Irilyth hobbled her way out of the medical den once she was sure Alastor had left. She hadn't dared to get back up again when he was around, not after the violence he'd done onto her as punishment for disobeying him and daring to defy an alpha of Elysium. She had already pissed him off enough for one day, she knew better than to test her luck against the giant volatile dire wolf. So she had laid on the cold cave floor, her body sore and aching all over, battered, bruised, and bloody, until she was sure he had moved on with his day. Only then did the little golden fae lift herself back up with a great deal of strain and stumble over to her medicine stores. She downed a number of decoctions, mainly of silphium and meadowsweet to deal with the after effects, and then began to carry herself out to the lake to get herself cleaned up.

Making her way through the pine forest down to Alias Lake was a feat of immense strength on behalf of the dainty lady. Alastor had done a number on her; her body was covered in bite marks and scratches from his sharp claws. She clasped her tail over her hindquarters, hoping to obscure some of what the Commander had done to her until she could cleanse herself of the evidence. Least of all, she didn't want Manea to see her in such a state. She knew the Matriarch had left her punishment in the paws of her husband, but even then she suspected Manea might not approve of Alastor's choice of discipline. Still, she couldn't bring herself to regret what she had done. Yes, she had disobeyed pack laws and refused a direct order from her alphas, but she had done so out of obligation to her patient. She had protected Relm and her privacy and that was what mattered. Limping over to the placid waters of the lake, Iri waded in until the cool water rose up to her knees, then she began to bathe the remnants of dried blood and Alastor's scent from her fur.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Large amethyst paws pounded against rocky terrain as she ran from the den she shared with Alastor to the infirmary, her emotions slipping from anger to guilt and back again. She hadn't been able to bring herself to punish Irilyth herself for disobeying Alastor's orders even though she knew Alastor wouldn't just let it go. She could see both sides and saw merit in both sides of the argument so she couldn't point all of the blame at either. She had left the punishment in Alastor's paws, but now she knew that had been a mistake. She should have known better, but now it was too late to go back on that decision. She skidded to a stop in front of the infirmary den and the scents of blood and sex were undeniable with Irilyth and Alastor's scents heavily intermingled among them. Her lover was nowhere to be seen and she sighed, her ears flicking back against her head. It wasn't all that difficult to figure out where she would have gone given the situation so even without her scent trail to follow.

Turning, Manea began to trot down through the pine forest toward the lake that dominated the middle of the island. Irilyth's cream and tan form was easy to spot near the edge of the water—along with the blood that she was currently washing from her fur and diluting out into the water around her. With a frown, Manea quietly moved down to the edge of the cool water, stepping in to the lake behind Irilyth and wading out to meet her where she was. Without saying anything, she started helping to scoop water up with her larger paws to pour it over Irilyth's back and neck, washing out her pale coat with gentle paws. "I'm sorry," she said softly as she lightly scrubbed through her fur, combing through it with her claws, while being careful to avoid any wounds she came across.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

It came as no surprise to Irilyth that she wouldn't be left alone for long. She knew that once Alastor had gotten back to Manea and the Matriarch had received word of what he'd done to punish her, she would come running to check up on her. She had just hoped to have been fully cleaned up and bandaged by then. Maybe if she appeared a little less worse for wear, her lover and alpha wouldn't feel as guilty about what her husband had done. But when Irilyth heard the sound of paws splashing into water and wading out to her, she knew. With ears folding back to her head again, Iri just stared down at her own reflection in the rippling water's surface, listening while those steps brought Manea right behind her. Neither fae said anything, the quiet of the wooded island surrounding them for a time. Then the sound of water being scooped, and a cool rush of the liquid ran down her back, helping to wipe away the sweat and dirt and dried blood from her gold and ivory fur. Iri hated feeling like she was a point of contention between Manea and Alastor, but the larger woman's gentle caring only confirmed her suspicions that Alastor had acted of his own volition without Manea's blessing when he had done what he'd done.

