When there was no more he could do, Valentine had left Rhythm in a temporary den to sort out the events of the night in peace. He'd wandered back to his own den, but by then the sun was rising and he was unable to return to sleep. From there he'd begun to make his rounds, sulking around Imperium's border and glaring beyond it, daring a rogue to cross. He was torn over what needed to be done next. On one hand, he wanted to support Rhythm and make her transition (and abandonment) less stressful, but on the other, he knew the value of solitude. He also needed to speak with Cascade, but that sounded about as fun as getting poked in the eye. And Bass. He probably needed to talk to Bass too, although they'd both benefit with time to breath first. Reaching the Range, the brute paused to stare across it. He'd left Rhythm in a state of exhausted peace, but the calm had slowly morphed into a angry simmer. There'd been plenty of time to turn the night's events over in his mind and analyze every detail. He could kill Cascade. In fact, he was beginning to find that imagining himself choking her had a therapeutic effect. Sighing, Valentine closed his eyes and tipped his face towards the sun. If he was going to be of any use today he needed to calm the fuck down. ""

Cascade wasn't going to give him that time.

Oh she'd given him far more time than she'd expected to, but that was mostly because she couldn't find him. At first he'd been off with Rhythm and then it seemed he'd wandered all over Imperium's territory. Good lord did the boy ever sleep? Until finally she'd come across him as the sun crawled upward through the sky.

Marching matter-of-factly through the grass the ebony woman - her fur gleaming nearly violently purple in the sunlight today - set herself immediately in front of Valentine and dropped her haunches to the earth, staring him intently in the eye. Her head cocked to the side. "So? You send her home after all that?"

Lo and behold, who other than the eye poke herself would find him? Slowly his head dipped until he could look down his nose at her with slitted eyes. He loathed the idea of giving her the satisfaction of knowing that her efforts had ended in success. Rhythm was staying. Sooner or later she was going to find that out. He didn't want to be there when she did. His voice tart, he said, "And what does it matter to you? You've had your fun." He could lecture, but he doubted she'd listen. She'd probably just beam up at him or bounce around him like an exuberant puppy. ""

Valen seemed stubbornly insistent on being put out with her, but Cascade equally stubbornly dismissed it. "I told you, Valen, it wasn't for fun," she reminded him promptly. "She belonged to you. You just didn't see it. You were just wasting time and energy trying to woo her when she was already yours, and she was too selfish and stuck on her family to accept that. You dropping her back off on Brother Bass' borders means she's going to be back to tom-catting around and get kidnapped by someone else, or killed, or raped." She stood, took a single bold step forward as she continued to stare at him. "You know I'm right, Valentine. You know I was right to bring her here. She isn't capable of standing on her own four paws, Valentine. She needs someone to tell her what's good for her, because she is incapable of figuring that out for herself. Can you really tell me I'm wrong about that?"

His lips curled in a warning as Cascade further invaded his space. Unable to trust himself, he stood still. Her words only served to fuel the growing fire. He didn't want to hear what she had to say, didn't want to hear again how she justified her actions. His tone mocking, he said, "I'm sorry, tell me again how any of that gives you the right to fuck with the way I handle the wolves in my life?" Like Cataleya, she was beginning to confuse her connection to him with the right to dictate how he did things. He was his own person; one who was perfectly capable of making decisions. He could take who or what he wanted, Valentine didn't disagree with her there, but Rhythm was different. He didn't just wanted to have her, he wanted to know her. ""

She ignored the way her heart raced, the way her pupils dilated, the way a grin threatened to tug at her muzzle just from the excitement of his anger, because damnit this was important. "It doesn't give me the right." Her voice was dismissive as she dropped the words carelessly. "But someone has to care about you Valen and you're too busy getting wrapped up and dragged down to take care of yourself. Of course she wants you waiting on her every whim... you're a king. You lead a pack, and damn well too. You're a good father -" she quickly glossed over that... she wouldn't use their kids like that. Yet. She had hopes for him still. "If she can net you she's a queen, and that's all girls like her care about. She doesn't care about you... so someone has to." She didn't back off at his warning. No. She just dared move closer, a stubborn set to her chin.

Cascade moved closer and he quickly followed suit - a move that left very little space between them and required him to tuck his chin in order to maintain eye contact. His aggressive posture left nothing to the imagination and he dared her to keep pushing him. She played him well, finding all of his weak spots with little effort. She found his fears, his insecurities, and she wove a web with practiced ease. "And why do you care?" What did it matter to her if he was wearing himself thin or being used for his crown? She seemed the type to happily watch the world burn, so why concern herself with the petty affairs of a lonely king? ""

Valentine stepped forward too, aggressively, and Cascade suddenly had to crane her head back to continue to glare at him, and her own teeth glinted as they bared. "Because no one ever gave a fuck about me, and you actually deserve it!" The angry words, drawn unbidden by his equally angry question, were like a mental slap in the face to her. Whoa, whoa, Cascade, this whole conversation is getting way too deep. Back the hell waaaaaay up. Instead of listening to the cautious note in her head, caught up in the tension she continued to push. "You and I are too much alike and I like you. I don't want you to be miserable for the rest of your life because of one selfish, sanctimonious female who won't even stand up for herself because she's too used to being a pretty, pampered little princess to even care about you." Snapping her jaws on the last word Cascade took a last step forward to bump her chest against his, the contact suddenly turning from aggressive to... aggressively sexual in the way she moved against him. The touch was electric, and drew a sound that was half whine and half growl as she trembled at the surge of arousal. He was angry - very angry and this could very well tip him over into the rage that could end with her in the dirt bleeding, but she didn't care. She craved him like this and she wasn't going to pretend otherwise just because he was angry over some bitch with an agenda. ""

