Empire of Angels (CHALLENGE)

Valentine made short work of the Sonticus alpha, ending the fight with an enviable speed and efficiency, and that was that - the Avalon woman and her children were theirs. She wasn't sure exactly why he wanted this Avalon - ok, no, she could see a perfectly legitimate reason... the woman was pretty enough... but she was certain Valen had seen more in her than just that if he'd do like she had with Rhythm and take the risk of prying them from a pack's tender embrace - but she was more than happy to support his crusade. Though perhaps if she hadn't been paying so much attention to admiring his fighting, she might have done a better job of actually guarding his back and intercepted the earless Sonticus bitch before she could attack him.

She was on her feet in an instant, hackles raised and fury written on her features, but Valen had already tangled with the much smaller woman and just as capably as before put her on the ground. She would have preferred in the ground - she was much more pillage-and-burn-the-town-and-salt-the-fields than he was, she thought, and she was as angry at herself for failing to stop the woman as she was at the woman's attack, and that made her vindictive. The sudden inrush of judgmental whining as the woman was vanquished, including from an Imperium wolf, one who she noted shared a fairly obvious physical resemblance on top of the fact that they'd been sitting together... Well it just was the straw on the camel's ass. Or back. Or whatever body part of a camel got it pissed off.

Her expression settled into a dark, and crooked half smile, and she stalked to Valentine's side. "Shut up Einarr," she offered without even turning her head, her tone genial despite the obvious warning. Kid would be lucky not to get his own ears bit off if he was going to act like a complete jackass, so he'd do well to take her advice and keep his muzzle closed... though who ever really followed Cas' advice? The rest of the rudely judgmental comments were coming from a black male who... clearly... was pissing Valen off even further. In his face, accusing him, telling him to get his paws off his... wife. Ugh, wife. What was with this strange addiction to monogamy so many wolves had? Cascade's nose wrinkled in disgust, then cleared into a cunning expression that might have been disconcerting to any who knew her.

Valentine might have rearranged the male's face purely out of anger at his insulting assumptions - Cascade was in it purely to teach the whole lot of them a very important lesson. You do not fuck with Imperium. Ever. If you fuck with Imperium, your family was going to suffer, and they were going to suffer bad.

Valen shoved at the smaller male, and she knew that she'd have to intervene quickly to keep these Sonticus fools from thinking they could continue to wear Valentine down with fight after fight after fight - no, not this time. She would put this would-be blood feud down hard and show them that Valentine was not alone - and if Valen was offended by her interfering she would take her licks for it, because it was worth it. Imperium stood together; there would be no repeat of the Hellstrom family's many feuds here. Spreading her legs wider, she bent her joints slightly to lower her center of gravity, letting the joints go loose and easy to move, and her paws spread wide with the claws digging into the dirt. Her tail raised to level with her spine, her head dropping to make a straight line from nose to tail tip. Her eyes narrowed, ears pressing back and her hackles raising along her back and neck. She shook out her shoulders to loosen them, then rolled them forward to bunch up her scruff in protective folds. Her chin tucked down over her throat, and she was ready.

"You'll be taking your paws off my alpha now," she told him mildly, a wicked glint in her mismatched eyes, and sought to close the short distance between them in a single leap, aiming to approach him nearly perpendicular to his right side. She led with her left shoulder, aiming to slam the sharp point of the shoulder into the slightly smaller male's ribcage just behind his right shoulder. She turned her head toward her right, tilting it, and attempted to fasten her teeth into Ravine's scruff immediately behind his ears - her lower jaw seeking to slide in behind his right ear and her upper fangs behind his left, seeking a controlling grip - for now, though she intended to go on to leave a mark on his face to remind his family the price of threatening Imperium.

CASCADE vs RAVINE for MAIM (minor facial scarring)
Round 1/?