Zoya was content to just stand looking at Horizon. She considered his questions, fishing for a good, straight, clean answer to give him. “Well . . . my mother is a dethroned queen. She made some choices that weren’t great in the first realm war, out of a feeling of duty and obligation. She lost her throne after the war, because a member of an ally pack saw her family members killed by members of Nightingale, the pack my mother ruled; nobody really likes our family. I’ve always been somewhat afraid to try to join a pack,” she admitted to Horizon. “My full siblings and I were born after the war, yet because of our lineage we aren’t allowed in . . . well . . . I presume most of the packs, actually. Nightingale for sure, and the only packs I really assume would let me in are Amaya, since my mother and adopted sister live there, and Tarben. Sindri might, since I’ve heard their new queen has a good head on her shoulders, and is bound to be less biased than most of Starfall’s other rulers, since she wasn’t here for Phobus’ War and has no relation to any of the other rulers . . . all of this new queen’s family is in Sindri.” Zoya realized she had kind of tangented, and felt heat rush to her face. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to rant so much. Guess I just needed to get it all out . . . it’s been a long time since I spoke to another wolf.”

“We could’ve been anywhere, anywhere else!”