Having his pack dissolve and home be uprooted wasn't exactly an experience he was unfamiliar with, but it most definitely wasn't an experience he ever thought he would have again. Over the last year and some odd months Fenmyre had become more of his home than Incindium ever had so the fact that the pack as he knew it was gone was a hard pill to swallow. Unlike when his father failed them though he didn't hold any ill will toward the black and white brute. There had been notice, there had been a offer to go with him and his family, there had been an understandable reason. Still, it didn't mean that there wasn't some kind of disappointment in the aftermath of it. He had considered taking Chimera up on his offer and stay with him and his family as they traveled to find a more suitable place to allow the former King to heal, especially since he didn't really know where else he would go, but in the end he hadn't. He wasn't sure why, but he had chosen to stay in Auster instead.

After a couple of weeks of living on the island on his own, attempting to continue using his familiar bungalow as his home, the loneliness finally got to him and he packed up what few things he had and crossed over the ferry for the last time. He still didn't know exactly where he was going, but he knew he had to go somewhere. As he thought about his next move the only thing he could think to do was find Satira. The only wolves that he knew for sure were still in Boreas that he knew were her, his father, and Onyx and only one of them he felt confident about going to without risk of being killed. The last time he saw her he vaguely remembered her mentioning where he could find the pack she was staying in—though in all honesty his memory of the day she had come to his rescue was a little foggy. After she gave him the drugs that had helped manage his pain his memory had gotten a bit fuzzy so he couldn't really even remember the details of what had happened after that, but he more or less remembered the direction she told him to go so with a lack of options he made his way north.

After about a day of travel he landed by the hot springs just as the sun was beginning to inch toward the horizon. There was probably a couple more hours left of daylight, but he had already traveled a long way so it seemed like as good of a place as any to stop for the night. Tine flopped under a near by tree after he had shrugged off the small pack that held most of Ciná's meager supplies and Gual landed on one of the branches above to settle in for the evening. Ciná sighed and pulled off his armor, setting it down beside the pack before sitting back on his haunches. All he could really hope for now was that Tira would actually want to see him again. If not he wasn't really sure what his next move would be.

Cináed

This damned heat was going to be the death of her, of that she was certain. The constant, gnawing ache inside of her kept her up at night, ruined her appetite, made it difficult to focus on any daily tasks. It might have been more useful to just finish her off mercifully and spare her this incessant irritation. Bury her beside the falls with an epitaph that read "Here lies Satira Fatalis. She couldn't take the heat." Grumbling to herself with frustrated groans and sighs, the little wolf dog headed down from her den at the Sunset Falls to the neighboring hot springs, a little bottle of her favorite scented oil clutched in her mouth. She'd done everything in her power to try and stem the sensations that were driving her mad, mixing up any number of herbal remedies her mother recommended or that she learned from experience, but nothing seemed to help cool her off. Gods, if she'd known her second birthday was going to bring this about with it... Who knew the first heat would be suuuuper hard?

The stink of sulphur in the air was the first tip off that she was getting closer to the hot springs. She had never been here before, but every wolf she'd spoken to had highly recommended it for soothing the body of aches and ailments. While not a sickness she could heal, the little hybrid only hoped that it would bring her some relief, at least enough to get back to feeling like normal again. Settling into her new pack and home had been challenging enough after living in wild lands for so long, but now this too? Ugh... Trotting briskly through the forest, she arrived through the tree line to the open space of large steaming pools of water. The air around them was humid in the late summer afternoon, but oh so welcoming to the newcomer. Satira's fluffy tail gave an excited wag; already she liked the looks of this place, and having it so close to home made it all the better!

After wandering through the pools to find one appropriately deep with a ledge along the side to allow her to bathe her petite body without the fear of drowning, Tira climbed over the stony lip and dipped her body into the hot water. Immediately the warmth seeped into her muscles and bones, and an overwhelming sensation of relief and relaxation washed over her. Tira breathed a content sigh, a happy grin stretching across her muzzle as she practically melted into the water, setting the bottle of body oil off to the side while she simply enjoyed the hot water soaking into her fur and skin. Oh gods, it was so good! Tira slumped back against the wall of the natural tub, releasing another heavy sigh while she just soaked, pale blue eyes slowly drifting closed as she sank into total relaxation. It wasn't a total cure all, but man was it helping!  

