Midnight Chardonnay

she is seperate.

she should not be, she doesn’t think.  this is her pack — more than that, she will lead these wolves, someday.  someday soon.  but that very thought keeps her distant.

you cannot care for just one, a voice like her mentor’s reminds her.  you must care for the whole.

and she’s going to.

but she watches her brother get himself a wife, and she aches.

she sees her parents have two more litters, each with a blessed pup in their numbers, and can’t brinf herself to help take care of them or play with them or even get to know them.  she knows their names, knows what they look like, and that is all.

she watches her brother and his wife have pups.  none in their litter are blessed enough to stay, and she only ever sees them when she brings them meals.  she never lingers.

this is her pack.  her blood runs through it.  wolves that could be her friends are all around her.

but the responsibility weighs too heavy on her, and it doesn’t feel like a pack at all.