Manea apologized after several minutes of silence between the two and Irilyth still couldn't bring her raspberry eyes up from her reflection on the water. "You were not the cause of this," she remarked, her voice quiet and slightly hoarse from Alastor having choked her during their forced coupling. Her throat and trachea would be bruised for a while, but the damage dealt would not be irreparable. "The damage isn't fatal. I will heal." Of course, there was still the greater concern of the aftermath of her rape, especially considering she was in heat, but she would tend to those matters soon enough. Irilyth was the pack's most experienced healer, after all. She was well versed in all manners of medicine, but especially around procreation. A shiver shook Iri's body when Manea began to comb her claws through her fur, her eyes closing as she reminded herself that these claws would not hurt her. The trauma was still fresh though, and the feeling of Alastor's claws ripping into her flesh was still throbbing in her brain.

Irilyth sat there in the lake, letting Manea groom her while she tried to gather herself back up and compose herself in front of her alpha. Breathing a shaky sigh, the golden fae opened her ruby eyes once more and swallowed hard. "I don't regret what I did," she told Manea after some more time in quiet together. "I was protecting my patient. If I had to do it again, knowing what would happen... I would." Iri knew that this claim would likely not earn her any favor with Manea or Alastor, but she had to stick to her ethics and morals. Her duty had been to Relm, and she deigned Alastor a detriment to her patient's welfare at the time. Had she been insubordinate to an alpha-ranked wolf? Yes, she would not deny this. But she had peace of mind knowing she had done what she believed was right for the wolf in her charge at the time.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Manea couldn't help but feel like Irilyth was wrong when she denied that she was the cause of this, but she kept herself from saying so since she knew it wouldn't make any difference in the outcome. She hadn't been able to stomach a punishment that would have been enough to placate Alastor, but she also hadn't been able to tell him that she didn't deserve some sort of repercussion from her actions. As she had told Relm, that matter was out of her paws. Alastor would have made sure that she was punished regardless of what she said and would have simply taken his own punishment for disobeying her instead. Now she was forced to see Iriltyh hurt at her husband's doing. She knew that she wasn't the source of the initial transgression, but she couldn't help but feel as if she hadn't done enough to prevent what had come of it. She was glad at least that Alastor had refrained from doing anything permanent or fatal. It was painful and traumatizing and there would need to be time to heal, but she would be okay. Manea would see to that.

She continued to gently and carefully groom and bathe her lover, washing away the remnants of what Alastor had done and slowly moving her way through her golden fur from her shoulders and down her back. She glanced up from her work for a moment when Irilyth spoke again, simply stating how she did not regret what she did, citing the fact that she was protecting her patient. Manea's ear's flicked at that, but only because Relm had been the patient in question. If it had been anyone else she wasn't sure she would be able to find a reason to side with Alastor in this fight, but this was far more complicated than that. She didn't respond right away, instead staying quiet for a few more long moments while her paws continued to move across Irilyth's body with tender and careful movements. After some time and thought, she leaned her head down and gently kissed Irilyth's cheek. "I don't expect you to regret it," she told her softly. "I know you were doing what you felt was right. That's why I'm not mad at you, I'm only mad that this situation happened at all."

Manea sighed and nuzzled the top of Irilyth's head before she got up and moved around to face the smaller woman, finding her familiar raspberry gaze as she settled back on her haunches in the water once more and began to groom around her face and neck and down along her forelegs and chest, using her large paws to scoop water onto her fur as she went. Manea didn't even bother to ask if Irilyth had taken herbs to make sure that she wouldn't end up pregnant after this. She knew her lover well enough that she knew Irilyth would have taken care of that first and foremost. "I think it's probably best you stay away from our den for a while," she said after a bit. "I'll get you settled in one of the guest dens at least until I can smooth things over with him and you can heal." The last thing she wanted was for Alastor to take any more of his anger out on her. When she felt like Irilyth was throughly cleaned up, she leaned down again to kiss her forehead, her paw gently cupping her love's cheek. "Are you okay to walk? I'll carry you if you need me to."

