Stoic eyes lingered, steadfast upon the wolf who sat before me. The continuous itch of recognition bothered at the back of my mind, but I was certain I had never looked upon this wolf before. Not to my memory. It was his scent that smelled familiar, some trace evidence of who he was buried deep beneath the foreign scents of the world beyond Moladion. My nostrils flared, taking in his scent again and again, trying to figure out what it was about him that felt so familiar. He smelled almost like Sleekwing, some touch of his cologne complimenting that of my brother. The whole situation frustrated me, but I did not let that read across my façade. I questioned him, and he looked back at me with dark, brooding, silent eyes. For a moment the silence lingered between us, and then he spoke of a mother whom he sought. Perhaps she had lived here beneath my mother’s reign, before I had been born.

His eyes shifted, aligning with mine entirely and suddenly I noticed the flecks of blue and lavender. So like my father’s eyes. And then the words came that had been the last thing I had been expecting. The first betrayal of my calm demeanor was my lips parting to create a soft ‘o’ shape. Could it possibly be? Growing up, I had had three siblings who were there for me always, and only one of them was blood. My elder brother Sleekwing had been a steadfast presence in my raising. Though I had been the only pup in my litter, I had been raised side by side with my adoptive brother Taliesin, and my year-older adoptive sister Ceal. We had a strange little family, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. The only changes I would have made, was to have been able to include the presence of my mother and other blood siblings in those cherished memories. I’d heard much about my sister Orca, a girl with a gypsy soul. And these past years had blessed me with the opportunity to get to know her better. But my other brother, I had never known. He had lingered around the pack lands for some time after I was born, but never had we greeted one another as siblings, or so much as spoke a word. I didn’t even know what he looked like.

Now it made sense, the familiarity of his scent. It was all I had ever known of my elder brother. My brows furrowed slightly, before lifting again with the inquiry of, “Swallowbane?” even though I knew that was exactly who sat before me. Many times over the years I had asked my father and brother about him. Alcide had typically changed the subject, a tender one that pained him and so he avoided. Sleekwing had told me the basics, his coloration and about his imprint and family. The thought flashed me back to a time that I had played with Ramiel at the foot of the mountain, and I pined for my cousin’s presence. A flood of emotions washed over me, but I closed my mouth, holding back. The other detail Sleekwing had told me of our brother was how incredibly close he had been with MoonGlow. And part of me envied him for that. The other part pitied him for what I was about to be forced to tell him.

“There’s no easy way to tell you this. MoonGlow’s dead; killed in combat defending the mountain.” Despite knowing their relationship had been strained, I felt it only fair to my father’s memory to speak of him as well. Alcide had been his father too, regardless of how dysfunctional it had been. “The imprint bond took its toll. Alcide died with her, their bodies were entwined.” I blinked, never moving my eyes from him, wondering how he would handle such news as this upon his return to the place that had once been his home. “There is a tomb; they were never moved from the place where they passed.” I had no idea if he would want to know where it was, but I would show him or tell him if that was what he wanted. Swallowbane might have been blood to me, but he was as far from being a true brother to me as a wolf could get. I had never known what it was he had detested about me so much from the moment of my birth, but some scars could not be covered by the simple shifting of fur.