The call echoed across the mountains, rolling through stone and pine until it reached him, bringing Hexx to a stop, he listened.

The voice was familiar, though slightly deeper than memory had preserved it. Time had changed it worn away the remnants of youth that lingered still before he'd gone, but recognition came without effort. There were few voices he committed to memory, and fewer still that remained there. His paws shifted beneath him carrying him toward the source with the same steady cadence that marked every step he took.

The forest thinned, and a boy split by gold and night stood against the mountain's stone like a shard of sunlight fallen from the sky. Hexx came to a stop and for several moments, he simply looked.

The last image he carried of Alric belonged to a younger wolf even though it was a few months ago it was one still caught somewhere between childhood and adulthood. The figure before him had shed much of that softness, his frame had lengthened muscle settling naturally beneath his coat, the awkward proportions of adolescence giving way to something more capable. Dust and weather clung to him in subtle ways only another traveler would notice.

And more importantly, he was alive and he was here.

The thought should have brought relief. If it did it failed to reach the surface. Whatever part of him had once known how to express such things had long since gone silent. He acknowledged the fact much as he acknowledged the weather or the terrain beneath his paws. His son was here, and it was enough. So he crossed the final distance between them.

Without ceremony, he rested his forehead briefly against Alric's before withdrawing again. The gesture was instinctive, older than memory, something preserved despite everything else within him having eroded. And something he had done since the boys were very young.

You made it here, he rumbled, his cold silver eyes searching Alric again, for evidence of injury. He was content to find none.

—

Hexx regarded his son in silence after the apology, there was nothing to answer. Alric had arrived and the length of time nonexistent as it was between then and now held little importance. Time had become difficult to measure once every sunrise began looking like the last, he was here and it was sufficient.

His gaze lingered on Alric's features for another moment, he had inherited more than his appearance. There was a familiar stillness about him now, one that had not existed before they were separated. The world had a habit of sanding away youth. Hexx wondered, briefly, what it had demanded in exchange for the man standing before him.

The thought passed.

Facts remained easier to carry than questions, so when Alric asked about the others, Hexx's eyes shifted toward the mountains overlooking Dawnbreak. The pack lay beyond them, quieter than he remembered, though no less alive, Dawnbreak stands, many of them are still here you will get the chance to know them including Tiberii,

Hexx had spent many nights sharing stories about his friend in the early days of their displacement, when his remaining children were still young and she had been the first familiar face to greet him upon returning. It was she who had told him the news that had unsettled the carefully ordered pieces of his mind more than he cared to examine.

Your brother was here, the statement came as evenly as every other. Tiberii saw him, but he left before I arrived. his expression remained unchanged, though his thoughts lingered there for the briefest instant. Alive. That was the only part that mattered. A trail gone cold could become warm again.

The harder truth was regarding their mother, she had not come with them when Mythris faded from view. Hexx had raised three of their children alone, not knowing where his mate or other four were. So when returning, even against Tiberii's words, Hexx searched instinctively for Golde's scent despite already knowing it would not be there.

Nothing.

He had noticed her absence the moment he'd crossed Dawnbreak's borders a week earlier. Every day since, some detached part of him continued checking without instruction, as though repetition alone might change reality.

It didn't.

Your mother isn't here, neither are your other siblings The words felt no different leaving his mouth than any others — inside however, the absence remained. Another empty place to account for whenever he looked toward home.

—