Decisions decisions

Kassander listened to Maximous speak, and as he did he found it difficult to hide his growing dismay. The black wolf wasn't that old - only a couple years older than Kassander himself - yet he was displaying the sort of behavior that Kassander would have expected with a tottering old man suffering from dementia. The querulousness, the childish behavior, the seemingly wandering attention. The paranoia, and odd behaviors. Was this why a wolf that his mother had seemed to respect so much could act in such a manner?

He shook his head in frustration as Maximous ceased to speak. For the moment he would ignore Maximous' insistence that he wouldn't - couldn't - fight, and would focus on the original subject. "Maximous," he said, firmly but in the gentle manner one might use with a child. "Do you really think that anything you just described is someone acting in the best interests of the pack, and not themselves? The first thing you did when my sister was appointed alpha was to publicly undermine her leadership. You didn't tell anyone about Callisto going missing, but as soon as she reappeared you overstepped your rank in welcoming over the border a wolf who had been in an unknown place for an unknown amount of time, and instead of contacting me immediately you went hunting rabbits for them. You let your personal feelings for someone cloud your judgement when it came to the safety and security of the pack as a whole. You refuse to participate in nor did you initiate training sessions. You refuse to interact with the other members of the pack unless I force you to. You constantly and consistently sulk about and seek to undermine my leadership. You have not made a single attempt since I have been alpha to be a wolf of Ebony. Do you see now why I demoted you? Do you understand that these are not the actions of a wolf who supports and wants to be part of this pack?"

He sought to lock eyes with the older wolf, insistently, seeking to observe through Maximous' reaction to his words and by that reaction, to form his own decision about what to do with the former healer. As an alpha alarm bells were ringing in his head, but as a healer... well, completely different alarm bells were ringing and they were pulling him in two different directions.