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Although Irilyth did not resist Manea's assistance and touches as the larger woman helped clean her up and wash away any traces of the punishment Alastor had doled out on her, there was still a tension to her body that Manea would undoubtedly feel while she groomed the petite fae. The trauma was still fresh, her body still burning through the adrenaline that had kept her going during her assault. Despite knowing the danger and harm had passed, her body and mind were still on high alert, racing with the adrenaline-fueled high of her fight or flight response. When Manea leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her cheek, Iri instinctively jolted, startled from her own distracting thoughts by the touch, but was quick to relax back into her lover's touch. She wasn't jumpy or startled easily on a normal basis, Manea would know this, but Alastor had awoken a repressed part of her that she hadn't seen since coming into Manea's service. It was her old survival mechanisms when her former masters had been much more violent with her. It had been gone since coming to be with Manea, and now it had made its way back to the surface.

Manea said that she didn't expect her to be sorry, and Irilyth was grateful for that. It meant that at least one of her alphas would understand why she did what she did and why she had defied Alastor so brazenly. Iri nodded silently, understanding Manea's regret that this situation happened at all. If given the choice, she also wished it never would have happened, but those were not decisions or wishes for her to make. All she could do was make the best choices with the things she was given to work with. The little golden woman felt Manea shift behind her, heard the sloshing of water being disturbed, and then saw the violet form of her alpha appear before her, Iri glanced up briefly into her alphess' aqua eyes, but quickly diverted her gaze back down to the water and her paws below its surface. She didn't feel like she could make eye contact with Manea right now—not after she'd been so violently violated by her husband. There was a shame to having Manea clean up her husband's mess, like for all the improvements Irilyth had done to herself, none of it mattered in the end. She was still just as weak and helpless to prevent herself from being used and abused.

The next words that came from Manea's lips struck Iri in the heart. She didn't want to be forced out of her home for reasons beyond her control. It felt like she was still being punished for the sins of others. Because Alastor had stuck his dick in some other woman and gotten her pregnant, she was now the bad guy for enforcing her patient's right to privacy and she was the one being penalized. Irilyth's frown deepened and she shook her head to Manea's offer. "I can walk. Thank you though." She had made it down to the lake on her own, after all. With a bit of pain and difficulty, but she had done it. Iri didn't resist Manea's paw as it stroked her cheek, but she also couldn't lift her gaze to meet her lover's either. She rose to her paws again, letting the cold lake water drip from her soaked pelt while she turned towards the stony shore.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Manea didn't miss the way that Irilyth avoided her gaze and as much as that hurt she didn't try to push the blonde furred woman or force her to do anything that she didn't want to do. There was only a brief moment with Irilyth glanced up at her wordlessly, but she had quickly looked away again. It didn't hurt her personally as much as she hurt for her love and the fact that she was put through this. She couldn't deny the guilt she felt for what Irilyth was put through despite the fact that she had no hand in what happened and hadn't known what Alastor had planned to do. As she finished cleaning Irilyth's fur she had only wished there was more than she could do to help or a way she could reverse time to put a stop to all of this before it began. She had only been trying to help and to give Irilyth an easy escape from having to live in the same caves as her attacker when she offered to set up one of the spare dens for her, but as she watched Irilyth's frown crease her delicate features and heard her response that was short and hard Manea guilt only deepened, her ears folding back against her skull.

Her aqua gaze followed the smaller woman as she stood and began to walk out of the lake, allowing Manea to really see the extent of the wounds that Alastor's claws had left for the first time now that they weren't submerged in the water. Her heart clenched as she watched her go for a moment, her stomach twisting with frustration–not at Irilyth, but at Alastor and the situation that was in front of them. She understood that Irilyth had technically gone against direct orders and broken their chain of command so she was due for some kind of punishment regardless of why she had done it, but there was no reason he had to stoop to this. But worse than that, she had guided Irilyth through building her confidence and self worth only for this to threaten it. She had done all she could to support Relm for him despite her issues with the woman and this was how he treated the one she loved.

