"Just forgive her, okay?" Ron said to Annie.

The wolf hag waited for her pack to finish dismantling a training course. She ran her soldiers on it all night, ensuring that the movements of the pack's newest members became nearly automatic, forcing individualists like Carty to rely on weaker members of the pack to handle assigned tasks rather than trying to do everything themselves. When Dragena was around, such things were simple, the wolfkins followed her orders naturally. Annie, however, still struggled with it, yet thanks to the advice and guidance of Kayleen, her pack now resembled a proper combat-ready unit. No one was forgetting to reload shardguns anymore, the power armors of the entire pack was in top condition, in no small thanks to Lucendra’s care. The shamans grumbled about allowing the regular warrior to treat the gear of other wolfkins, yet Annie received permission from Dragena herself for Lucendra to continue her education as an engineer.

The wolf hag held a terminal in her paw, looking at Ron’s image on a display. Several months had passed since the Gathering and tensions between the Resistance and the Reclamation Army were growing with each passing day. The Dynast was losing patience, he made an outright ultimatum, demanding the presence of Huntsman and an explanation as to what sort of connections the Resistance had with the arena. King refused to even humor these accusations.

"She is already forgiven. I told her this much right away, after…," Annie hesitated, unsure if this was fine to reveal the information, "You know what happened, right?"

Some changes happened after the Gathering. The reporters had to blur the images of Lacerated One during the TV show due to just how horrible her wounds were to the naked eye. The commander had quite enough of her antics at this point, personally banning self-flagellation in the tribe at the behest of Ieshua. Wyrm Lord offered to take any challenges, yet all warlords were wise enough not to stand up to a being like him. Everyone expected that Wyrm Lord would continue pushing changes on the Wolf Tribe, yet their liege went quiet all of a sudden, reinforcing the views about his cowardly nature among some members.

Lacerated One temporarily stepped down as a shaman, unable to perform her duties without being able to spread her blessed blood around. The shamans also discovered her involvement with the Crippled, she was the one who listened to the plan of the male Crippled and prompted him to ask for permission to work. Then she strongarmed other shamans to support this idea. With this, and with her handling of the situation with Alpha, the other shamans declared that Lacerated One was becoming too close to an actual tyrant. The shaman agreed. She took a name and left to help the Crippled change their homes around the villages. In her absence, the tribe was led by a younger generation of shamans who were far more obsessed with upholding the ancient laws and traditions and far less willing to compromise. Dragena told Annie and others not to worry. In time, they too will mellow out and become the proper leaders.

The cubs of the Crippled enlisted in the military in mass, and were sent off to serve in Ygrite’s pack. With the warlord still in the Core Lands, her pack became a reserve pack, one that was meant to guard the villages in the Wastes, perfectly suited to train so many newcomers.

Virginia was still a problem. She challenged Annie several times, each fight ending with them both being bruised. Both wolf hags were wise enough not to cause serious harm to each other, yet Svetka was still mad at both of them. Virginia tried to reason with Annie, but she left in silence after each sparring match, unwilling to share more than a few words with this traitor. Still, to calm her nerves, Annie asked Svetka to keep an eye on Virginia for her. Svetka applied for field duty as part of a new program, meant to provide trained medical personnel for the wolfkin packs in the field. Due to the strain on their physiques, the normies could hardly keep up with the wolfkins in the field, so a group of medics from the number of new breeds was in training. Annie begged first Dragena, then Scorpio himself, asking them to reject this request of her sister. Both refused her, but the captain told Annie that he will assign Svetka to the pack that will never challenge her for domination.

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Zero tried to contact Annie, and, with permission from Dragena, Annie refused all calls from her former warlord. She wanted nothing to do with her anymore. Dragena rejoined the military, persuading her husband to take a paid leave and look after the cubs in her absence.

