The most recent attack had left her wounded, although it was nothing the scarred hybrid couldn’t handle. Still, no matter how many cold streams she drank from, the taste of blood in her mouth was ever-present, and with the rest of the pinna gone, her left ear was almost useless. Her constant movement betrayed her weakness: the swing of her head and swivel of her good ear, the little stops and starts when she thought she missed a sound. She called upon a cold reserve when among the other clan members, doing her best to look strong like a subleader should, at least when she wasn’t treating her scouts gently.
Like she always was these days, Vesper stalked along the border on all four legs and paused periodically to sniff and stare. She left her mark like a male on the trees and land she crossed, determined for the wolves to know that Inferni’s dominant members stayed strong.
A ’yotish yap broke through the quiet of her patrol, and her lean body went rigid as she turned her good ear in that direction. A burning shiver went down her spine—but no, she’d misheard. Of course she’d misheard, with one ear and desperation of the mind she hid from the others. This was merely a coyote that needed sanctuary from the murderous wolves. It was her duty as Optio to greet them and take them in.
Yet she went reluctantly, her pace steady but her paws dragging. Pale blue eyes flicked to the shadows playing across the trees, and then stared forward again. She broke out into a lupus lope that took little time at last to reach the skull-decorated patch of land the cry had come from.
And she stopped.
The woman was soft, shorter than her even, childish in her build and the awkward line of her cut hair. A yellow-eyed wolf stared from her face although the rest of her features were decidedly coyote. Her fur was mottled with browns and whites and blacks, like the plumage of a
“Sparrow,” Vesper whispered, her eyes widening.
Word Count → 348
awesomesaaaaauce
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