wouldn't you

Distracted by the other male's question, Tornach hardly paid attention when the female wandered off towards the wicker fence. He assumed she was going to investigate it more closely, as he himself would have done, and so set himself to explaining to the male. "Not all of it. The structure over there - " he gestured to the barn " - and some other human objects that I'm not sure what they were for were already here. I built the fence though. It took me years to do it myself, so expanding it isn't really going to be easy. I built all this hoping to trade with other wolves so that they don't have to worry as much about a meal in the middle of winter. I keep the elk and other animals here and they can come and trade me the things I need in exchange for a set amount of meat or hide. I'm still learning how to preserve the meat more easily when it's not cold..."

His explanation was cut short by Aiden's warning shriek, and he threw up his head to see the falcon fold her wings into a stoop.

Fast as a peregrine was, though, it had already been too late when she'd turned her attention from watching for outside threats to watching the one who was already in their midst. The gray female had pounced on one of the older calves and sent the already-frightened herd stampeding away. Terrified as they were at the scent of blood and the bawls of the calf, half-tamed or not they would go right over the fence on the other side! "What are you doing?" he cried out to the strange wolf, hackles raising instinctively as everything that he'd worked for raced madly for the fence and the bawling calf struggled under the wolf's weight on its back.

"Aiden, the herd!" The falcon heard his cry and veered off to cut off the fleeing elk. If she could, with fisted talons and properly timed dives, keep them running in circles and away from the fence until they tired themselves out, they might have a chance of keeping them from escape.

He took off in a spurt of dust for his side of the fence, hindquarters uncoiling like springs to propel him upwards. His forepaws caught the top of the wicker fence, his hindpaws getting a toehold partway down, and he scrambled over top. No time for gates, not now. "Stop!" he barked at the wolf.

He saw blood spurt from the calf's wounds as the female's jaws closed over it's back, and his heart sank. Even if he chased her off the young elk, it was too late for it. Injured as badly as it was, it would not be able to live a comfortable life among the semi-tame herd. He would need to cull it now anyway. He reached the calf's front, stared into its rolling brown eyes, and had to close his for a moment in anger before lunging forward and closing his jaws over the calf's throat, cutting off oxygen and blood until the calf collapsed, holding the vicious grip until it stopped moving entirely, then a moment longer to be sure before he let go and turned on the female wolf with a vicious snarl.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" The normally docile, kind male was very obviously riled, the calf's blood on his bared fangs and his deep blue eyes narrowed in fury. "You come to my home and you kill my elk? Didn't the fence make it obvious they weren't fair game for any wolf who wanted a meal? I watched this calf grow up! I fed his mother grass all winter so she would give birth to a strong calf. He could have grown up to sire strong calves and strengthen my herd. I don't know what this bull would have grown into and now I never will!" He stopped, panting, appalled to realize that his volume had risen to a shout. But all the time and energy that had gone into this previously healthy calf... all gone, because some other predator wanted a quick meal and couldn't respect boundaries. A deep breath to calm himself and he continued at a normal, if rapsy, volume. "I only cull the injured or weak from the herd, not the strong! Not the healthy! Not the young, just because they're easy!" Shifting his gaze down to the still calf at his paws, his jaw tightened. All that... everything he'd put into this calf... wasted. And for what?