Alpha Cooper's gaze barely left Kodak's as the alpha of this pack declared that Kodak and Lidiya were under Plumrose River's protection. He didn't care.

No, there was only icy rage at him, who's expression slowly crumbled. As if in realization.

Only when his sworn enemy stepped up and declared that he'd be willing to fight this pack alongside him for the rights to Kodak and Lidiya did he finally tear his death gaze from Kodak, still standing beside Lidiya.

"Don't bother," he mumbled through his rage.

Lidiya was his daughter. Illegetimately, but still his blood to protect.

Stepping forward and brushing past his sworn enemy's shoulder - god, what had the world come to, that he was working alongside him? - he locked eyes with Lidiya.

His daughter. Kind of.

"Lidiya." He spoke through a clenched jaw, fighting the roaring rage that threatened to leave him as that bastard Kodak kept standing beside her.

First he'd killed Nina. Then he'd stolen Lidiya.

There was absolutely no path to forgival over here.

"Did you know." This wasn't much like him - he was usually... far more conservative. But in the moment, in the heat of all the stares, he could barely restrain himself as he looked at the wolf who had taken everything.

"Did you know, that that wolf - " Cooper didn't even bother to address him by his name, such was his detrogatory attitude to him - "that wolf, standing right next to you - "

" - was the wolf that murdered your mother?"

---

"It was a white and brown wolf. White underside. Brown saddle. He's unmistakable - if you ever see him." The alpha's words went right over her head, and at that point, she didn't understand his words, or what they meant, or what the alpha was implying.

But now Lidiya understood. After two years.

---

Nikolai watched, shocked, absolutely struck, from the side.

Watched as Lidiya took a step to the side. As she looked once over at Kodak.

At Kodak's distraught look as he realized. That there was no hiding it.

Watched as Lidiya turned her back to Kodak.

Watched as Lidiya's expression absolutely collapsed the moment she started stepping away from Kodak.

With valid reason, of course. Even Nikolai could barely sympathize with Kodak as Lidiya took another few steps away from Kodak.

Her mother had been killed by Kodak. Which was in itself such a crime onto it.

Watched mutely as Lidiya approached the wolf that looked so similar to her - maybe her brother? - and Cooper, not looking back at Kodak.

"I would like to go back home," she said in the most quavering, quiet, sad voice ever.

---

A buzzing had filled Dev's ears.

Their mother's killer was right there! Dev couldn't believe it. He'd been told of it before - back when he was barely one year old - and yet -

- it was the wolf that Lidiya had ran away with.

Only his sister's comforting presence beside him reined in the mash of feelings that he was feeling. In fact, if you asked Dev to describe what he was feeling... he honestly couldn't tell you.

He didn't know what it was himself.

He was a jumble of random emotions, and barely heard Alpha Cooper's voice addressing everyone.

"Glad to finally have you back, Lidiya." That was possibly the most gentle tone that he had ever heard Alpha Cooper use on anyone, but then his head was still so full of the buzzing he barely registered it. "We'll welcome you back gratefully."

Dev looked at his older sister, and something about her crumbled expression tore a little piece of him out.

His older sister was meant to be impermeable. Something that he could lean on when he needed to. She was practically the only reason how he managed to survive after losing their mother at an early age.

Seeing her torn and broken like this broke something. Her sister was, for the first time in his memory, absolutely destroyed.

And that wolf - Kodak - had caused it.

Alpha Cooper was already speaking, though. "Thank you to everyone here. We've obtained what we've come all the way here for, and now we shall peacefully leave." Dev caught a glint of Alpha's canines directed at everyone else. "Unless you'd rather contest us for posession of Lidiya, but I think we can all agree that that would be unwise right now." A hard edge and a dark tone accompanied that, belaying the cordial words for what they really were.

A threat.

They'd gotten what they'd come for, and now they'd all leave.

"Come on, Lidiya," Dev heard Alpha Cooper murmur to his older sister, "Let's go home."

Even as the rest of his pack turned around and silently trouped out, back the way they'd come - mission thoroughly accomplished - Dev took one good, long look at Kodak.

He was still rooted in position. Staring at - gosh, Dev didn't even know.

The buzzing cleared slightly in his head, and and all Dev could do was do what her sister couldn't do. For the first time, he stood up for his sister.

She had stood up for him countless times. He could only do the same for her.

He glared at Kodak. Growled at him a smidge.

Kodak. Who had killed his mother.

He would get revenge. One day. Even if his sister couldn't. He'd do it on behalf of her, if he could. And would not regret a single bit of it.

