I was goin’ nowhere fast

[Phoenix]

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What were circumstances? Really, when you thought about it, it was just a fancy word for Life. And life was in a constant state of flux, all about change. It was a system designed to weed out the weak and allow the strong to thrive. Phoenix did not consider himself strong, yet here he was, thus far surviving… and thriving, while many members of Storm who had come before him were gone. The brunneous male was barely three and now the longest-standing member of the pack. He did not rule the same Storm that he had joined. As much as he missed some of his old friends and pack-mates, circumstances, or Life, were/was out of his control. If Melisande believed that Iskata had never been unstable or gone insane, then obviously she hadn’t been around a year ago nor had she ever talked to her other son DaVinci. Hard to believe a year had passed since Iskata had joined his pack under the name of Alyssa, an amnesiac female who had been run out of Clouded Tears for attacking her own children. That had definitely been the most emotionally intense year of Phoenix’s life, as he’d taken it upon himself to help her and ended up falling in love with Iskata (and she with him) despite their reservations. Now she was his mate and the mother of his children, even if she didn’t consider Storm her true home. “She hasn’t had many chances t’be creative lately, what with th’pups at home an’ all,” Phoenix observed idly. “What ‘bout you? You’re family now. Is there anythin’ about my niece that I should know?” he asked after a moment’s silence, a charming smile growing on his face. Perhaps it was an odd way to go about asking, but they had spent all this time talking about him and their connecting family member. It would be rude not to learn something about the family member Iskata connected him to, and he truly was interested. The Sadiras were always an interesting, strong-willed bunch.

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