I knew I was heading off for a challenge, but honestly, it felt more like marching off to a funeral. Either Ferr's… or mine.
Though I kept trying to shake that thought off, it kept plaguing me until I gave up on preparing and decided I'd waited long enough. I hadn't been able to relax since the fight with Cean, anyway. The things he said still tore away at me. Ripping at the foundations of everything they had ever taught me in the pack, about who could love who, which members of the pack were the protectors and which were the ones that sat home.
And yet, the thing that stuck with me, the one that kept ringing in my ears, was him saying that if I didn't mate with him right then, I never would. He didn't trust me at all. Either that, or I had made him hate me, made him stop loving me. And since my only other lover had tossed me out of my pack… well. Death by Ferr would be a lot easier than what I would feel if that happened again.