"Satira"

While he was resting under the tree that had been his landing spot for the time being, he just let his golden gaze roam over the hot springs ahead of him curiously. The mist and steam clouded his view quiet a bit, but he could make out shapes of trees on the other side and the edges of the pools themselves. For a little while there didn't seem to be anything happening and he very nearly started to drift off into a nap while he relaxed, but movement through the mist caught his attention and pulled him awake again. He couldn't really see specific details from where he was, but the figure was notably small. With the scent that the hot springs gave off it was hard to catch their scent immediately, at least not until they drew a bit closer to where he was laying and right about the time he noticed the lack of pointed ear tips on the canine figure was when he caught her scent. His head popped up with surprise as he realized it was Tira—only to catch the fact that her scent was slightly different than he remembered it. He didn't know a ton about a female's heat and things like that, but he knew that it happened and how it changed their scent.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was going to make this reunion more or less complicated or awkward. He didn't want her to think he was only coming over to her because she was in heat since that definitely wasn't why he was here, but at the same time some instinctual part of him very much wanted to go over to her now that he knew this was something that was going on. He wrestled with himself for a moment before finally forcing himself to get up, giving a quick command to his companions to stay here with his stuff as he stepped through the steamy mist to go over to the pool he had seen Tira step into. He reminded himself as he went of why he was here in the first place and definitely tried to not think about what he might have said or done when he was under the influence of the drugs she had given him the last time they were together.

He padded over to the edge of the pool, finding Tira reclined back in the steaming water with her eyes closed. At the very least the scent of her heat was mostly hidden under the water so he didn't necessarily have a risk of being turned into a single minded idiot—at least not right away. "Tira," he said with a little bit of a lopsided smile as he approached her, standing on the edge of the pool where she was relaxing. "Seems like you're enjoying yourself out here," he joked a bit with a little chuckle, falling more easily into his usual teasing, more confident demeanor as he avoided the unfortunate circumstances that had brought him here for now since this was more comfortable. He dipped a paw into the warm water and hummed as he enjoyed the warmth around his toes. "Ah, I can see why. It feels great." A sly grin tugged at his lips as he glanced toward her and added, "Not as good as you, but pretty good."

Cináed

Satira had been so close to drifting off into a little nap as she relaxed, practically weightless and suspended by the steamy water of the natural hot springs. Everything was calm, tranquil, peaceful... Even the aggravating clenching and gnawing need inside of her was starting to gradually fade away. That is, it had been until she heard someone call her name. A familiar sounding someone call her name. Pale blue eyes snapped open in an instant, and the wolf-dog quickly spun around to right herself in the water with a splash. She gazed up at the towering red and black form of Cináed looming over her from the edge of the pool of hot water, grinning down at her with that dopey crooked smile of his. For a moment, Tira just stared up at him, dumbstruck by his appearance. But while her brain struggled to catch up to reality, her body was already making its cravings known again while her gaze roamed entirely involuntarily over his broad chest, his chiseled features...

"Ciná..." she replied back after she'd gotten her wits about her again, swallowing thickly past the lump that was forming in her dry throat. "What are you doing all the way up here?" She knew his pack resided down in Auster. What could have compelled the wolf to traverse an entire continent just to wind up here? Her eyes followed his movements while he dipped a couple of toes into the hot water and commented on how good the heat felt—then added in a lecherous little remark about how good she felt. Yep, there went that ravenous need again making her belly ache. Tira bit her lip subtly, tiny speckled paws rising from the water to rest on the edge of the pool while she floated there, just gazing up into his sulfuric yellow eyes.

"I suppose that's the highest form of flattery coming from you," she quipped back, doing her best not to let it show just how much his presence alone was exacerbating the war within herself between instincts and self-control. "Is that why you're up in Boreas, miles away from your pack? To try and get lucky with me again? What, none of the other ladies down south fawning over your 'charms'? Or are you looking for a checkup on your tail?" She tilted her head to the side to peer past his hips to his back end, totally not checking out his ass while she observed the tail still hanging where it should be. "I see it's still attached, which means I can officially say 'you're welcome' now."

