Homeward bound

From one end of the pack Territory to the other, the day was pretty busy. He’d sent Aurielle back to the den to help Paladin with Sterling and had continued his patrol solo, so he was decently close when he heard Xodus’s call. He was silently relieved to hear the boy’s voice.

Grief affected everyone differently. With Justice, it appeared to have manifested in withdrawing from her own family, while still doing her various duties, but in a mechanical way. He’d watched her from afar. Paladin had handled it the best of the three remaining siblings, but he knew the hurt he held. Exodus had taken a leave of absence, for lack of a better word, after Kavdaya had passed.

He’d forgotten to let Regulus know, but in this case, the Archangel was fully understanding of the reasoning. Sometimes you needed to be away from it all to find your thoughts again. Of course, he had been different, himself, when Surreal had passed on, and when Falk had joined her.

He had craved the contact of his siblings, and yet they seemed to have taken the grief in the way of avoiding family. Or seeking solace in his littermates in Lirim. He had slipped in his leadership, that was without doubt, but it was the past now.

He padded quickly toward Xodus’s location, and once he found the boy, he merely stepped forward to give him a gentle hug. Probably not what the young wolf expected. “It’s never easy to lose one’s parents, especially not in the way you have. I understand why you left for a while, Exodus, and I won’t punish you for it. Come on home.”

Of course, if Xodus felt the need to explain himself anyway, Regulus would listen. He was both the boy’s cousin, and his mentor, as well as his leader.