Then abruptly turned his back to Kodak and left, trailing his sister.

---

Lidiya didn't look back. Not once.

Nikolai didn't know what to make of this male.

The one that just didn't look like a murderer, despite Cooper's words ringing true. Who had turned up, shown all due respect, and who he had seen looked a Lidiya like she was the cener of his world - and if only she knew.

A murderer? Of his kind-of lover's mother?

Nikolai tried not to cringe at every single time that he could hear a muffled thud coming from behind him as he escorted the East Mountain wolves out. Tried not to cringe at the sound of pain, at the scent of Kodak's blood as it was finally drawn.

But it was difficult. The male he'd observed across the past couple of days - yes, flawed, but still decent overall -

- a muderer?

Nikolai couldn't understand it. Not at all, and as he silently reached he end of the territory and stood aside to let the East Mountain wolves pass by wihout even a side glance or a thank you, all he could do was gaze at Kodak's retreating tail, not understanding how such an upstanding male could be a murderer.

Nikolai mulled over it long and hard as he took one last glance at Kodak and the East Mountain wolves, and for the last time turned his back on Kodak and made his way back towards the camp.

---

Days later, Lidiya was still shaken.

Back in the familiarity of her family's den, looking at the smooth dirt walls, she still couldn't exactly process it.

She'd conferred with Alpha Cooper more than once. Each time, her fears were confirmed.

A white wolf, with a brown saddle.

Kodak.

Her mother's murderer.

She had left Grey Hills - this pack - for a new beginning with Kodak. She'd given everything - she'd even... she'd even...

... and now it was all gone.

Everything she'd sacrificed for him. Gone, like it never happened.

Her pack had welcomed her back. Like she'd never gone, like she'd just been out for a brief jaunt. Like she didn't run away to save a life.

To save the life of the wolf that had killed her mother.

Like she'd never done that.

Gosh, she didn't know what to think. She just didn't.

Dev had even gone as far as to look after her. She wanted to say no, to shove Dev behind her like she always had.

But she didn't. Because all she felt was hollow, and she

simply

didn't

know.

"Lidiya?"

Dev poked his head into the space, and it was all Lidiya could to do look at her younger brother - the one who she was meant to protect.

"You want to go on a hunt for a bit? You probably want to eat something before the meeting."

Alpha Cooper had called a pack meeting to discuss what had happened.

To her.

Like it had all been bad, like she had been abused.

Even when it hadn't been anything like that.

With her mother's murderer.

Lidiya forced a wan smile onto her face, one that she completely felt out of place using. But it was one that she knew her younger bother needed to see, faked or not.

"Yeah, okay. Let's go, Dev."

Dev stared at her as she stood up and made her way out of the hole, almost as if he hadn't been expecting her to day yes.

"Lidiya? Are you alright?" She'd exited into the cool early winter evening, with the slightest bite of winter frost making it's presence known, and with the quiet that made he instincts tell her that it would snow in the night.

"Am I alright?" Lidiya repeated the question, well aware that Dev was still staring at her.

"I'll... I'll be alright, Dev. You don't need to worry about me too much."

What a lie.

Walking through camp was practically unbearable.

Dev kep pressing into her side, as if she was the one that needed protecting. More than one of her pack members gave her a look of sympathy - like she had been abused for the past two weeks.

Worse still, although her heat had definitely ended, Lidiya felt more than one of the pack's males' eyes trail her.

As if she was something in need of fixing.

As if they would leap at the opportunity.

All Lidiya could do was stare at the ground and fill her head with other thoughts, enough to stop her from lashing out at the next - whoever - gave her a look of sympathy or eyed her like that.

---

Her thoughts weren't much better.

The memory of Kodak pressing into her side, much as how Dev waas doing now - but Kodak didn't feel as small or bony as her younger brother.

How Kodak had looked at her with love.

How his eyes had trailed her - not out of possessive greed, but simply looking out for her.

All superimposed over her own pack.

---

Unlike her younger brother, Dev kept silent throughout the time they were out hunting. Neither of them found anything, but Lidiya kept noticing how Dev… didn’t say much. How… almost, it felt like he had grown up.

No longer a juvenile. But more of a protector of the pack - and her, by extension.

I'm not a maiden in distress, she wanted to snap. I don't need protecting.

But the words stuck in her throat, and she said nothing.

