Caliber Rounds

He eyed the posture in the yearling’s frame and raised a brow point in a stern expression until it dropped away at his warning. “First, sit. I need to catch my breath, and we need to let you cool your head a bit. What comes after we head on needs a cool mind and clear eyes.” It wasn’t a suggestion, and he followed his own command as his haunches lowered to the frozen ground.

He waited until she sat, not speaking until she did, preferably with a few cleansing breaths to boot. Once he was sure her attention was focused on him, he began. “It could include Valor and your father, since their scents pass through here, but I can’t be sure yet. This is a packs-wide threat, however. A little bit ago, Marina was exploring up here, toward an old wrecked ship. She was confronted, and attacked – mauled, Justice – by a male there, larger than me, who raped her. She also reported that he mentioned a female, and that there were signs that they, or at the very least he, was a cannibal. She got away, but she’s very badly injured and in my brother’s care. And she’s pregnant.”

Those fathomless sapphires bore into her amethyst eyes as he growled in a low rumble, “I know you’re angry. I know you’re stubborn - which can be as much of a good thing as a bad thing, mind you - and I know you’re sure of yourself, but if you had gone up there alone, and come up against both wolves there, or even one, you would be badly hurt, or even killed. Even worse, you could have ended up raped, too, and there would be no guarantee if you’d be allowed to live.”

He turned his gaze toward the north around the edge of one side of the wall. He’d taken care to sit behind it, to mask his bright coat. “I want you to think. I am not lecturing you because I think you aren’t a good fighter for not having been formally trained, or that you don’t have a lot of great potential. You have both. This has nothing to do with skill. I’m skilled, and trained, and even I wouldn’t go up there alone. I’m not lecturing you because I’m trying to put you down. It’s because I care about you and your family, and the pack as a whole. It would be a crime if I didn’t do all I could to assure everyone’s safety. I won't stop you from coming with me.
Your family could be involved, and you have every right to be involved in this, too. But I need you to have a clear, cool head, and sharp eyes, as much to have my back as I can have yours. I don't have eyes in the back of my head or in my butt.” He ended with a chuckle.

His eyes turned back to hers as he rose, feeling he’d rested enough and hoping she understood him, “Now. What is the first thing you do, before heading into a possibly dangerous situation?”

In part, he would use this as a lesson, in hopes that it would keep her focused and thinking her way through the following recon trip. He wouldn’t send her home, though his first instinct was to protect and insulate her. She had a right to be here, as a pack member, and as a family member to two of the missing wolves that could be in danger.