This was a stupid idea

Eligos just watched as the younger stranger approached him - a stranger, but not an unfamiliar scent. The other male spoke, and Eligos tilted his head in acknowledgement before asking, tone very mild, "I trust you grew out of your rebellious age and we need not expect to see you in our borders this time?" In anyone else the words may have been teasing; Eligos didn't tease. But beneath the mild, bland tone was a hint of a very dry, faintly annoyed amusement as he delicately showed his recognition of the once-boy who had shown up to harass Aerie well after the raid. He had seen him as well at the meeting Armada had requested with the other alphas, but had refrained from personal discussion there so had not actively spoken to him.

But he wasted little time on the bear-like young man, as the target of his call appeared shortly after, and Eligos turned his blank gaze to Sirius.

Not all that long ago Eligos would have had to look up, however slightly, to meet the eyes of the other alpha. Now their gazes were level. The other changes - the gold-wrapped black horns, the new markings, the rippling glow - had been visible at that alpha meeting, but Eligos had not been face to face like this with Sirius since around the time of the raid, and that single minor change... looking him straight in the eye... it was an entirely different feeling. He took a moment to absorb it, curious, before he spoke.

"Sirius," he began by way of greeting the other alpha, and immediately got into it, his neutral tone not changing. "I would have preferred our paths never crossed again, frankly. I find you to be an arrogant, childish, overbearing ass. I do not like you, I do not like your pack's policies, and I do not see what redeeming features you could possibly have to justify so many looking to you." This was all delivered with the same tone one might comment on the weather - it was what it was. "That said, my pack's needs come before my personal feelings. I am here because Aerie was meant to be neutral to all packs, and animosity between yours and mine has no benefit." Beyond a deep sense of personal satisfaction. "I am here to reiterate that Aerie has no interest in attacking the Armada outside of being specifically contracted to do so. And to make clear that your ploy to frighten us into leaving you alone was both unnecessary and a failure. We are not afraid of you. We never were."

He stopped to stare Sirius in the eye, fighting down his own personal animosity towards the other alpha. He hadn't come here intending to trade insults or to fight, but anger was a slippery thing and it kept getting away from him.