Postcards and Polaroids
04-23-2016, 07:57 PM
Cascade barely kept her ears from lacing back as Avalon spoke. All the trouble Valentine had gone through to get her into the pack to begin with and now at the first sign of trouble she wanted to cut and run? No now, hold on a moment and think it through. Clearly Valentine didn't consider Avalon on the same plane as Rhythm, and while it was Cascade's opinion that all of Imperium belonged to Valentine without question if he desired it, he tended to be a little less possessive than she was on his behalf. He treated Avalon just like any other ordinary member of the pack, neither as a concubine like Rhythm or a slave, and she hadn't fit into the pack any better than Rhythm had. Would it really be any loss to the pack if she allowed the Sonticus wolf to leave? It wasn't like she had enough healthy wolves in the pack as it stood right now to force anyone to stay if they didn't want to. Besides, it would give them another pack to raid if the pack recovered from the disease ravaging their ranks.
Finally she shrugged. "Yeah, I hold a high enough rank to let you go. I won't stop you if you want to - but the kids aren't yours to take." She eyed Avalon with a half-smile, a hint of disdain wrinkling her nose. "They aren't pups anymore, you know, and in Imperium we don't treat yearlings like babies. They're full members of the pack. You don't get to make decisions for them." She allowed herself a bored yawn. "Now, if they come to me and want to leave, that's their prerogative. I'm not going to stop them from leaving any more than I'm stopping you. But I'm not going to let you make that kind of decision for them and drag off potentially useful pack members either." She didn't particularly get the impression that Valentine had cared about Avalon's kids at all - she didn't know if he even really thought about them. They'd been an afterthought when he'd taken Avalon from Sonticus. But they were still healthy yearlings in a pack that was already falling apart with barely a wolf capable of hunting or taking care of themselves. She couldn't afford to kick them out just on Avalon's say-so, not if they were willing to stay. Not until she knew whether things were going to get better.
Finally she shrugged. "Yeah, I hold a high enough rank to let you go. I won't stop you if you want to - but the kids aren't yours to take." She eyed Avalon with a half-smile, a hint of disdain wrinkling her nose. "They aren't pups anymore, you know, and in Imperium we don't treat yearlings like babies. They're full members of the pack. You don't get to make decisions for them." She allowed herself a bored yawn. "Now, if they come to me and want to leave, that's their prerogative. I'm not going to stop them from leaving any more than I'm stopping you. But I'm not going to let you make that kind of decision for them and drag off potentially useful pack members either." She didn't particularly get the impression that Valentine had cared about Avalon's kids at all - she didn't know if he even really thought about them. They'd been an afterthought when he'd taken Avalon from Sonticus. But they were still healthy yearlings in a pack that was already falling apart with barely a wolf capable of hunting or taking care of themselves. She couldn't afford to kick them out just on Avalon's say-so, not if they were willing to stay. Not until she knew whether things were going to get better.
