Bite my tongue, bide my time

Alastor had always been superb at seeing the picture Lurid wanted to paint and helping her complete it. His point of view had often given her new insight into old problems and brought solutions when she could find none. The man had made himself valuable to the empress, far beyond a simple mate. As Dread Father, Alastor would have to be many things, thus far proving himself far more capable than anyone had given him credit for. Holographic eyes watched with a smile as his calculative mind began to work through the pros and cons, much like she had. He also came to an indefinite answer to her problem, but a few things stood out to her in his reasoning that she had missed in her own. Her mind had been geared toward frightening others away from challenging her claim once Mirovis lived and breathed, but what if she were able to welcome the challenges? Securing her foundation would be easier done with a pack raised from the ground up, though it came with drawbacks that she wasn't sure she would be able to cover in the small window of time they would have before her family came home. Doubt seemed to plague her lately, perhaps stemming from her leg. Lurid huffed out a breath that was half laugh and half scoff as he pointed out what she had missed in her questioning. "The obvious answer is the foundation that is least shakey. Raising Mirovis from the ground would be more ideal than making enemies. If we did take out the head of a powerful family, with a powerful ruler, perhaps challenges could be quelled for a while. Alleycat, I am not sure that I would allow former members to stay if I did challenge for power. It would be too much of a risk for internal conflict, and with a family like ours we have enough of that already. But, I see the bigger benefit in going from the root up." Now, she only had to decide where they would settle, she adored the northern climate but knew that it was not for everyone. Hunting would be difficult up here, and winter would see them buried with snow.

Her dark knight had helped her make her decision on raising her empire from the ashes, but she was not done with his calculating mind just yet. "Where would you wish to live, my love? The north is enchanting, but perhaps too difficult for pups without substantial shelters. Sure, we could make dens, but...That won't help with snow burying prey and freezing water resources like back home." It had been a common problem in their childhood. The pack would be weathering through winter with low resources, some of the younger and older members would die off, but by spring things would be better again. In the shadowed halls of Mirovis under Ouranos, Lurid had seen a dog-eat-dog pack of wolves who only looked out for themselves. It had taken her countless months to get them to work together, which...was now undone thanks to the disaster and her own inability to find a home for them. Desertion was something she despised, the wolves who ran were less than, and not worthy of life beyond the chase. The bitch-goddess rolled her shoulders up and looked over to her partner in crime, eyes practically glowing in the moonlight. "I saw a place that looked like it would be sufficient, and it is located in the north, but...There is a pack residing there, I've smelled them...If I am not challenging, I suppose I will leave it be, so we must pick somewhere else." From a distance, the ship had seemed like a good place to settle, but it seemed someone else had beaten her to the punch. The north had echoed with the challenge of Winterfell, a pack she had smelled plenty of in the north, though she wouldn't know the name if you asked her. Where would Alastor like to see the halls of Mirovis rise?