His pain was almost too much for her to bear, and she had made her mind up. But, she could not think about this right now. She could not dwell on what she would have to do if she wanted her dream to come true. Riopat curls closer to him as he chokes out his apology, making Riopat growl a warning at him.

"I will not hear such things. You are right, you are so right about you being not right it is astounding."

She gives a dramatic pause, pulling her head from beneath his chin so she could meet the bright suns of his eyes with the endless dark galaxy of her own.

"You are perfect to me, Bird. Every bit of you. And if you believe any less of yourself, stop it. Medical mysteries and all, believe you are perfect to me, no one else and nothing else matters."

After she states her feelings on the matter, Riopat lays her head back against the hollow in his throat made especially for her skull, her mind working overtime on how she can get what she wants with the least possible pain to her existing life? Always, she has wanted to see what Fate had to offer her, what the fabled gods had imagined as her perfect mate. She can feel the pieces of her soul knitting back together as his head once more covers hers, something she had thought lost long ago, she has suddenly found again. How could she say no to the one wolf who could not say no to her? How could she walk away from a wolf so perfectly made for her that she would consider doing to them what had been done to her by them?

The answer? Riopat already knew what she would do, she was not going to be returning to Glorall. It was her turn to do the leaving, and no one else would get the privilege of hurting her like that again. He gave her this, this burgeoning sense of hope, that she could have a full life and not concern herself with if her mate is seeing his imprint for winter, or if he even existed outside her memory at all. Was she in love with a ghost? Had she made ghost children? Novel and Rune she had only seen in passing, Mortz she very rarely saw. Tesseract had fled to somewhere, and he was her only remaining friend aside from her mate. Even her leader had left her behind and in the grip of someone with a dark aura about him. Riopat would stay no longer.

"Fly away with me, Bird."

She says at last, after a long pause.

"I will run and never look back, I cannot go back. Too many ghosts."

That deep sorrow comes crashing back in even as a fear of rejection sinks into her heart. What if he said no?