The voice flicked his ears back, and he went poker-faced pretty quick, but he didn't otherwise move. It wasn't like he couldn't pretend he didn't hear her, though, and he couldn't really resume his conversation with her standing there. Though she didn't sound judgmental as he'd have assumed, this woman who said she was his aunt. "Yes," he finally answered her, his voice surprisingly hushed, and then after a second's thought elaborated. "I don't hear his voice, or see him, nothing like that. But if you pay attention, he's there." He lifted his head to thoughtfully watch a flock of geese honking high overhead, their v shaped formation straggling as they passed, as he considered whether he wanted to actually talk to her. He already had, hadn't he? So why not. "Mom and Bellona needed him more than we did, but Dad loved us and I don't believe even something like death could stop him from watching over us and taking care of us."
He turned olivine eyes to her, his aunt. "You weren't there after Mom died. Dad called a meeting of all the pack to send them away, but you weren't there, you or Kyarst. You didn't come find Dad when he was hurt and dying. But you came to find my sisters and I. Why?" His face was clear of the anger and hurt he'd born last he'd spoken with her, and though his expression was still closed it wasn't accusative. It felt as though his brief outpouring of emotion, of pleading for his father's help, and the strangely surreal nature of Lysis' sudden appearance, had numbed him. It felt dreamlike. Like nothing here was really happening, so it didn't matter what he did anyway.
""
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