"Satira"

Ciná didn't respond right away when Tira began to question why he was here. It was a harder question to answer than he had really anticipated and instead focused on her and the water and anything that wasn't the fact that he yet again found himself homeless. He didn't think too much of the stunned expression that she wore as she spun around the face him, figuring it was just because she hadn't expected him to be in Boreas which by all accounts was a valid thought. He certainly wouldn't have come back to Boreas unless he had a good reason to do so. He smirked a bit when she quipped back at his comment about how good she felt and how that was his highest form of flattery. He did love their banter and the teasing they gave each other. Then the attention turned back again to why he was here, questioning if his whole reason for finding her was to get lucky again or to get a check up on his tail.

"I do owe you a 'thank you' for the tail, so... thank you." he replied with a soft chuckle, his tail wagging gently to show it was indeed still attached and functional. He honestly couldn't remember if he had thanked her before or not in his drugged up state so it didn't hurt to cover his bases. That really only left his reason for being here in question and his expression sobered up a bit as his ears flicked uncomfortably. "I wish I was here just to sleep with you again," he muttered with a slight scoff, sighing softly as he settled onto his haunches at the edge of the pool. "I, um... Fenmyre is gone," he finally admitted. "The alpha is sick and he went away to find somewhere he could recover and took his family with him so... The pack dissolved." He glanced away with a dismissive shrug, a frown tugging at his lips.

"I feel like it's strange for something like this to happen to someone twice," he added absently after a moment, his voice kind of distant and his brows furrowing. "The first time it was simply because my father was an idiot, but... I guess I never expected this from Chimera." Ciná sighed again and gave a small shake of his head before finally bringing his golden gaze back down to Tira where she was floating in the water in front of him. "Anyway... I, uh... Since I wasn't sure where else to go I thought I might come find you and see if you... and maybe see if you wanted to take in a homeless wanderer." He shrugged nonchalantly, trying his best to play off his own emotions and how much he actually wanted something good to work out in his life for once. He tried to pull a slightly cocky grin onto his lips as he added, "Only if you could handle me living around you all the time, of course."

Cináed

Cináed's demonstration of his functional tail was both a delight and a bit of ego-boosting triumph for the little wolf-dog girl. He had been her first ever real patient she'd ever tended to, and while she had faith in the lessons she'd learned from her estranged father and meek uncle, putting theory into practice had been a daunting task. She was just glad to know he hadn't ultimately lose the appendage to infection or anything like that. That marked Ciná as her first successful major operation. Woo, go her! But that was where the joy seemed to end, for as he moved on to her next question she saw his expression shift, turning more forlorn and uncomfortable. It was an odd expression on the usually cocksure wolf's face, one that seemed so out of place for him. Satira's own expression shifted to sneer her lip up a bit when the giant red and black wolf stated he wished he was just here to sleep with her again. "How charming..." she shot back, but her snide comment did little to deter Ciná as he revealed the true reason he had traveled so far to Boreas.

Satira balked when Ciná told her that he was homeless. His island paradise pack had fallen apart, the alpha taking his family to some distant lands for medical reasons. That left Cináed once more without a home and left behind to find his own way in the world. There was a part of Tira, a cold and scornful part of her locked deep away in her heart that wanted to laugh at karma kicking his ass, but she didn't. There was more empathy for the poor brute than there was vindictiveness in her heart. Besides, she'd mostly put behind what he'd said to her when she was a wee impressionable pup; she didn't need to seek out further revenge against him. "Oh, Ciná... I'm- I'm sorry." She didn't really know what else to say. Flopped over ears flicked back, bouncing against her skull with the movement while she watched him carefully, that furious gnawing need in her belly momentarily ignored by her concern for the young man.

