The toothy ex-alpha was having no regrets about giving up his pack as he trotted along with a jaunty angle to his tail and ears. Well, and to look at him you'd never guess he wasn't still an alpha, that natural sort of arrogance and pride about him that generally went with leadership but in Chaos' case was just an integral part of him. He didn't have to be leading anyone to know he was a leader. He was Valentine's son after all! Imperialis and Saxe mingled potently in his veins, and no one or no thing was ever going to convince him that combination wasn't a superior mix. Well, Imperialis in any form was going to improve the blood anyway, but you throw a bit of Cascade Saxe in there and hot damn.

Speaking of...

He cocked an ear sideways, head following a second later, to beam happily into the familiar rolling hills of the knolls he'd grown up on. Sure, he'd become rather fond of the craggy, threatening mountains he now called home, but Imperium's old lands would always hold a place in his heart. Overhead, his owl pair winged silently away to hunt mice among the grasses around the knolls and range as was their habit whenever he returned to visit. He wondered if he ought to announce himself with a howl so he didn't surprise his parents in... acts. Oh let's not suger-coat it, age hadn't dulled his mother's sexual appetite at all when it came to Valentine, and Chaos had absolutely no interest in walking in on her coaxing his dad into any crazy deviant sex or something.

He had paused to fill his lungs in preparation for howling when a sound caught his attention and he let it out again in a quiet whoosh as he flicked his ears to listen instead. Bison? Bird? Coyote? He could very well remember the - rather inappropriate, actually - story his mom used to tell him about the coyote hunt his parents had done here. He was certainly game to try it... the coyote killing part anyway, though the hormones of a young wolf on top of being raised the way he was meant that Chaos was always game for the idea of a bit of nooky as well. But alas, that was not to be this time.

The familiar form of his little brother had sent the giant racing pell-mell across the knolls in search of a suitable hiding place. Angelus finally settled on flattening himself along the upper rise of a knoll so that only his head and forepaws peeked over the top. He kept his ears flattened in the hopes that they wouldn't give him away. Sure, he was a big black blob plastered to the side of a browning hill, but Chaos wasn't heading in his direction. He wouldn't see all that.

He hadn't decided how he was going to reveal himself to his brother, but he wasn't going to do what he'd done to Evangeline. Nah, he didn't particularly feel like getting bit again.

Rats, it appeared his brother had heard him. Chaos didn't seem to see him though, so perhaps the situation was still salvageable. Angel's tail lashed the ground behind him as he mulled over his next course of action. It would be fun to jump him. How long had it been since he'd roughhoused with one of his siblings? Evangeline didn't count, of course, since any tangle with her had to be classified as a mauling from the start.

Alright, he had an idea. Angelus shimmied back down the knoll before rising and slinking around the base of it. He was hoping to come up behind Chaos, or perhaps at a slight angle, so that he could slam his chest into his brother's right haunch in the hopes of bowling him over.

Preoccupied with entertaining really fun fantasies in his head as his gaze sought the source of the sound, Chaos wasn't paying as much attention as he should have to his surroundings. Maybe he'd come to rely on his airborne companions a little much, or maybe the familiar comfort of his current location had lulled him into dropping his guard. Or maybe he was just too busy picturing himself introducing a certain pretty, blue-coated galaxy-clad hunter to the idea of a coyote massacre and hadn't been thinking with the correct body parts.

So, when something collided heavily with his haunch and rolled him, Chaos barely managed to stifle a decidedly unmanly yelp of surprise. He did flail out with all four paws as he tumbled, in the hopes of smacking his attacker a good one. He snorted out a nose full of grass seeds and dirt, shook his head, and continued his flail until he had turned back to his belly so he could spin and snarl at the - Angelus?!

The snarl turned into a whoop, and the youngest of the siblings threw himself at his largest, oldest sibling in an attempt to wrap his forelegs around Angelus' neck and grapple him. "Angelus, you dick! How the hell are you?"

The force of the impact was enough to rattle the air in his lungs and cause a stinging sensation to blossom across his chest. Neither of those things lessened his mirth any, though. Chaos went down bucking and kicking, and somewhere in the midst of all his flailing he managed to land a stinging blow across Angel's jaw. The giant reeled backwards with dirt and grass seed plastered to the left side of his face.

Unperturbed he let out a booming laugh and fixed glittering eyes on his younger brother as Chaos finally found his footing. He waited, brow quirked in amusement, for Chaos to catch on. In a heartbeat his brother's snarling face morphed one of recognition and he threw himself at Angelus. With a grin Angel reached out to nip at his younger brother's right ear as Chaos locked him in a bear hug. He chuckled. "Fat, dumb and happy. And how are you, Chaos? Getting into trouble, I hope."

Angelus nipped at his ear and Chaos just grinned at the pinch of teeth before shaking his head so hard his ears flapped against his cheeks. He considered letting slobber splatter when he did, but since he'd get as much of the damage as Angelus he didn't follow through with that. Instead he aimed a boop of a paw to Angel's snoot before dancing away with his tongue stuck out between his protruding fangs. "Trouble? Me?!" he exclaimed in mock innocence, then struck a pose. "I will have you know that I was being the very model of responsibility. I was even..." He paused for dramatic effect. "The alpha of my own pack." He thought fondly back to his former pack mates, even the eye-rollingly surly Ruthgar and goody-goody Kassander. It really hadn't been so bad being an alpha now that he was looking back through the rose-tint of nostalgia.

Angel cringed and leaned back as his brother shook his head. He fully expected to get speckled with spittle so he narrowed his eyes to slits. Chaos' lips (or maybe it was his ears, Angel couldn't tell with his eyes almost closed) made a gross flapping sound that promised salivary rain...but thank the heavens it never came. After a moment of silence Angelus cracked an eye open just in time to see Chaos' paw making a beeline for his nose. Boop.Angelus blinked and aimed a playful snap at the retreating digits.

His brother's antics brought a smile to his lips. All he could do was shake his head and roll his eyes. That is, until Chaos mentioned that he'd once been an alpha. Angelus' gaze darted back down from the heavens to lock onto Chaos. Was he serious? He scrutinized his brother's face for signs that he was joking.

He wasn't, was he? Weh-heh-hell. Mr. Bigshot. Angelus made a show of looking Chaos up and down. "My little brother. Mr. Alpha, huh?" He grinned and chuckled. "I'm impressed."