Word Count › 476
The most massive characters are seared with scars
Vesper frowned at the other’s apology, shaking her head slightly. “There’s no need to apologize,” she replied honestly, shrugging to show what she thought of it. As a loner, she would have been disgusted by the groveling, but she also recognized such signs of submission as a deep canine instinct. Her coyote half thought little of it, but her wolf blood helped her understand the instincts others lived by—and her experience showed her that not all leaders could be spoken to as easily as she and Myrika could.
The next question startled her, but not nearly as much as the next action Willam took. While Ves hadn’t really noticed the metal device before, dismissing it as a weird medical brace of sorts, its true purpose soon showed itself. A shocked sound left the scarred coywolf, and she reached out as if to stop Willam, although she didn’t follow through with the action, not knowing how the new member would respond. While she did understand submission, she didn’t understand wanting to inflict any sort of punishment on oneself. Sure, sometimes she felt she deserved the things that happened to her, but her nature was so driven by survival that she couldn’t imagine submitting to punishment if it wasn’t dealt by another. She had always fought to live; her multitude of scars were testament to that.
“I—” Vesper said, revolted and incapable of finding her voice. She shook her head. “Any coyote can live anywhere in Inferni,” she forced herself to say. “Plenty of others live in the caves, not just the leadership; I mean, the Aquila lives in an old schoolhouse with her grandmother and cousin. There’s no—no reason to punish you.” The Centurion was especially harsh toward treasonous luperci, but she didn’t see accidentally stepping into someone’s home as treason, unless they were bringing an enemy in with them.
Willam did not seem flustered by the metal digging into her leg, and she dutifully answered the question posed to her. Her insight was logical and had Vesper nodding thoughtfully. She’d no idea how true that custom was, having been born non-luperci where her first shift was far from celebrated, but it made sense to her. “It could be,” she said, hoping that she sounded approving; she didn’t want Willam to seek out punishment for getting a theory wrong.
The next question had Vesper frowning, her mind going back to the first time she saw the brutal skulls and was more curious than afraid. Their purpose of intimidation and discouragement had been obvious, but the stakes had likely only incited the Boreas wolves’ anger when they came to attack the fire clan. Remembering the war had her shaking her head, but she looked Willam fully in the face as she answered coldly.
“We leave them for the scavengers. Maybe then they will be useful.”
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