Ciná spoke out some of his thoughts and feelings, a rarity for the typically aloof male, but in doing so he also revealed some more about his past and who he was to her. Tira was a clever girl. Her lessons as a Fatalis had taught her the existence of all the major packs in Ardent—more specifically, who led each one. She knew of only one pack that fell around the time she'd met Cináed. Incendium. That meant his father was the former alpha of the pack, Ignis Praetor. Now it dawned on the hybrid lady why he had been so reluctant to tell her his family name when they'd met. The Praetors weren't exactly taken to kindly in these lands. Tira's expression remained measured though, giving away nothing of her revelation while she just let Cináed talk. She didn't let on that she knew his identity—not yet, at least.

Eventually his golden orbs turned to lock onto her pale blue eyes once more, acting nonchalant and wearing his proud grin once more, asking if she wanted to take in his vagrant ass if she could handle living with him. Satira quirked an amused brow and shot him a smirk of her own. "Oh, if I could handle you, huh?" she quipped back, draping her slender forelegs over the lip of the pool to hoist her upper body partially out of the water, the excess water cascading from her fur to spill down the edge of the hot spring while she leaned in closer to him with a challenging grin on her lips. "What makes you think you could handle living with me? Maybe I'm too hot for you to handle, big boy. Ever consider that?" Tira's gaze ran appraisingly down Ciná's large, toned form, her eyes eating him up with an unabashed primal hunger stoked and incensed by her heat. "I'm living in my uncle's pack now. It's a pretty cushy place. I have my own den at the top of the falls just over here. It's big and spacious, quiet and private too. Lots of plush bedding, far too big for just little me, but I like to stretch out at night. I guess the only thing left to decide is what you can bring to the table." Tira cocked her head to the side, gazing up at Ciná through sultry, playful eyes, eager to see how he'd play along with her this time.

"Satira"

With the sad and awkward truth of what had brought him here out in the open and his equally awkward attempt at suggesting he come stay with her put out there, it was tossed into Tira's court to see how she took it. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as she quipped back with her usual sassiness, watching as she pulled herself up onto the edge of the hot spring, revealing the upper portion of her torso and letting him watch as the water rolled off of her and allowed her fluffy, soft fur to cling to her body—or at least as much of it as he could see over the steaming water. It had caught him off guard when he saw her again for the first time back in The Hallows with how stunningly beautiful she had grown up to be in comparison to the little, spunky pup he had first met what felt like ages ago, and even now that he had crossed paths with her a couple of times he was still struck by how pretty she was. It was almost enough to distract him from what she was saying about her being too hot to handle for him and he nearly missed the appraising look her light blue eyes were giving the rest of his body, but when he did notice it made the sly grin reappear on his muzzle.

He tried to keep his thoughts focused on her words and forced his gaze to linger on hers instead of trying to roam down her body in an attempt to peek through the surface of the water to the rest of her feminine form hiding beneath. It turned out that their roles were reversed now and while he had become a loner, she had found herself in her uncle's pack. The description of her large, spacious, private den certainly didn't help the direction his thoughts were going and he was already imagining how they might make use of that den together if she accepted him coming to live with her. She turned the attention back to him, questioning him on what he could bring to the table in their arrangement, the sultry look she was giving him only cementing that he wasn't the only one with a one track mind. He chuckled and replied, "Well, I'm certainly a capable fighter, not too shabby as a hunter, pretty good at crafting and the like... but I don't think that's really what you're wanting, is it?"

With a grin still lingering on his lips, Ciná got to his paws and stepped toward the water, slipping into the hot spring beside her with a contented sigh as the warm water surrounded him and came up to just below his chest as he sat himself on the ledge she had been resting on. Without hesitation, his large paws slipped around her sides and pulled her toward him. She was easy enough to move how he wanted with their ridiculous difference in size, but that was even more true with the water making her basically weightless. He pulled her feminine frame over on top of his own, settling her on his lap before letting his paws roam over her back, sides, hips, and outer thighs. "It sounds like you need someone to share that spacious bed with," he commented, his voice growing more husky in their intimate closeness. He gave her thighs a teasing squeeze, grinning as he added, "I'd be more than happy to do that for you."

