I'll show you how a heart can never fail

It was still gloomy overhead, but thankfully the rain had taken a break for today. It'd given him the opportunity to go and scout around a bit. He had yet to talk to the alphas of any of the other packs and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. It seemed like a pretty "alpha" type thing to do so he figured checking them out to figure out their standing was a good idea. The closest one he could think of, other than Celestial, was another one that had made its home in the south so he'd taken a couple of days away from pack duties to go out. On the bright side it meant he was being given the opportunity to explore too. Eventually he found himself at the border of a pretty territory. In fact it reminded him of the willows at home, but it would have been a lot nicer had the sun decided to show up for once. He glanced at the sky before he raised his head and let out a call for a member of the pack. The leader would have been preferred, but Rory wasn't going to be picky.

"Speech"

Roza's head lifted to listen to a howl that came from the direction of the border around the willows. It seemed like they had a visitor today! She got to her paws and glanced toward Ulric to make sure he was occupied before she took off toward the border to greet their guest. As she got closer she saw the red-hued young man that must have called for someone in the pack. His scent told her that he was part of a pack she was at least familiar with - especially since both of the packs in the west seemed to be home to some of her distant relatives. She gave the man a warm smile and trotted over to stand a comfortable distance from him. "Hello there! I'm Roza Adravendi. I'm one of the alphas here." She hoped that Ganta would appear as well so he could meet their visitor as well. Even though he was very young, she got the feeling this was a leader of some kind from Lirim. It made her curious as to how such a young man got to be an alpha, but she knew her own father had been pretty young himself when he took over Fiori. She left the floor open for a moment to let him introduce himself before she asked, "What brings you out to our neck of the woods?" Talk Abbey Others

It struck Ganta as odd that a wolf howling at the borders sought just any mere member of the pack. His ears twitched thoughtfully, his head canting to the side before he set off to see what the stranger wanted. Roza had beat him there, and Ganta felt a bit embarrassed to see how much effort his beloved was putting in over himself. He really had to step things up… Slacking off wasn’t going to bring their daughter back after all. He let his ghostly white eyes fall upon the male, finding something about him a bit familiar, though he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why.

“I see you’ve met my mate, stranger.” The young man said calmly. “I am Ganta Lore, the Primul or other alpha of the pack.” He settled beside Roza, his expression thoughtful. The other carried himself rather well for being so young. Ganta arched a brow, waiting to see what it was that brought this stranger to the borders of Dragoste.

I'll show you how a heart can never fail

A female arrived first and he studied her for a moment with a spark of interest. Another female alpha? It would be the first he'd met other than his mother, but he wasn't sure if that counted. He'd only ever met one other alpha and that happened to be his uncle. Well it was nice to see that at least all alphas weren't giants. He was as tall as his uncle, as well as his father, so he was beginning to wonder if giants was just a natural trait for leaders.

He offered her a smile as she introduced herself, but it faltered slightly as she said Adravendi. Wait, so she was family? He recovered quickly and somehow managed to remember that he was supposed to introduce himself. "I'm Ruaidhrí Adravendi. It's nice to meet you Roza."

He wasn't surprised by her question, but he thoughts paused as another wolf arrived. This one's scents were thick across the border as well. He didn't think about the scents very long though as his eyes fell on the other male's fur. It was long. And he thought Iskra was the most remarkable wolf he'd seen so far. This was just on a whole new level. It took him a minute to realize the male had said something and he finally managed to also remember that staring had been rude. He could imagine Faite would have given him an earful about it.

"It's nice to meet you Ganta, I'm Ruaidhrí." He glanced towards Roza and realized he hadn't answered her question yet. "I'm the leader of Lirim, one of the packs in the west." He explained, mostly to the male. Had Roza heard of Lirim before? She was family after all, and older than him, so it was possible. "I just came to say hello and figure out pack relations." He wasn't sure how else to explain it, so that was the best explanation he could come up with.

"Speech"

Roza's gaze shifted away from their guest for a moment when Ganta came to join them, giving her mate a glance and a small smile before looking back toward Ruaidhri. She noticed how the younger man faltered a bit when he saw Ganta and she had to bite back a chuckle. She knew he was an interesting looking wolf, but she sometimes forgot how unusual his fur was until she saw others react to him. She leaned into Ganta's side for a moment, giving him a small grin. When Ruaidhri began explaining why he had come to see them she looked back to him and nodded with understanding. Visiting the other packs was something they really should have done more of long ago, but in a way she was happy they had kept such a low profile. With all that was going on with Ganta's family maybe it was best to not make any waves. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Ruaidhri. I don't know much of your side of the family besides the few I met when I was very young so I'm very glad to finally meet some more!" She smiled as she spoke, as friendly as ever. She left the being apprehensive to Ganta this time. She knew that it was probably a naive belief to have, but something in her immediately relaxed when she found out that whoever she was talking to was an Adravendi. She looked to Ganta for a moment, saying, "I feel like we need more allies and friends now that Fiori is gone." She waited for Ganta's reaction and response since she surely didn't want to make any decisions without his opinion. If left to her own devices she would simply make any pack tied to her family their allies. Talk Abbey Others

Ganta gave the other male a small nod as he introduced himself. The other was an alpha as well… and at such a young age? He arched a brow a little, but was quiet as Roza spoke. So the other male was family then… and his age possibly excused the reason why he sought just any member of the pack. But he was a little caught off guard that Roza would suggest that they become allies with a pack that they didn’t know too well. Even if they were Roza’s family they hadn’t… really met. It left Ganta feeling a little uncertain, but he’d trust his wife. Right now could they really afford to be picky? Dragoste was still so small…

“I know how you feel, Roza.” The male rumbled. His mind shifted to his own family, a pang clutching his heart. What would it had been like if he could trust them as Roza trusted any member of her own? “...Could you tell us more about Lirim?” Ganta’s gaze shifted back to Rory, his ghostly gaze curious. He hadn’t realized there were so many Adravendi in Boreas… did that make them at risk to his own family? The thought made Ganta feel guilty… He should have probably been hunting his siblings down...but instead… He pushed the thought away.

I'll show you how a heart can never fail

It took Rory a moment to get over his initial shock of the male alpha, but he'd resolved himself to not staring. Thankfully his thoughts were distracted when Roza started speaking again and he offered her a light smile as she spoke. "It's nice to meet more of the family too. Mom made sure to explain how big our family was, but I still find it amazing there are so many of us." Of course he was only family because his lineage had been adopted in, but they were family all the same.

He was surprised when Roza mentioned allies, but the part about Fiori threw him off the most. Fiori was gone? He shot her a quizzical look before his attention shifted to Ganta. As much as his curiosity was demanding to be satiated, he didn't want to be rude and ignore the male's question. So he waited and instead thought of what he should say to them both. His mother probably would have been better suited to answer it, Lirim was her dream after all, but she wasn't here so it was up to him now.

"Lirim is a lawful good pack for the most part. My mother branched off from Celestial to make her own pack. It's very laid back and we keep to ourselves for the most part, but the pack as a whole doesn't look kindly to those who would do others harm. We like to focus on ensuring that each wolf that comes into the pack is groomed into becoming the best and most successful versions of themselves without getting rid of the freedoms. It's a structured pack without a lot of hierarchy if that makes sense. We don't have a lot of ranks and instead we work more like a democracy. Everyone has a voice within the pack."

"Speech"