"It's okay," he replies with an awkward shrug. He's still not used to all the kindness he's faced with here, when it was nowhere to be found back home. Saffron has always been kind to him, and the look on her face isn't a pitying one, like he usually gets. It makes him feel like being honest. "It's sort of a long, depressing story. Short version is that my family was killed by hunters when I was a teenager. Only me and my big sister made it out. Then earlier this year, not long before I came to Darrow, she was killed. Now it's just me, so the duty of alpha falls to me. Sort of a heavy burden."

He looks down at his bare toes with a frown for a moment, and then rolls his shoulders back and looks up at her. "Anyway, it's my first Christmas without any of them. Apparently I'm not taking it very well."