Cináed

It had become abundantly clear to Satira exactly where Cináed's mind was going the longer she noticed him playing less and less attention to what she was saying and more and more attention to every part of her besides her face. The little wolf dog didn't mind, of course; in fact she quite enjoyed the attention Ciná gave her. It made her feel beautiful, sexy, powerful. All feelings Tira could get addicted to if given enough of them! Ciná's attention had become like a drug to her, a powerful narcotic she was helpless to resist. The more he fed her craving for attention, the more she desired. She challenged him to see what he'd bring to a relationship between them, and with a sly grin, the giant fire and smoke brute began to list off his qualifications as if he were applying for a job. Tira humored him, listening while he ascribed himself a talented fighter, a decent hunter, and a capable craftsman. All noble traits that she was sure Kotori would be interested in hearing. But what she wanted to hear was much more specific...

As if reading her mind, Ciná declared that none of those skills had been what she was looking for. Satira raised an eyebrow, shooting the taller man a curious look. He was 100% right, of course, but that didn't mean she was going to make this easy for him. That confident grin still lingering on his lips, Tira watched while the Praetor wolf brought himself closer to the pool of water, slipping seamlessly into the hot spring beside her with a contented sigh. No sooner had he gotten settled in on the ledge she was on, Tira felt huge, strong paws grab her by her slender sides, making her yelp in surprise as the dire wolf manhandled her with little to no effort. The grin playing on her lips grew wider, flashing pearly teeth while she giggled and kicked her legs in playful resistance, splashing the water while he maneuvered her where he liked.

Cináed set Satira down in his lap, her body still mostly under the warm water while she settled herself in against him, wriggling her hips into his to get comfortable. Tiny speckled paws reached up to grab at the waterlogged fur of his chest, grinning up to his handsome face with playful sultriness sparkling in her iridescent blue eyes. Ciná's paws wasted no time beginning to roam and wander over her body, feeling up every part of her from her back and sides down to her hips and thighs. Soft purring murrs peeled from the young woman, her back arching under his touch while dainty paws combed through his thick fur with her sharp feline claws extended to gingerly prick at his skin and toned muscles. Ciná declared that she needed someone to share her spacious bedroom with, then eagerly volunteered himself while pulling more giggles and murrs from her when he squeezed her toned thighs in his powerful paws.

"Oh is that so?" purred Satira in a voice that dripped with heated lust for the brute. The hybrid pulled her body tighter to his, pushing her hips back with a slow roll to grind herself into him, her fluffy tail dipping beneath the water like a snake to find its way between his legs and over some very sensitive bits. "That's an awfully bold claim. Maybe I should make you prove what you can do now that we're both sober and you won't pass out on me after ten minutes." A seductive giggle left Satira in an airy breath, holding Ciná's golden gaze with half-lidded eyes while she leaned closer to nip her fangs at his chest, rolling her hips back once again into him, daring him to take the bait and give her what her heat-crazed body demanded.

"Satira"

As Tira pulled herself tighter against him and her tail found some particularly sensitive parts of him, making his breath catch and a rumbling hum sound in his chest. He might have been drunk the first time he had her, but there had been no denying that his attraction to her had very much been real and this only solidified that fact. His paws continued to squeeze and grope over her hips and thighs, a grin pulling across his lips as she spoked and told him how he needed to prove what he could do to back up his claim—with an added little playful glare when she mentioned him passing out after ten minutes the last time they were together and intoxicated. He chuckled and hummed again at the teasing nips she gave his chest, those hums shifting into low groans at the press of her hips back into his. She was the last girl he slept with how ever long ago it had been since that party at the Hallows castle so the combination of his pent up desire and his natural attraction to the little wolf-dog currently occupying his lap made his lust flare up like dried grass tossed onto a fire. "I'd be more than happy to..." he rumbled with a sly grin, his head dipping till he could catch one of her soft, floppy ears between his teeth teasingly. He wasted no time gripping her hips more firmly, both bringing her down onto him and pressing up into her as he brought them together, gasping softly and growling with the sudden onslaught of pleasure as he joined their bodies together. His golden gaze held hers with heated desire, panting and grinning as he had his way with her in the hot spring, bringing them both all of the pleasure and relief they both desired.

- fade -

Cináed