BlueClaw laughed softly. "So it seems."
"For once, why don't you just come at it straight and say what's on your mind?"
"You are such an alpha!" Stalkson had no reaction to that whatsoever. "Okay. I'll try."
"Go for it."
"I liked my wife. We lived together for nearly forty years before she passed over. We had a nice life, a nice partnership, a nice mutual understanding." When BlueClaw paused, Stalkson encouraged him to continue with a crisp nod. "The key word there is nice."
"Well... that's nice."
"Funny."
"I thought so. Look, I'm not being dismissive, exactly, I just don't see the problem. Do you regret having a nice relationship with your wife?"
"No. What I regret is that I didn't find that woman."
Stalkson looked confused. "What woman?"
"You know. That woman. The one who stirs the kind of passion that would make you run into the fire for her."
The fire drew Stalkson's gaze. "Why would you want a relationship with a woman who would ask you to run into fire? And what a waste of time it would be to consider such a silly proposition."
BlueClaw stared at him. "I don't think I ever realized before just how literal you are."
"Okay."
"I would have liked to have experienced love that was so powerful it was all-consuming. It's the one thing I'll be sorry to have missed. I think I would trade everything else to have had that."
The werewolf stared at the old ShuShu for a few seconds then threw his head back and laughed hard and deep. It was good. It was purging. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed like that.
"BlueClaw. You're a powerful man. Everyone in your tribe envies you, wants to be you, and you... what? Wish you had thrown all that away for an idea that's very likely a myth?"
BlueClaw just smiled and sighed. "It gives me peace to know I told you."
Stalkson snorted and stood to leave. "Peace, huh? Next time you call me you'd better have something real to say."
"Well, what do I know? I'm just an old man."
"Yeah? You keep saying that, but you talk more like an old woman."
BlueClaw smiled wider. "Word to the wise."
"Right now I'm thinking you wouldn't know wise if it bit you in the ass."
Stalkson collapsed into his wolf form with an economy of energy and motion. He looked at the gray-haired figure sitting on the ground, shook his head, and sneezed once before he turned and trotted away.
After a few minutes he was again standing near the drop off to the lake below. His massive wolf chest heaved a big sigh and he resumed trotting along the ridge. Every heart in the tribe, from youngest to oldest, looked to him for answers. He was supposed to lead the way, supposed to know the way to lead. The position of alpha didn't come with a shroud of sagacity. It meant strength and will and fearlessness, not wisdom. He was failing the people who depended on him. He saw it in the eyes of every young blood, that unmistakable look of emptiness and longing that showed in the expression of a werewolf without a mate. Hopelessness was hard to look at.
They were going to die off and it seemed there was nothing he could do about it. No enemy to kill. No threat to scare away. The keyword was no. As he trotted along the ridgeline path that word rang in his mind over and over, increasing in volume. No. No. No. Until finally it rang out loud and true and clear. No! I will not accept this!
If the purported miracle worker, Monq, would not come to Elk Mountain, the king of Elk Mountain would go to Monq.
***
Chapter 4
Ram and Elora had left a trail of "firsts" in the wake of their turbulent and torrid relationship. For the most part, they took pioneering in stride. So becoming the first family to be quartered in a Black Swan Unit with an active Hunters Division didn't seem all that out of the ordinary - for them. Possibly because, until fairly recently, they had been hunters themselves.