Games at the border

She raised an eyebrow at Mort. "If I ever want to leave this pack one day -- and I'm not saying I do -- I would have to fight Sirius for that right. And I would lose. Why not just let me go?" She shrugged. "I'm not hating on your dad or anything, but.... packs have a lot of weird traditions, and mine wasn't the only one. And some of them make sense in a survivalist kind of way, I guess."

"For my old pack, for example, a lot of the land surrounding the territory was pretty barren. Chasing off the old Alphas was a necessity, but it would be overkill to chase off the rest of the pack, too. Especially when they knew the territory better. I guess the challengers thought they had better odds of surviving with them, than without them." She hummed in thought. "You know how male lions when they're trying to take over a pride, kill the males but let the females live? It was sort of like that."

Although looking back, it was less of a truce and closer to a hostage situation.

"I guess my point is, it's not always about love and respect. So to answer your question -- no. They didn't love each other." She paused again, taking a shaky breath. "But, I mean, this all happened before I was born, Mort. My sire died before I was born even, in a hunting accident, and left my dam to remain an Alpha. My childhood was pretty boring, honestly, up until about my first year. I actually spent my first few months with my Aunt Pia. She's the reason why I'm a healer, too," she smiled.