decompressing

"You may call me whatever you wish," he assured her, quite relieved that she was not going to react badly to his surname as her alpha had. He moved to seat himself beside her so that she need not crane her neck to speak with him. "I am not much used to the bustle of this many wolves either," he admitted. "There's certainly a great deal more noise than I am used to." The constant chatter of hundreds of wolves, traders calling out their wares, and under it all the unfamiliar music that tended to jangle at his nerves rather than please him. He was much more used to sitting on the sidelines and observing, but as alpha he by necessity must be involved publicly.

At the girl's prompting, he let the sound of the river come to the fore. "It is beautiful," he murmured to be polite, though in all honesty he could only think how the sound of another's approach would be masked by the river, and sitting here beside it facing it mad him feel tense and naked. He showed none of that, though, as he smiled down at the girl. Let her have her enjoyment of it. "There is not much running water where my pack is now," he said, casting around for a subject so as to not be rude. "Though we do have a lake, which is pleasant in the summer heat."