It had only been a couple of days since Theta had been uprooted and moved up to the North, she wasn’t liking it anymore than she had been on the way here. Still hated it and didn’t understand why any of this was happening nor why her opinion didn’t seem to count in any of this. Theta was always highly opinionated and none of the current situation was helping. She was highly inclined to go run away somewhere where her opinion did count. It had to count somewhere out there right? Somebody was bound to listen, she just had to find the right person.

Tyranis moved through the pines with a white rabbit, freshly killed, in his jaws moving toward his and Paradise’s den. It was mere luck that he stumbled upon his older daughter, brooding heatedly as she had been since he moved the family up north. He placed the rabbit down in front of her and laid on his stomach to make eye contact with her. “Hungry?” He asked almost rhetorically, the small nub of his tail shaking slightly in a pseudo wag. He supposed she was old enough now to comprehend all that had happened between him and Erövrare, and why he had chosen to give up the pack and live with his uncle. "Talk"  Thought "You"

Theta’s head lifted as the smell of dead rabbit drifted through the air. She hadn’t been making much of an effort to go hunt for food herself, in favor of avoiding as many wolves as she could. As her father laid the rabbit down in front of her she gladly started eating it. He laid down in front of her which confused her a bit. Her dad clearly wanted to talk to her about something, what in specific she wasn’t sure yet. Theta wasn’t positive that she would feel comfortable if he started talking to her about her mood as of late, she wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Looking at her father she said “You didn’t just find me to deliver food did you?”

He couldn’t help but smile at his daughter’s accusation, far too proud of her spirit to take her seriously. “No.” He responded unable to help the small lit of paternal cheer that trailed on his voice. “I wanted to speak to you of course.” His phantom tail flicked from side to side, reflected in the small shake his docked tail made as he laid in front of his daughter.

“You’ve been unhappy since we came here.” He answered without waiting for her to reply to his previous statement. “Would you like to tell me why?” He cocked his head playfully, his large white tipped ears flopping against his skull slightly as he waited for her to respond.

speech Thought

Her father got straight to the questions; of course, she didn’t figure he was one to beat around the bush. There were multiple reasons she was unhappy here, she didn’t see much reason to keep any of it from her father. Theta would gladly complain to anyone anyways, complaining seemed to make things easier somehow. “It’s too cold up here, It’s not home, you’re not an alpha anymore, no-one here is worth talking to, those new pups are annoying me with their existence, and I hate it!” As Theta listed her grievances her words steadily got louder, faster, and more filled with spite. “I hate it, and I wanna leave so there’s no more cold and no more new pups and life can be normal again.” In the process of speaking Theta had lifted her head and now she thumped it back onto the ground before violently driving it into the ground. Her life sucked and saying it all out loud just made it more real.

He smiled at her wanly his mind turning over the puzzle of dealing with his unhappy cub as she seared with fresh aches from his abdication. He thought of how his own father would deal with her and felt a chill climb up his spine that he refused to show. Then he thought of Bass and how he would have handled the situation, or how he believed he would based on the short time he had known him. Finally he settled on how he would address the issue had he been in her position and decided on an answer. “Well…You’re not wrong, it is cold.” He conceded “But you know…the thing about the cold is, it makes your fur nice and thick. It makes it harder for your enemies to get at your flesh.” He said and raised a paw to jab lightly at her ribs hoping to tickle her. “And your-“ He cleared his throat then. “My new pups…They’re younger than you, they’ll look up to you and expect you to be strong so they can try to be as strong as you.” He explained. “Being an alpha is about more than pushing people around and making them do what you say; an alpha is only as strong as their weakest member, and I had forgotten that while I was alpha. In fact I wasn’t a very good alpha at all.” He admitted his tone suddenly serious. “I defended my title twice but when I needed to fight I couldn’t, and I ended up losing you and your siblings.” He paused then, letting her absorb his softly spoken words. “I stopped being an alpha because being an alpha wasn’t the most important thing in the world to me anymore; you were, you and your brothers and your sister.” He refused to admit then how he had lost Tythe, his golden gift, stolen by Leera in the dead of night just before he was to reclaim them. He had bared enough of his wounds to her, she didn’t need to know the burden he carried at the loss of his son. He moved, reaching out, hoping to hold her and pull her tight against his chest in a warm embrace "And here? I can protect you without worrying about anyone trying to take you away, because your aunt, and your uncle, and your great uncle will never let that happen to you again, because they love you too" Speaking Thinking You