henlo

The abrupt nature of the alpha's explanation, or lack thereof, did not pass Corbie's notice, nor the way the seemingly deliberate way the big red male played the honey to the alpha's vinegar. Whether true or not, she was beginning to suspect that they were trying to play her, to get her off stride with the alpha's barely-veiled rudeness and then draw her out into vulnerability with the red male's friendliness. She returned their crocodilian-grins with a bland, polite smile of her own. "Of course. I certainly understand wanting a safe place to have a family," she said. "We are not blood, Avalon, but we too are a family. We, ourselves, consider ourselves to be stewards of our land and our livestock, and that is what we specialize in. Avalon's wolves have grown quite skilled at protecting them from predators, so that our family can have a safe place to live and grow as well." This meeting, she judged, had gone as long as she could go with it without putting the pack at risk, if Requiem's friendliness was bait to trap her into giving them too much. "If you will excuse me, though, I'm afraid that I have some distance to go before nightfall, so I must be going now. A pleasure to have met you both." Still with that same deliberately bland expression, she inclined her head in farewell and turned to stride away, seemingly unconcerned about turning her back on them. Ren, after all, was guarding it.