Hit it with your big purse

Cascade knew when she'd been beat, and her survival instinct definitely trumped her pride so when his legs closed around her neck and his teeth into her scruff she went limp beneath him in surrender without the slightest qualm. They'd begun to attract quite the crowd while they'd fought, and even as Ashmedai leapt forward to eagerly challenge Valen (and be shot down by his mother, who jumped in to take his place) others were expressing their desire to fight the Imperium alpha. She flopped down at the edges of the group to make room for his newer "suitors" while she watched. Even a big cat showed up, an albino as pale and rosie-eyed as ever an albino wolf would be. Cas grinned, a very bloody grin as she licked at the blood streaming from her muzzle, and shrugged as Esti shot her a look. Hey, if he was going to be dumb enough to fight a big cat, she wasn't going to stop him. If nothing else it would be entertaining to watch him get his butt kicked by something larger than him for a change. She'd just patch him up again.

She let her attention be drawn away from the fight to Ash's antics as he cavorted around, but she winced internally as he practically tackled the big cat with a veritable flood of words. Esti, let alone Valen, would probably not appreciate it if she let their son get eaten by the very same big cat Valen was supposed to fight, and so she pushed her way back to her paws (wincing as she did at the pull of new wounds without adrenaline to counter them) and padded over to the fast-growing pup to deftly insert herself between him and the lion. Though, being Cas, she couldn't help a jab of her own. "Hey, Ash, the kitty knows he's outclassed already, that's why your dad's going to have him go last so he stands a chance right? So let's not rub his nose in it too much ok?"

She bumped her shoulder gently against the boy who, if she was any judge of things, was going to be every inch as tall as Phim and Vana. Hardly surprising since Esti was the same size as Valen and Cas herself carried the blood of dire wolves. She wondered very briefly if Valen's height would be expressed in a smaller woman's litter as well - very briefly, since if Ashmedai was anything like Angelus she'd need to actually pay attention to make sure he didn't slip around her and physically poke the big cat. Hey, he wasn't her kid, she wasn't going to stop him from drowning the cat in questions, but at least if he pissed the kitty off, Mr. Kitty would have to go through Cas before he could hurt the pup. "Who do you think is going to win, Ash?"

"Speech"

She got her head in the clouds
And she's not backing down