It was only after almost an hour of fruitless hunting that Dev seemed to give up. Lidiya had been silently padding alongside him, on the lookout for the same scents as he had been - hell, she’d taught Dev what scents to look out for naught but eight months ago - and, like Dev, had come up with nothing.

"I don’t think we’re going to find anything today," Dev finally spoke up as he looked up at the afternoon sun. “We should probably head back and call it quits.”

Lidiya was inclined to agree with that. They’d found nothing, and it didn’t look like they’d find anything in the near future. The area truly had been picked clean.

She said as much. "Let’s head back. I doubt we’ll be able to find anything." It didn’t come out with the bite her words normally had - it came out… flat. Lidiya ignored the way Dev stared at her when she spoke - like it was a rare thing, for her to speak.

Nonetheless, Dev swished his tail and began to turn in a circle, heading back the way they’d come. Lidiya began to follow, when -

- she caught the faintest whiff of it. Just the slightest scent, carried by the afternoon breeze.

"Wait." The words were said without her even fully processing it - before she even knew what the hell was she doing, she’d started trotting off to the right, instinctively following the stray scent the breeze had carried.

"Lidiya? Did you smell something?" Dev was beside her in an instant, lifting his nose to see if he could find anything, but Lidiya didn’t respond - such was her fixation on the briefest scent she’d just smelled.

Wood, pine, and pure wolf.

Kodak.

She was faster now, Dev still trying to piece together what exactly she was after, and she caught another whiff of it, her heart leaping as if in answer -

"Lidiya." Dev.

"What are you doing?" He no longer had the tone of an authority figure - now he was just her younger brother, and sounded like it, which ignited a spark inside her which raged to protect him from the world -

But he stepped in front of her, and she halted so as to not knock him over.

"Why-" Dev started, but then Lidiya interrupted him.

"Dev. Move." It came out with all the bite and force that it would have two months ago - full of older-sister power and with the instinct that it should be obeyed.

Dev looked surprised at the tone - as if she’d still been the one that needed to be looked after, all this time. "What-"

"Dev, MOVE."

Blinking, Dev stepped aside, and Lidiya started running blindly towards the scent, not caring about all the truths she had learnt over the past week about what the scent really meant, not caring at all beyond the base need to get to it, to smell it again-

- only to halt as she reached where the scent was the strongest - a small trail through the undergrowth, devoid of any signs of life beyond her.

No Kodak.

She didn’t even notice Dev had caught up until he spoke again. "They’re long gone. Probably came by here this morning." He sounded more authoritative again - like he was back to protecting his older sister.

That was her job, not his.

She looked up and down the trail. The scent was still hanging in the air - alongside a few others, but Lidiya could only think that Kodak had been here, that this was his scent.

There was still nothing beyond her and Dev.

No Kodak.

She could never.

Forbidden.

Lidiya mentally deflated and crumpled up into the ball she had been in for the past few days.

"Let’s go back," she mumbled quietly.

She didn’t get that scent out of her lungs for the rest of the day.

"I've called this pack meeting to discuss what happened to one of our pack members," Alpha Cooper stridently said to the rest of the pack. Standing on a rock, he continued. "Lidiya."

Lidiya refused to cower from the multitude of eyes that turned to her at that. Even as Dev dug into her shoulder slightly - as if in protectiveness.

She didn't need any protecting.

Regardless, Alpha Cooper continued, fully aware of the pack's attention - and not caring. "As you may have known, she was abducted by a wolf from Eastern Mountain." Alpha Cooper seemed to be looking at her directly. "Kodak."

Kodak.

"I am here to simply set the record straight. To quell any rumors that might have been brewing about it." Lidiya had, in her stricken state, told Alpha Cooper much the night after she'd left and Alpha Cooper had grilled her until she had been practically turned inside out from the pain of remembering, and yet he had still kept going.

But she hadn't said anything about what they'd said at the waterfall.

"Kodak - a member of the East Mountain pack. Abducted our female, and took her all the way to Plumrose River in an attempt to evade us."

Kodak.

"He injured two of our pack in the process."

Kodak.

"Lidiya acted against her will in many situations, pressured by Kodak's dominance and the threat of retribution."

Kodak. He'd never done that to her - always backed off if she said no, even if reluctantly.

"Murder of Nina."

Kodak was her only thought.

"I trust that even our enemies know of the grevious wrongs Kodak has commited. I believe he has been severely disciplined for his actions."

Lidiya stopped listening to Alpha Cooper's announcement. There was only her in her own head, the distant voice of Alpha Cooper as he continued his briefing, and a montage of Kodak.

