hardest of hearts

Eligos' throat tightened at his cousin's words, and for a moment he couldn't speak. How was he? Far healthier than he had any right to be, when he'd had to lay his niece in front of her parents. Far healthier than he had any right to be, when his brother and his brother's mate mourned the loss of their only daughter. By any rights he should have been in the ground already. "I have recovered from the sickness," he rasped finally, then changed the subject. "I am glad to see you returned to us, cousin. Have you been settling back in well?" He didn't yet mention that her brother had been missing for some time now - if she hadn't noticed his absence yet he need not add to the griefs the past season had brought them all already. There would be time enough to discuss Saren later. After all, he - like Eligos' own sister - had likely simply abandoned the family once again, after all the assurances otherwise. He felt more and more like the pack, the family, and everything else in his life was slipping away like sand through his paws and the common denominator was him. His failures.