Puppy Love

Can you tell me what you want to hear?

I won't say it

Let's check to see if we're still on the same page

Blocking out the bad parts

Dodging all the long shots




Anger shone in Epiphron's vibrant blue gaze; she felt tears welling up in her eyes, but held them back. Why the hell was she getting so angry at a boy she was supposed to care for so deeply? She'd never experienced such intense emotion -- anger, sadness, whatever the hell it was -- for anyone, even her family. The girl would lower her muzzle towards the earth slightly, eyelids narrowing further as he spoke, as though scrutinizing the russet wolf that stood before her. "It wasn't as though he seriously hurt you," she nearly snarled, though her voice was low. If Syrinx did happen to be near, and she so deeply hoped he wasn't, she found no reason for him to hear her biting words. "He didn't even draw blood." That wasn't the point, and she knew it... but if Maverick couldn't deal with a slight scratch, she wondered if he would be able to handle whatever else might try to keep them apart. Though she said this, she was well aware that Maverick didn't care about the single incident of being snapped at, but the entire situation as a whole. "If you can't survive a simple scrape, I'm not so sure you can handle whatever it might take for us to keep doing this. This is just as difficult for me as it is for you." She glared at the boy, though her posture leaned towards him slightly, as though she was holding herself back from rushing into him and wrapping him in her embrace.

"You might understand how Syrinx feels, but you... you don't know my brother. His intentions are pure, albeit misguided." Her brother, the future Alpha of Valhalla, the cynical boy with the lower jaw that was forever revealed, the skin around the bone missing forever. Her brother was different, but of how he was different she was not sure. But how fiercely protective she felt of him. She would defend the boy to his death, despite how tainted he might be, even if his actions should be condemned. But she was unwilling to think of what would happen if Syrinx really did hurt Maverick -- was her brother capable of such a thing?

The girl's voice quivered a bit, the moisture in her eyes visible as she lifted her crown to stare at Maverick with a burning intensity. "He.. he won't see things differently, you don't understand. You're not..." Not of Valhalla. Epiphron didn't have to even bring up the possibility of her marrying a wolf outside of her pack, because she knew her family would settle for no less than a Valhallan husband for her.

Wait... marriage? Were her feelings for Maverick so strong that she found herself even considering such possibilities already? "He just won't, Maverick." Instinctively the girl's gaze swept the land behind Maverick, attempting to search the tall grasses, as though looking for her brother. "It's not worth fighting with him. He's..." Syrinx was the heir, he could be crowned Alpha any day that Collision saw fit. It's not worth arguing with him, she wanted to explain, for the boy was higher rank than she and he could ruin any chance she might have for climbing the ranks. But was that more important than any future she might have with Maverick? Was she really so damn concerned with what Syrinx might say, or do, if she stood up to him? Was she really so vain? The answer was yet, but she couldn't admit that to the boy. Not when she really cared for him, when she didn't want to stop seeing him.

"I don't know what you're supposed to feel, Maverick," she said after a long moment of silence, her voice audibly quivering. Epiphron was perhaps wrong in not defending Maverick's honorable intentions to her brother, but what other option did she have, if she wanted to see him again? "I shouldn't have even came here. This was a bad idea..." Her tone wavered, from sad to angry all in one sentence, but her eyes still shone with tears that threatened to spill. She felt stupid for caring so much, for not defending Maverick, felt stupid that her brother found the need to follow her like she was a child, stupid for everything. The feeling was altogether unfamiliar and unpleasant, and her vulnerability made her want to flee the situation entirely, not sure quite how to face it. She couldn't feign a strong demeanor now, not around Maverick, as hard as she tried.