The dusty-black female stammered out an apology, and her pathetic demeanor brought two conflicting stabs of emotion to the coywolf. On one paw, she wanted to bowl this girl over and knock some sense into her, draw out some strength with her teeth, spit at the dependence. At the same time, however, the oddest feeling of protectiveness washed over her. She appreciated the strong and looked down on the weak, but at the same time, she’d made an effort to protect those who needed protecting.
“You deserve someone who’d look out for you,” Vesper remembered telling Juniper what seemed like ages ago. “Someone to pick you up when you’ve fallen. Someone to run alongside you when you can run. You deserve no less than me.”
But that had been a different situation, back when she and Juniper had been no more than girls themselves, and in the end Juniper had betrayed her trust. As memories flickered behind her eyes, she shook her head slowly.
The she-wolf had introduced herself as Blind—an odd name, one that made the coywolf instinctively glance back to those brilliant two-toned eyes—then asked if they lived in the area.
Vesper snorted, first at the idea that she’d live with someone—especially a male luperci. She looked over her shoulder, listening as Zalen said he lived in the forest. “I don’t live anywhere,” the coywolf added, throwing her two cents in without prompting. She didn’t feel comfortable enough in the alien—or human—world of the city to sleep here.
The male pointed out that Blind seemed lost, and absently Vesper nodded her narrow muzzle in agreement.
“Are you new to the area?” she asked, deciding that it wouldn’t kill her to be a little helpful. “I was born north of Nova Scotia myself.” The tidbit wasn’t especially useful, but it’d show Blind that she wasn’t alone, if she did indeed come from beyond the land.
In the pause she allowed Blind to answer, she looked over her shoulder at Zalen once more, wondering how he was taking all this.
