What You Need Isn't Always What You Want

Saracyn didn't know what their mother wanted from them, but something in his gut told him that this wasn't going to be a fun conversation. That hunch became more real when Manea's expression turned more stern and she began to tell them what she wanted to talk about. The conversation began casually enough, discussing their upcoming birthdays and how they would both be full adults. She reemphasized the importance of both of them continuing the Mendacium bloodline, a notion Saracyn found more and more asinine given his station and rank. What was the point of him producing more Mendaciums that would end up nowhere in their family or Elysium? Only Avacyn's children mattered, the heirs of the next Matriarch, and even then only the females mattered. He had no desire to follow his family's traditions of setting out to find his soul mate. He had already found his in Avacyn, and there would be no point coupling with anyone else.

For the most part, Saracyn was only passively paying attention to Manea rambling on about their family's laws and traditions—that is, until Manea's words turned harder as she mentioned keeping to all the laws of the Mendacium family. Sara shot Manea a questioning look, but that expression soon turned to indifference at her pointed glance. Ah, she knew... Well, he supposed it didn't matter. He wasn't exactly trying to be surreptitious about his growing relationship with Avacyn. It was bound to come to light sooner or later, and he supposed it would be better to get it all out of the way now. Unlike Ava, who flinched beneath Manea's leer, Sara did not, remaining tall and unchanged as he held his mother's gaze unabashedly. He knew what she and his uncles had done in their youths and it was far worse than what he and Avacyn had discovered together, so he paid no heed to her hypocritical remarks. He didn't care if she knew. But Manea apparently did more than care about their relationship. Their mother went on to explain her secretive dealings, what she had arranged with the Kleins down in Fenmyre, and what she expected of them. Saracyn's eyes widened with shock and then hardened with cold bitterness. Their mother had arranged marriages made for them.

Anything else Manea said after that fact fell on deaf ears. The anger and disrespect he felt prevented him from maintaining his cool head, and he fixed Manea with a biting glare. How dare she do this to them?! It wasn't bad enough that she was trying to dissuade them from being together, but now she had actively taken away the one thing that Deimos had told him granted him power and influence as a male Mendacium. He would not be set on his own path to find a mate like his uncles had. He was being sold off like a product at his mother's behest, and for what? To secure a partnership with wolves lesser than them that he didn't give a fuck about in a land on the other side of the world? He didn't even like Scylla! Was that really how she saw her own children? As tokens to be traded to curry favor with others? Was she trying to fuck the Klein alphas like she was the Hallows wolves too? The hypocrisy of his mother's words and actions swelled the dark fire inside his heart at the perceived injustice. Red lips pulled back from his teeth on reflex in a silent growl, furious blue eyes burning with a cobalt fire.

Beside him, he felt Avacyn shift anxiously, and on reflex he moved a paw to rest gently over hers, offering a small bit of comfort while the instinctual reflex to protect her used his own anger to fuel itself. He didn't like the idea of Avacyn married off to another wolf, and it had been a reality he'd been hoping to somehow circumvent as he developed his own romantic love with his twin. The choice of mates their mother had made were laughable at best and insulting at worst. Albion had been a quiet, distant vacuum with no personality, and Scylla was a near-feral half-wolf that looked more like a large weasel than a canine. Those were the wolves Manea wanted in their bloodline?! Saracyn was a second away from voicing his incredulous displeasure to their dam when Ava's gentle voice broke the tension and she agreed to the orchestrated union. Saracyn turned his shocked gaze down to hold his sister's, his body tense and uneasy. He saw the pleading in her inky eyes, but he still couldn't believe it. A cold pain stabbed through his heart when she gave in to their mother's demands. She would stay her course. In that moment, Saracyn saw the future he'd allowed himself hope for dissolve. The crimson prince slowly withdrew his paw from his sister's, unable to look away from her while his mind and heart reeled from the blow they had been dealt.

Then it was his turn. Saracyn didn't know how to give words to the emotions he was feeling in that moment. He was so filled with an indescribable maelstrom of barely controlled negativity that he felt like he might explode. Icy cobalt eyes lingered on Avacyn's soft features for a while even after she had looked away from him, gazing at her like a yearning lover would. Then he looked down at his own paws, shellshocked brain still scrambling to put together a coherent thought amidst the buzzing in his ears that drowned out his own thoughts. Then he looked back up at Manea and he glared with a scornful fury. "I do not," he spat back defiantly, not even caring to hide the snarl in his tones. "Sell Avacyn off to whatever worthless cur you think gives you the most benefit. But you don't get to control me like you control everyone else. I'm done being given the scraps of your decisions. I'm done being treated like a second rate prize to be given out for favor." Saracyn stood up, on the verge of quivering with anger and hurt. He didn't want to stick around, lest he lose his grip for a second and say or do something everyone would regret. He turned to leave, casting one more glower Manea's way. "I should have died in that fall and saved you the trouble, Matriarch." Then he went to leave.

- exit Saracyn unless stopped -

"Saracyn Mendacium"