"Alpha spoke long and hard with Zero and shared information with us. Yes, I know," Ron nodded, "You also know what I mean. Annie, it wasn’t her fault. Alpha drills these reflexes into us. We are trained to respond with lethal force against a potentially lethal force. Because Wildling was used as a pawn by Zero because she was confused and afraid, her instincts took over mid-fight. I know it sounds ridiculous, but she did not mean to hurt you!"

"Ron, I seriously do not care. Friends don’t try to kill each other." Annie responded in a tired voice.

"Annie… She is constantly asking us how to apologize properly. She is started to walk on four legs again and is mangling words! It’s been two years since the last time that Rabbit ever was in such state!"

"Seems like, as her friends, you should take better care of Virginia instead of wasting time speaking with me." Annie noted, "You can start by calling her by her name. Just an advice."

"Annie. What if she makes some mistake because her mind is in turmoil? Could you live with this?" Ron asked with a serious face.

"Don’t ever try to pin this duty on me, Ron," Annie responded in an icy tone, feeling anger within, "She has the trust of Zero. She has her natural talent. She is the golden cub of the three warlords. For the sake of the Spirits, she has your support, support of Blaze, the support of the entire Omega team and her pack and Alpha team… Don’t you think it is enough for one golden girl? When will I… I refuse to lie to Virginia as Zero lied to me," Annie felt silent, clenching her fangs and feeling new ones that were growing to replace the ones that Virginia broke with her kick. Annie looked aside, briefly closing her eyes. She was envious of Virginia and angry at the fact that a person whom she had started to consider as a friend tried to kill her.

"Annie, you are being spiteful."

"Well, forgive me for being a spiteful bitch after surviving an assassination attempt," Annie said, forcing herself to admit the truth. She was being vengeful and spiteful. And envious. Virginia had better potential than Annie, Annie was meant to be a sacrificial lamb to prompt up Virginia. Virginia, Virginia, always Virginia. Never me. Annie blinked, forcing envy to go away. Yes, she was worse as a person and as a fighter. She can live with this. She had to, for the sake of her pack and her sister, "Listen, tell her that the fault lies with me too, ok? I don’t know why, but I just don’t trust her. Also, tell her the truth, tell her that I am jealous of her. Jealous of her power, of her talent, and... To be honest, she is a better person and leader than I. Her pack is stronger than mine. Maybe the truth will help Virginia to move on to better things than wasting time on me."

"Annie…"

"Later, Ron. I have work to do." Annie said and cut off communication.

She looked at the night sky briefly, before walking toward her pack. Nodding to Carty, who was busy checking that everyone was healthy, Annie decided that she had made plenty of mistakes. Upon slapping Ultis on the shoulder to stop her from taking apart the training drone, Annie understood that this no longer bothered her as hard as she was afraid it was. Helping Lucendra to put training dummies into the back of the truck, Annie understood that her focus, her drive to become stronger, was burning within her body. Giving command to Kayleen to assemble the pack, Annie decided to let go of her fear for a short while. She jumped on the truck, turning to face her entire pack and spreading her arms wide:

"All of you! I don’t care what sort of tricks you use, what sort of traps, cheap shots and clever moves. Train hard, be better and beat me up. That’s an order, surpass me, leave my bloody form in the dirt and fly, fly to the future that awaits you! I am above you all, but guess what, today is not tomorrow!" Annie allowed a smile to appear on her face while she was addressing her pack, "Better yourself and break me down! Make my pack your own pack! Male or female, I care not! By breaking each other and rising up again and again, we will become closer to perfection! By toughing through everything that life will throw at us, we will become the perfect protectors of order and peace!"

The pack cheered, and Annie jumped down, her arms still spread wide:

"And now, time for a motivation. One after another, at me!"

Annie still smiled, throwing Ultis aside, beating down Kayleen’s kick and slamming an elbow underneath Carty’s jaw. They timed their advance perfectly, but what good was it when they could not even react to her movements? Oh, well, gotta make them sweat. The life still goes on. Lying down won’t solve anything. The Spirits let her live for a reason. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, one day Annie will become as strong as Virginia.

Or as good as Svetlana.