She understood immediately what had upset Irilyth about her offer to move out of the den until things calmed down. It was the exact same reaction that she would have had if the roles were reversed and even though she wasn't sure she agreed with the decision given Alastor's volatile nature, she wanted to grasp any spirit and confidence Irilyth had and bolster it where she could. "Irilyth, wait," she said gently as she got up and waded through the water to join her at the shore. She tried to look for her raspberry gaze, but she wouldn't force Irilyth to look at her. "If you want to come home then do it," she said quietly. "I was trying to do and suggest what would be easiest on you. I didn't want you to feel as if I expected you to come back and live with Alastor after this if you didn't want to. But if you want to stand up to him and come home then I'll support that decision and I'll protect you." Her voice grew heavy with emotion as she spoke, lifting her paw to Irilyth's cheek again as her ears folded back against her head. "Apologies won't fix anything so I won't say them again, but let me help where I can. Tell me how you want to be helped."

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Irilyth had almost reached the stony shore of the lake when Manea's voice called back out to her, bidding her to stop. She obeyed, partly due to her nature of obeying those she had belonged to and partly because she would never have denied Manea. The sloshing of water behind her let her know Manea was approaching her, but she didn't turn around nor look up as her former owner came to her front until nothing but purple legs blocked out her vision. Taking in a slow breath, Iri turned her gaze up to meet Manea's aqua eyes, a pain and tiredness etched deep into those purplish-red eyes. Manea tried to change her mind, to reassure the little fae that if she wanted to stay in the Mendacium den that she could and she would protect her if Iri wanted to stand up to Alastor. The frown on Irilyth's face deepened at the offer and again her gaze slowly drifted down, finding it far easier to sink back into her submissive nature and let things play out around her than it was to continue to try and be bold or strong. It was exhausting and Irilyth did not want to weather the storm only to be buffeted by it.

The touch of Manea's paw on her cheek did not make the golden fae recoil from her, but neither did she lean into it either. She remained tactfully detached, continuing to stare down at her own paws beneath the rippling water while her alpha pleaded with her to let her help. Irilyth's ears flattened against her head again and remained pinned back, though whether it was in shame, in submission, or in defeat she couldn't tell. "I won't make you live your life on edge worrying about protecting me from your husband, Matriarch," she spoke in her rough voice, only then managing to lift her gaze to Manea's as she declined her offer. "I will return to gather a few of my belongings, then I shall move into a spare den until you say I can return." With Manea still blocking her way and holding her cheek, Irilyth was trapped there. So she simply waited for Manea to either let her go to do as she needed to, or say something else. But Iri was ready to go hide away and sleep off the pain until she forgot about this day. "May I go do as you asked, Matriarch?"

"Manea" & "Irilyth"

Any hope she had of reassuring Irilyth that she had her support and reigniting the fire she loved from the little blonde women was lost as Irilyth continued to detach from her and struggle to meet her gaze. Part of her truly wanted Irilyth to take the offer and to come back home, but instead her lover simply insisted that she wouldn't let her live on edge as she protected her from Alastor and instead would gather some of her things so she could live in one of the spare dens until she said she could return. Manea's shoulders sagged with a kind of defeat of her own, her ears flicking back as Irilyth referred to her as Matriarch. She had put so much effort into breaking Irilyth of that habit and now she couldn't tell if it was simply that old habit returning or if this was some form of Irilyth's blame being directed toward her and causing her to distance herself in whatever way she could without out right lashing out. As long as the little healer continued like this is was going to be impossible for her to tell.

As Irilyth requested to go, calling her Matriarch once again and making her heart wrench in her chest, a slow sigh escaped Manea and she let her paw slip away from her cheek. "You may," she replied softly with her ears folded back against her head with a mix of guilt and helplessness. Before she moved aside, Manea lowered her head to press a gentle kiss to the top of Irilyth's crown. "I love you, Irilyth. I'll be around to check on you soon... I'm sorry." She finally turned to leave then, her jaw tense as she went off toward the family den. She struggled with what to do now since she knew neither Irilyth nor Alastor was going to budge on this and now she was stuck in the middle of the wolves she loved, furious with Alastor for what he did, guilty that she hadn't been able to prevent it, and yet she knew that there was no real way to punish Alastor without risking putting their marriage into some sort of tail spin again. At the very least she could go make sure the family caves were clear of him before Irilyth got there and hopefully get a chance to chew him out in the process–for what little good it would do.

"Manea" & "Irilyth"