NEVER SATISFIED

The staccato sound of barking drifts from the range, not necessarily an uncommon occurrence, except that this time the call came for her. She stopped mid-stalk to sit up and listen, sending the hare racing away. Well. That was unusual, Cascade had few wolves in Alacratia close enough to her to want to seek her out, and of them only two were males with that particular timbre to their voices and that wasn't Valen - what was Neios doing on the border? Cautious after the somewhat less than pleasant encounter at Arcanum's festival, but curious and drawn to him, Cascade abandoned her hunt to head for the border at a lope.

He sounded... impatient, barking every few minutes as though to remind her that he was still waiting and somehow she got the feeling that this wasn't just a simple social call, and a shiver of dread raced down her spine. Coming upon him she slowed, and her tail and ears flattened down in uneasy habit as she continued to creep closer. She was a different wolf now than she'd been in her childhood, but half-remembered experiences had taught her that Neios was dangerous when he was in this sort of mood. Warily she moved within his reach, seeking to nudge his chin with her nose. She knew, intellectually, that she need not be so submissive with him, that she was her own person and safe on the boundary of her packlands, but as much as she was fighting it a fearful part of her that had been buried since he'd abandoned her, since before she'd found Valen, had reared its head in the wake of her instability within Imperium, or maybe it was the hormones, whatever it was she couldn't help but regress to the submissive creature she'd been when she'd first found her way home.

Idiot, she snarled silently to herself. Grow a fucking backbone. The hell is wrong with you? Say something sassy. He hates it when you're sassy. Go on, be a bitch. But all she did was stand there silently, staring, the snarky words frozen in her throat.