Aivar smiled wistfully, seeing the face of Athena in his mind. They'd fought, sure, but both of them had a great love for the pack in their heart. Two stubborn wolves with good hearts. “She was,” he said.

His head turned and his eyebrows raised. A mountaineer raider. “No wonder you're a mountain goat,” he teased. “I never met my birth mother either,” he added quietly. “But I never thought of Athena as anything else.”

His mind was drifting like a leaf floating downstream. Too many memories that made his heart ache. He'd always felt too strongly. About everything. Still, he focused on Nutuyikruk, watching as she pulled a pelt out in front of them and began to nip the attached flesh with her incisors.

He laid down beside her and began to copy her actions carefully. How annoying. He wondered if there was a different way to do this, but could think of nothing. Well… maybe.

“Yeah, she was. And she was the alpha,” he added, flicking his tongue over his teeth as he tried to pull a stringy piece of flesh from between his teeth.