It was like all the color had be sucked out of the world. The sky was less blue, the flowers which bloomed along the dunes less brightly colored, even the sound of the waves that was once so soothing to him grated against his very soul. Today, like most days, he lay tucked into his lonely den, head resting on his slender paws that just barely touched the light that streamed in from the outside. A loud huff left him followed by a long, drawn out grumble as he flopped to his side. Even Sinclair had left the beaches and though he had invited his brother to come along with him and his mate Ryker couldn’t quite stomach the idea of seeing someone who was so happy in love all the time. God knows just thinking about it made him think of her.

He shut his dark eyes tight at the thought, raising two gray paws to cover his nose as if he could hide from the very idea of her. Even now she invaded his senses and made him ache with a longing he didn’t know was possible. He could smell the sun on her pine-scented fur, feel the softness of her cheek, hear the tinkling sound of her laugh. He should move on, he should try and put her behind him, but that was the very reason he stayed. He had invited her to Glorall, to see the home he had loved almost as much as her and yet that day when he let her on the border of Taviora she had never come back to see the ocean… to see him. He still felt the pain of it like it was yesterday, the tears beginning to prick at the back of his eyes even now as he searched desperately for the bond that connected them. He would give anything to feel that pull again, but as hard as he reached for it she simply wasn’t there anymore.

With a low growl he rose quickly to his feet, padding quickly out into the sunlight and toward the shore. The ocean had always been a calming place for him and he searched desperately for that now. After walking along the water’s edge for only a short while he finally say, head lowered as he closed his deep blue eyes once more. The warm sunlight glinted of the red and black furs that spotted his otherwise monotone coat, the gulls cawed overhead, the wind rustled the sea grass, but all he heard was the ocean waves crashing upon the shore. Ebb, flow, inhale, exhale, in out all seemingly in time to the rhythm of his heart. Perhaps if he could find his serenity here he could begin to put himself together again.