Stroud was never told where he was snatched up from or who it was that spawned him, the bandits that stole him didn't tell him much other than to start hunting as soon as he shed his milk teeth. Life in their group was routine, but brutal and unforgiving - Stroud had to follow a strict regimen if he didn't want to add another bruise to his back. There were many other pups in the group that were stolen to be forced feed the thieves, many of them too weak to cut it in that environment and subsequently dying. However, one pup stood out from the rest, a boy that was strong and hearty and an absolutely immovable object from even his youngest, Malcolm Thorne.

For their first few months, Stroud and Malcolm competed ruthlessly to get a better cut than the other, until an incident where Malcolm was under the threat of punishment for not scrounging up enough to eat in the dead of winter forced Stroud to jump to his aid. The winter was hard, Stroud reasoned, not a lot of prey to be found, even for him. That seemed to convince them, and Malcolm was eternally grateful, changing his mind about the other boy.

After that incident, the two were inseparable, and Stroud has never known another wolf that he would gladly lay down his life for. Despite barely scraping by in their teens with meager rations and gruesome work, the two bulked up by the time they reached adulthood and lost their patience for the bandits - who foolishly trusted them and invited them to raid another pack. Instead, Stroud and Malcolm used this small window of opportunity to overthrow them and make them regret loosening the chains. They freed any enslaved pups and parted ways before the rest of the group came to tear them apart - but promised if they ever crossed paths again, they would stick together. They're brothers after all.

Stroud hasn't seen Malcolm in years, and has kept to himself, employing the skills he was forced to learn as a pup to survive out in the wild. He hopes to find his friend again, and often wonders how he's doing - if he's got a lady with pups of his own now or if he's even still alive.