New Beginnings [Sirius]

It was startling and brief, the contact from the smaller feline. Jarring enough to cause Dove to freeze where he stood, his muscles locking tightly from the unbidden contact, but fleeting enough that he didn't have time to consider it as she paced quietly away, on a hunt of her own. Dove watched her go with a slow blink, aiming to comprehend what she'd attempted to give as his brain mulled over the scene again. Comfort, perhaps, he decided, moving his limbs mechanically. He moved through the motions of the hunt, his hindbrain cataloging the scents he found as he replayed the interaction again, sure that he'd seen amenity in her cerulean eyes. Even after only minutes of this discordant interaction, he was numb to it all, as he usually was where his family and the marks they'd left were concerned.

He recalled, with perfect clarity, the ghost he'd been in that place he'd refused to call hom--Sirius' words registered, and Dove stood suddenly at his full, towering height, the hunt nearly forgotten. His breath came deeply for a moment as he attempted to calm himself. "The pack," he said sourly, stiffly, "that I had before was exceedingly unkind." While the dark man beside him with a coat similar to his own seemed to find amusement in shadowy jest, he didn't seem particularly unintelligent. Dove was certain that he would perceive the understatement for what it was. "I am in no hurry to find a new collar for my throat." As though it sensed the true meaning behind the words, his scarred shoulder twitched, sending a rippling shudder down his spine that Dove shook away fiercely.

He would face this on his own and blaze a new trail, as he'd intended when he left the kingdom. Kindness had been used to lull him into a false sense of security more than once, and while he logically understood that it was unlikely Sirius was doing the same, the mental scars left behind because of it refused to heal as well as the physical ones had. He paced alongside Sirius arthritcally, unwilling to pretend that the hunt took precedence any longer, although his belly still protested.