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for Cassia
After the pack assembly they had all scattered. Oak had stayed with his mother, as he felt was right. She needed him as she needed Cypress, and he would not leave her. He would have taken up the pack, he had begged her to let him, but she refused and Oak would not go against her wishes. No matter how he felt about it, no matter what his pride said.
Their camp lay miles and miles above Rabbit Lake, and yet he traveled back towards the lands he knew by heart. His lupus form was comfortable and easy in travel but there was something to be said about the statuesque figure that his Optime body created as well as the thick leather belt that hung at his waste, cocked unevenly due to the weight of the axe that was strapped to it.
He had come for someone in particular, her face lingering in his mind's eye since they had left the fallen borders. His mother was settled, and as a grown woman free to travel just as he was. The camp was a necessary homestead, a place to return to and to keep them whole.
Like the hunter he was Oak looked for her with the same tracking techniques he used on lesser prey. Scents of the pack lingered, but there was nothing tangible for him to grasp and follow. So the russet boy wandered, hoping he would catch her before she disappeared.
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