“Maybe,” Cooper said gently, because what else could you say? Park and his siblings had spent years thinking their parents, Daisy and Benjamin, were dead, only to find out they’d been lied to. That their parents had left them when they had gotten even more involved in the Wolf Independence Party, those fighting for the end of the powerful established packs like the Parks’. Whether they had left to protect them or just because they couldn’t afford the liability of carting around six children while on the run was unclear. But it was only six years ago, when Park’s father had been murdered, that he and his siblings had learned the truth.

In a strange way, it was the only reason Cooper and Park had even met. It was the catalyst for Park leaving his family pack entirely, for him giving up his life as a professor and joining the Trust in exchange for Cola’s help in tracking down Daisy’s contact information. She’d also been the one to tell Park how his father had really died. One of the members of their small WIP faction at the time had betrayed their group, resulting in an explosion that had killed many, including Benjamin and, ironically, the man who had sold them out. By sheer luck, Daisy had escaped, but still had no interest in reaching out to any of her children. If tragedy hadn’t done it, Cooper doubted an email informing her of some silly, human ritual would.

“You think I’m being delusional,” Park noted, studying him.

“I didn’t say that,” Cooper said. “I’m just...not sure what makes you think this is from her.”

Park nodded. “That’s fair. But there’s an old story she used to tell us growing up. The Moon and the last abstersion of wolves. One of the lines in that was fallen flowers that could never again stand proud in the sun.”

“We were definitely hanging out in different sections at the children’s library,” Cooper said.

“It’s a wolf folktale. All about the irredeemably bad, flowers who couldn’t return to the light, and how one day the Moon would step out of the sky and punish the wolves who had hurt their packs for personal gain, thus restoring balance.” Park shrugged. “It sounds a lot less dark when you’re a kid.”

“Does it?” Cooper asked skeptically.

“Sure. All you had to do was make sure you never ever hurt the people you loved most in the world and you’d be safe. Easy peasy,” Park smiled wryly. “Anyway, it was just the usual fear-based mythos used to regulate any community behavior, but the heads of flowers is heavily associated with that story and the card mentions the moon.”

“And Daisy sent this in order to say...what, exactly?” Cooper asked, and immediately regretted it when Park’s face flickered with pain and he looked down, hiding his expression.