I had never cared whether other people liked me or not before.
I didn’t see the point in trying to please women like Gaella, because none of the women in my pack saw me as an equal. I wasn’t concerned by the fact they didn’t like me, because it wasn’t important to me - as long as I was safe, I didn’t need them to like me.
The way Luc ran his pack meant that most of the men I lived with barely registered I was even there. I had managed to impress Teo enough that he taught me to use the bow I had worked for, but he was never a friend and none of the other men thought I was worth paying any attention to.
I had spent far longer than I realized living alone, even though I was around other people. I lived alongside that pack rather than truly being a member of their ranks, and I hadn’t real
