water from her coat, but it did little. "How did he betray us?" She fixed him with a hard silver eyed stare. Well, her people were storytellers by nature, after all. "Yfir was once a pack called Ebony, led by a close friend of mine. When she left, I was left as regent for the pack until her children came of age," she began, giving the very bare bones of the story that he would understand how Vereux came to be in Yfir. "Her son Kassander was the last leader of Ebony, and rather than destroy the pack when he could no longer be king, he called for me and requested I lead them. Vereux was already among their ranks at that time - as I understand it, he had been taken in my Kassander when he was ill, or perhaps injured. I never cared to know the details... perhaps I should have." She paused broodingly for a moment. She prided herself on her observations, yet she had not even made the effort to know many of her members before accepting them. So many had betrayed Yfir, so many that may have been prevented with a little care.

"Among my pack the elite warriors swear an oath to put the pack before themselves, before any families they may form. Vereux wished to become a warrior, and so swore that oath before the gods. When it became clear that he did not fully understand the obligation that oath laid upon him, I gave him the opportunity to dissolve his oath without prejudice. He refused, saying he wished to learn more of my culture and religion that he could live up to his oath. He wanted - " and here her muzzle twisted in a grimace - "to be adopted into my family, as he did not wish to be counted among the Armadas. I refused, as in my culture it is obligate that we honor the family we are born into, but I did undertake to teach him. It was a mistake. He disappeared with that knowledge without a word, and never again returned to Yfir. A pack appears suddenly against our borders, and I just happen to find the traitorous mongrel's scent among them. And you no more knowledgeable of his past as I once was."