Nothing about how Alpha Cooper was her - father. Nothing about how they had dragged her away like a recently caught prey. Nothing about how Kodak had saved her.

Nothing about how his scent clung to her for days.

And most importantly, nothing about how, if she sniffed herself in the right place, she could still smell the briefest touch of Kodak. Like it was lingering, and wouldn't fade, almost as if it was inside her.

---

It wasn't until long after the meeting had ended, until she was lying in the little den she shared with her brother, that she finally came to a conclusion of her messy thoughts.

The mess that had accompanied her all the way from Plumrose River, not able to fully understand what she was supposed to do with Kodak.

Dev gave a sleepy snore, almost appearing like her younger brother again, and Lidiya idly licked his neck, like she had done every time Dev had needed it last year.

She had run away from the problem. This was the messy result.

Now she had to solve it.

---

Lidiya had missed one thing in her great plan, though, and that was Dev was still acting like she was the younger one that needed protecting in the daylight.

"Lidiya, surely you can't be that eager to get more food. It's... just past dawn." Dev held his ground, for once.

"Dev, let me get out." It was unusual for Dev to hold his ground like this.

"Why're you - " Dev paused for a moment before he seemed to comprehend something. "You're going to look for him, aren't you?" He'd grown since Lidiya had last had a staring match with him - he was practically on eye level to her at this point.

As for the comment, Lidiya had no rebuttal. It was true, after all.

"You can't be -" Dev started, but Lidiya had no time for it. Ignoring his rebuttal, Lidiya interrupted him with her own choice of words. This time, she put her signature bite that Dev had grown up with when she wanted to be obeyed.

"Dev, move." Two words were all that really were needed for Dev to understand that he wasn't the older sibling, she was, and he had no right to be like this.

"I'll tell Alpha Cooper you went out..." Dev started, but backed away regardless.

Lidiya didn't care. She sprung out, away, and towards where they'd gone the other day.

---

It wasn't until she got closer tha she began to get her doubts.

What if Kodak really didn't regret it? What if Kodak really was what Alpha Cooper framed him to be?

What if... what if Kodak didn't really...

... but she knew Kodak. There was no way he did think that.

She needed to know.

It was at that moment that she caught scent of Kodak - stronger now - and looked up to see the retreating tails of three wolves, moving away from her.

And Lidiya watched.

Watched as Kodak, unaware of her presence, walked away.

Frozen to the spot, unable to move or think the moment she'd seen Kodak, she simply stood there - and watched as Kodak rounded a tree and was gone from sight.

Heart in her mouth, her throat closed as she stood there, still staring at the place Kodak had disappeared at, unable to think properly as she thought and rethought everything she'd just seen.

Kodak. Alive. Breathing. His scent of pine still hanging in the air he'd passed through naught but a minute ago. The image of his tail slowly swishing as he continued on, unaware of her behind him.

The sight of him limping slightly. The sight of seeing matted blood on his left haunch, like it had been bitten.

Even from a distance, Lidiya could pick up what she didn't yesterday on his scent. His scent was still the heady pine that she could never unsmell.

But there was also blood on it. Like his re-entry into his pack - which she had no idea how - didn't seem to be coming easily. Lidiya's throat involuntary shuddered as another hint of Kodak's blood wafted on the breeze to her, undeniably intertwined with his unmistakable pine scent.

Gosh, she felt like throwing up.

The enormity of the situation wasn't lost on her. A single small-ish female standing at the fringes of Eastern Mountain territory, chasing after what surely was her mother's killer - not for revenge, but... honestly, at this point she had no idea how exactly to express why she was chasing Kodak for.

For closure. That was a good excuse as any.

She was already deep enough, though. She'd pretty much run out here, likely defying an unspoken Alpha Cooper rule, and - ah, screw it. Lidiya just had to know, otherwise she'd... she didn't know what she'd do.

She knew that this was a huge risk. If she was caught - hell, she'd probably be caught after she'd left a scent trail - it was likely enough that she'd be killed on sight. Not to mention Alpha Cooper's wrath for disobeying one of his unspoken orders. Despite all that, quietly - and slower now - she began trailing the scouting expedition.

It was probably a stupid decision - one of the worst she'd decided, probably, and the odds were beyond slim. After all, after she'd followed them to their base camp, what were the odds that she'd be able to catch Kodak, alone? Practically null, but she doggedly kept going on her path anyway. It might lead to her downwfall, but she didn't care about the odds. She didn't care how much it was impossible.

She just had to know.