Decisions decisions

Kassander listened silently as Maximous spoke, only looking away to glance down at the herbs as Maximous indicated them before returning his intent gaze to Maximous. This was... not good. This was just another symptom of a problem he'd been aware of for a while, the way that Ebony existed not as a family, but as a group of disparate individuals who just happened to cohabit the same lands. Did either of them really consider the ramifications of what they were doing when they came to him like this? Or did both of them care so much more about their own selfish comforts that they didn't care if the rest of the pack even continued to exist outside of their personal issues?

"You can den where ever you want to," he finally said as Maximous wound down. His voice wasn't accusing, but it was quite serious as he continued. "But you need to seriously consider if you actually want to be part of this pack, regardless of whether or not Calli is here. You both agreed to be part of something bigger than yourselves when you joined Ebony under my mother. You both agreed to put the pack's needs before your own. When is the last time you spoke to someone in this pack other than myself or Calli? When is the last time you participated in something to better yourself, or the pack? When is the last time you hunted for someone other than Calli or yourself?"

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I demoted you in the hopes that you would realize that you were going down a path that wasn't healthy for Ebony, but you've ignored it. I don't know why. Maybe you assume that since I'm so much younger that I couldn't possibly know how to be an alpha. Maybe you don't care. I don't know, Maximous but I'm beginning to think you don't actually care about the rest of Ebony at all. I don't know what to do for you - but you need to make a choice. You need to choose to either be with Ebony a hundred percent, through the good and the bad... or you need to make the decision to find someplace else." The finality of the ultimatum was staggering to him, and not long ago he would have quaked beneath it, but maybe the siege had made him finally take the last step into actually taking responsibility for being an alpha.