Change is a cruel cruel thing

“Well…You’re not wrong, it is cold.” He conceded “But you know…the thing about the cold is, it makes your fur nice and thick. It makes it harder for your enemies to get at your flesh.” He said and raised a paw to jab lightly at her ribs hoping to tickle her.

“And your-“ He cleared his throat then. “My new pups…They’re younger than you, they’ll look up to you and expect you to be strong so they can try to be as strong as you.” He explained. “Being an alpha is about more than pushing people around and making them do what you say; an alpha is only as strong as their weakest member, and I had forgotten that while I was alpha. In fact I wasn’t a very good alpha at all.” He admitted his tone suddenly serious. “I defended my title twice but when I needed to fight I couldn’t, and I ended up losing you and your siblings.”

He paused then, letting her absorb his softly spoken words.

“I stopped being an alpha because being an alpha wasn’t the most important thing in the world to me anymore; you were, you and your brothers and your sister.” He refused to admit then how he had lost Tythe, his golden gift, stolen by Leera in the dead of night just before he was to reclaim them. He had bared enough of his wounds to her, she didn’t need to know the burden he carried at the loss of his son.

He moved, reaching out, hoping to hold her and pull her tight against his chest in a warm embrace "And here? I can protect you without worrying about anyone trying to take you away, because your aunt, and your uncle, and your great uncle will never let that happen to you again, because they love you too"