that's the way I am, such a bitter pill

In hardly a second his fiance had crossed the ground between them, burying her face in his neck for comfort in the same manner she had half a dozen times before. Somehow the familiarity of it was comforting to him as well, and he leaned his cheek down into her scruff to complete the embrace. They did not linger that way long, and as Hana pulled away to answer him the fur upon her scruff brushed past his nose, reigniting the fury within him. He knew who she had been with before she could even finish her story, the evidence was clearly there, buried deep in her undercoat and permeating her skin. Sparrow. His mate had begun to speak, but he could hardly hear it over the roar of blood within his skull.

Azure leaned his head back from her as she inched closer, nostrils flaring as they sought the frigid northern air. She had been with Sparrow. Why? For how long? What had transpired? Most of her story went in one ear and out the other - in this moment, Azure could not care less about Fireside or Tyrian or what she had found there. It was only at Sparrow's name that he was able to focus, to meet her gaze firmly and without distraction. He absorbed the story in cold silence, tasting her shame and embarrassment and the truth of her words. Sparrow had kidnapped her. This was not a mere playful act of piracy, it went above and beyond the maims they had attempted, the fire they had set, the thievery from their marketplace. At one point Azure had hoped that if he simply ignored them long enough that the pirates would get bored and fade out of existence like so many other packs had. It was a stupid assumption, and one Hana had paid for. He would not make that mistake again - Sparrow had stolen an alpha's mate, and like his father before him he would burn villages to the ground to avenge her pain.

He stepped forward towards her once more, bringing her back into his chest and doing his best not to breathe in her polluted scent. "I'm sorry." Azure's words were whispered even within the empty woods, meant for her and her alone. "I should have been there. I shouldn't have let this happen." There was more he needed to say, names he needed to acquire. He needed specifics on how she had been harmed so he could retaliate with a fitting (and greater) severity. Those things would have to wait, at least until she was safe and warm and ready back at their den.

"What can I do? At this moment, what do you need from me?" There was very little Azure was not prepared to give to his koi-wolf. If Hana wanted fish, he would likely rather freeze to death in the northern ocean then return home empty handed. If she wanted Sparrow's head, well, Hana could find her way back through the woods to the Col without him. Comfort, empathy, and understanding was much harder... but Azure would do his best to muddle his way through it if she asked. "I'm not good at this, Hana. I know how to avenge your suffering, but I don't know how to relieve your pain."

"Speech"