Tired of Being Lonely

Qanik limped through the redwood trees, tired, footsore, and heartsick. It had been months now that she'd been on her own. Months of subsisting off rabbits and squirrels and whatever else she could catch on her own, months of being chased off territory by unwelcoming packs, months that had just strengthened her belief that she was nothing without a pack to belong to. Just the thought of her old pack sent a pulse of pain and guilt through her. Her fault that her father, the alpha, had died when she'd frozen up in battle and he'd had to save her. Her fault that the pack had slowly disintegrated without his leadership, when she should have worked harder to keep them together.

A failure. It was no wonder she hadn't been welcome anywhere.

The white female slumped down in the shelter of one of the trees and, sighing, began licking her aching paws. She just couldn't muster the energy to keep going, and what did it matter anyway? She could be lonely here just as well here as anywhere else.