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Oh, she wasn't supposed to be here.
That much was obvious; there were wolf skulls lining their border, a clear and pungent warning of what would happen if she was caught on the wrong side of the line. No, perhaps that was naive - it probably didn't matter if they found her on either side of the line. Nobody would dispute it. That wasn't the only strike against her, either. She carried the scent of Dahlia de Mai on her fur, the pack that had started a war with Inferni. And the third strike was her fur itself - she was the daughter of Haku Soul, the man who had instigated that very war, leading the pack into battle. Her warm chocolate-brown pelt with the creamy underside, offset by wide, fearful baby-blue eyes, would be easily recognizable.
As the werewolf stood, transfixed by the gruesome display, her mind wandered back to the packlands. This place, Inferni, was intriguing. Dahlia... would anyone miss her if she was gone? They would probably assume she had run off, if Inferni didn't bother to haul her carcass back to their borders. Cercelee would care, but wouldn't notice for days, weeks, maybe a month or more? They never saw each other. Deuce would care, Coli decided. The former alpha had joined their ranks and taken Coli under her wing, letting her live with Taliesin and Willow. They would probably care if coyotes killed her. Hadn't Deuce already lost a child to coyotes?
Coli shuffled her small footpaws in the snow, rubbing her arms together from the cold. Her Optime coat was so thin... She felt frail in the winter months, exposed to the elements. She understood why some insisted on wearing human-style garments, although it was not her style. So why had she bothered to make this trek, putting herself in danger like this? She lived in perpetual fear as it was, so easily frightened by others, so terrified of the father who had beaten and raped her months ago. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she nervously fiddled with her long mane of silky-brown hair. It was for Laurent... She had met Laurent in the old university building, and they had shared a touching conversation. Coli had never known love. The story he had told her, about his beloved Jasper, had struck a chord in her fragile soul, and she had not been able to forget the big crippled man. It did not bother her in any way that the two were both males; that seemed to her even more romantic, another hardship for them to overcome. But surely this was the greatest hardship of all? Because Laurent was a wolf, and she had caught wind of Jasper living in Inferni.
