LIKE A HOUSE IN A HURRICANE

He had heard the call from the red bitch who'd whelped the brat who'd waltzed in and attacked an Arcanum wolf, saw Daegmar slink off to follow it. Maybe she was curious, maybe she wanted to know the outcome for some nefarious purpose, he neither knew nor cared. He just waited a reasonable amount of time, then heaved himself to his feet and followed. Since Arcanum was called together by a stranger, he felt irritable, out of sorts, and battered in the maelstrom of fury and memory that was his blackened soul.

He had not given himself to this stranger. He knew nothing of her, and had no trust for her at all. He hadn't always agreed with Cat's leadership, had really not liked her at all, but he'd respected her leadership authority. And now... she'd just tossed it away, kicked dirt over his loyalty like it was meaningless, and walked away from him and the entirety of Arcanum. Some of them had simply left - he knew several of the slaves she'd taken had certainly taken the opportunity to escape the pack, and many others had chosen to walk away rather than get caught up with a foundering pack. He wasn't certain yet what he chose - he was biding his time, waiting to see what the one Arcanum wolf he had real respect for would do, but Daegmar was hard to read. Would she go? Would she stay? What she did, he would do also. She was a thinker, unlike him, and he trusted her to read the situation as he could not. Akemi, he still had hopes that she would come to her senses and not stick around, but she was as stubborn as he was and would probably follow where he led... and he didn't trust himself to make a decision that could put her in jeopardy, so he'd just follow Daegmar.

Which he was literally doing, right now, as he trotted into the battlefield. Her scent led him right to a ring of wolves surrounding two combatants - one the red woman, one the white wolf who had healed him after his battle with the pink king who had kicked his ass. His eyes passed indifferently over both before finally resting on Daegmar, who even as he watched moved away somewhat to begin a second ring for a second battle. Challenges, apparently. What was it about challenges that made everyone who wanted a pack come out of the woodwork at once? Jealous of the attention?

He was interested to see that the challenger here was the white female he had met briefly immediately before he joined himself to Arcanum, then Elysium. It had been following her fading scent that had actually led him to the pack. So now she was challenging for it? Hmph. Could be something he might want to know the outcome of. A chance for their new alpha to prove she wasn't just a puppet, or a chance for this pale fae to take Arcanum entirely.

The black male stalked over to slouch at Daegmar's side, gold eyes fixed on the scene. Would this Sibelle even have the balls to answer the challenge with her benefactor locked in battle and unable to come to her rescue? Time to see. A faintly mocking grin flashed his fangs as he settled himself. Just get this fucking over with so he could move on to more important things, like his own life.



"Speech"

the sins of our father, the sins of our young