She pushed against his chest, the touch snapping through him like lightning. The transfer of energy, the shift from pure aggression, wasn't lost on him. He felt it too. Valentine leaned down slowly, deliberately, his chin tipping towards her right ear. His knees bent, bringing him closer to her height as his demeanor shifted to become something a little less readable, but no less intense. There was a beat of silence followed by the whispered word, "Lies." He then kicked forward abruptly, seeking to slam his chest into hers and then, while still pushing forward, straighten to his full height in the hopes of throwing her over backwards. ""

He lowered himself toward her and for a moment there was the hope that the universe was aligning, but as abruptly as that she was thrown onto her back in the dirt. She scrambled back to her feet by instinct, too stunned to think but too well versed in survival to let herself stay so vulnerable. Her ears pinned back, she sucked her breath back in past the ache. That would bruise. Both the fall, and the accusations. She fought the urge to hunch up submissively, forced herself to uncurl to a bulldog-stubborn stance. Damn, this really was getting way too deep. Not to late to back out. Just run, keep on running. "Not lies, Valentine," she spat back a moment later when wits and breath had returned. "She's just got you too blind to see the truth. That's what they do. They get you so turned around you can't tell up from down anymore. You're deluding yourself and what's worse is you don't even seem to care. She's putting you in a cage and you are helping her build it." ""

His intention had been to trap her beneath him, to stand over her and silence her with his presence alone. She evaded his efforts and quickly got all four paws beneath her again. Once more they squared off and as soon as Cascade began to speak, the brute rushed forward. He didn't want to hear it, didn't want to consider any of it. His head ached and his mind reeled as he fought to shake off the effects of her words. "Stop!" he commanded, pleaded, because she just kept dumping on him statements he couldn't ignore. Valentine was careful not to touch her for fear of further muddying the emotional scape surrounding them. He wanted to do harm, to act on the whirlwind of anger that threatened to carry him away, but something kept him from it, a nagging feeling he couldn't deny. What if she was right? He swallowed in an effort to push down the feeling of his heart in his throat but was unsuccessful. It sat there and beat mercilessly at its confinements and threatening to choke him. Against his better judgment, he admitted, "She's staying here. I put her up in a temporary den in the Knolls." Telling her was as good as admitting she had been right. ""

Valentine rushed forward and Cascade refused to flinch back, but he stopped before touching her and his single word came out a plea that brought her ears to the sides in confusion. There was silence for a moment between them as she teetered between responding to the plea or continuing the argument. Her muzzle was parted slightly, but no sound emerged but that of her quickened breath until... Valen admitted that she was still there. Her breath hissed out on a single syllable ".... oh" and she slowly lowered herself to sit facing the larger alpha. She was... frankly... at a loss for words, and her brow furrowed as she stared at him. Tension still coiled slick and dark between them, but Cascade's stubborn posture had wilted. "So... I was right." But this didn't feel like a victory, it felt... anticlimactic. Like she'd lost even though she got basically what she'd been aiming for. She huffed out a sigh, a slightly irritable sigh. "I'm sorry, Valen. I shouldn't have gone behind your back. Friends don't do shit like that so... I am sorry. Not for what I did, but how I did it," she clarified. ""

"So...I was right." That was EXACTLY why he hadn't wanted to tell her. Grumpily, he commanded, "Shut up." Like that would do him any good. Seriously, couldn't she just take her little victory in pleased silence or whatever? Somehow her apology grated on his nerves. The last thing he wanted to hear was an apology, which was funny because that's what he had been thinking about choking out of her all morning. And yet now, hearing it, he was left with a bitter taste in his mouth. "I don't want to hear an apology." Sourly, he amended, "I may not like the execution, but I can appreciate the effort." He sat down across from her all the while exuding petulance. Sighing, he rung out a bit of dry humor and sniffed, "I can't help but wonder how you'll ever make it up to me. Could have started a war, could have gotten Hati killed, could have brought her whole fucking family down on my ass." ""

He was still grumpy, he was still growling orders at her, but they seemed to have somehow backed away from that abyss that they had teetered on so precariously. He denied her apology, but added that he appreciated her effort. The rage that had burned so brightly between them but moments before seemed to have stalled. It left Cascade feeling somewhat adrift - somehow dealing with interpersonal things just felt so much easier, so much clearer when there was that risk. That danger. That drive. Now it just felt... murky. Her eyes slid away from him to study a nearby tuft of grass with determined interest, unwilling to let him see any form of uncertainty in her eyes. He hadn't accepted her apology... but he hadn't abandoned her like so many others had when she'd disappointed them. Maybe because she'd been right. Damn right she'd been right; so why did she feel so wilted? But Valen's attempt at humor - as pitiful and sour as it may have been - drew an answering wry grin from her despite her cautious confusion. How was she going to make it up to him? Why she could think of a few ways... but the thought of her planned seduction made her suddenly and inexplicably wary of the depths that lurked and she kicked the plot under the rug for another time when things weren't so raw and vulnerable. "I guess I'll just have to kidnap you a few more bitches," she answered instead as she forced herself to slide slowly back into the cheerful attitude that was her best defense against the world. "Some really pretty ones without clingy families to get mad at you." ""