"That's where the guilt comes in," Stacia says, accepting the offered canteen. "Because yeah, we'd have gotten hit at some point, right? Ace isn't gonna notice or care if people are talking shit behind his back, so eventually they're gonna escalate to taking swings at the rest of us to make us go away. The rest of 'em can -- could -- take care of themselves in a fight, but I'm the one supposed to be keeping an eye on our butts politically. And Bares and Lilly died, and they carved 'trash' into her body before they left it. The only reason I survived the maiming they did to me was because they wanted Ace to be the one to decide I was too damaged and kill me himself to spare me the misery. Teach him a lesson about elevating people like me. They just didn't count on our connections outside of the werewolf box and our ability and willingness to make use of them. But the end result is that I'm alive and Lilly and Bares and Zelda's baby aren't, and I can't help but feel that I should have been able to see it coming."
She takes a sip from Saturday's canteen, an expression of grim satisfaction in her eyes.
"But yeah, you're right. If you're gonna hammer a nail down, you need to make sure it stays down. Ace can't hold a grudge to save his life, unless the evidence of what went wrong is right in front of him, day in and day out. He went outside the box again to find out who'd done it while I was recovering, and got evidence of not just who'd done it, but what other murderous, shitty things they'd done, and we turned it over to appropriate and very trustworthy authorities."
She shrugs and passes the canteen back. "The leader got executed for his crimes, but not before he and his pack got into an all out brawl that left four of the others dead. The only survivor was their healer, and she got demoted and put under care for deprogramming the shit the rest of the pack taught her. She's young enough that she might recover and learn to be a better person."
Re: cw: murder, miscarriage
"That's where the guilt comes in," Stacia says, accepting the offered canteen. "Because yeah, we'd have gotten hit at some point, right? Ace isn't gonna notice or care if people are talking shit behind his back, so eventually they're gonna escalate to taking swings at the rest of us to make us go away. The rest of 'em can -- could -- take care of themselves in a fight, but I'm the one supposed to be keeping an eye on our butts politically. And Bares and Lilly died, and they carved 'trash' into her body before they left it. The only reason I survived the maiming they did to me was because they wanted Ace to be the one to decide I was too damaged and kill me himself to spare me the misery. Teach him a lesson about elevating people like me. They just didn't count on our connections outside of the werewolf box and our ability and willingness to make use of them. But the end result is that I'm alive and Lilly and Bares and Zelda's baby aren't, and I can't help but feel that I should have been able to see it coming."
She takes a sip from Saturday's canteen, an expression of grim satisfaction in her eyes.
"But yeah, you're right. If you're gonna hammer a nail down, you need to make sure it stays down. Ace can't hold a grudge to save his life, unless the evidence of what went wrong is right in front of him, day in and day out. He went outside the box again to find out who'd done it while I was recovering, and got evidence of not just who'd done it, but what other murderous, shitty things they'd done, and we turned it over to appropriate and very trustworthy authorities."
She shrugs and passes the canteen back. "The leader got executed for his crimes, but not before he and his pack got into an all out brawl that left four of the others dead. The only survivor was their healer, and she got demoted and put under care for deprogramming the shit the rest of the pack taught her. She's young enough that she might recover and learn to be a better person."