It's Written In Gold [PACK CHALLENGE FOR TALIS]

Gryphon blinked and lifted his head, listening in faint confusion to the howl calling for his brother. Not having really been witness to a pack challenge before, it took a long moment for it to register what the call meant. His first reaction was indignation at having his hunt interrupted, because obviously he would need to go to the boneyard with the rest of the pack to give their support to Dragon while he treated with the challenger. Immediately on the heels of that came a faint burst of 'I told you so', because hadn't he told Dragon time and again that his policies and his idiocy would just cause trouble for the pack and the family? Hadn't that, in fact, been what had gotten him demoted to omega in the first place? If he'd just followed through with taking control of the family and the pack when he'd first realized the danger, when Dragon had lost it with Lykos, maybe now they wouldn't be losing their home.

He became aware of his hackles slowly raising as the knowledge of what was to come sank in. Dragon had already paid for the foolishness of that raid with his sight - he couldn't possibly fight for Talis. He'd assumed at first thought that Dragon would give up the pack quietly without a fuss, because that would be the smart thing for a wolf with Dragon's particular handicap to do. It would suck for them, they'd be loners again, but they'd move on and survive and take care of themselves until they could rebuild, right? But no, that wasn't Dragon. Dragon was impulsive, and overconfident, and he was going to try to fight for Talis, wasn't he?

And he was blind.

With a noise partway between anger and worry, the ranger swiftly turned to lope towards the boneyard, concern and fury growing in equal measures as time and distance passed and he managed to convince himself that yes, that was exactly what Dragon would do.

He came to a hard stop at seeing the two separate groups gathering. Nothing had begun yet, just Dragon and his jaguar friends squaring off with a sturdy-looking yearling, and two packs gathered to support each of them. It was interesting that the yearling had a pack behind him, but it wouldn't have taken a hunter's sensitive nose to pick up the pack-scent that rose from the wolves who'd come to support him. It made Gryphon's uneasiness explode into full bloom. Granted he didn't have a lot of personal experience with pack challenges, but that didn't seem normal somehow. What was going on here?

The gold-brown coated male began to pace silently with raised hackles, keeping a sharp green gaze upon the other pack. They were up to something strange, he knew it. He wanted to interfere, to stop Dragon from getting himself killed, but Dragon was Talis' alpha and whether or not he fought for the pack was his call, not Gryphon's. He ground his teeth in frustration; he should have taken the pack. He should have taken over the family. Dragon was going to get himself killed because Gryphon had hesitated to protect the family when he had the chance.