The Ashen Warlord appraised his new territory with more than a little pride. He still had a great deal of work to do, he had plans in place to create defense structures around the pack territory, both his and Deathbelles. She would soon be moving her territory behind his, and the Ashen Empire would grow. No doubt she would share the news with the pack soon, but first Sirius wishes to tell Zee what he had done. After all, in doing so, he had made her a leader beside him - she just didn't know it yet.

Making his way partly back towards the sanctuary the Ashen Empire currently resided in, he would toss back his head and howl for his love to come to him, so they might walk together towards the lands he had claimed. There was a devilish smile on his lips as he waited for his chance to tell Zee about the Ash Armada

Sirius' booming call came from an area Zee did not expect. It wasn't Ashen territory and it wasn't the battlefield. Perhaps he was finally taking her on their promised honeymoon. Her ears perked expectantly and she trotted onward to meet the warlord. Slender legs brought her easily to Sea's plain, a place she knew of but had not yet explored. Up ahead her husband stood proudly, a smile upon his face. Zee stepped up towards him, offering him a soft nuzzle in greeting. "Sirius, I missed you." She told him. "It feels like you've been away forever. Where did you run off to?" Her small head cocked to the side in curiosity and her viper slithered up to wrap around her horns to better scent the unfamiliar air. "Speech"

He smiled like a Cheshire cat, ripe with self-satisfaction as his Wife came into view and stepped into the circle of his arms. He drew her close minding her horns as she asked him where he had been off to. Her viper moved through the home rack like it was well at home upon her weapons. He breathes in the scent of her, he felt like he had seen little of her lately. The possessive titan held her close a moment later, before he would step back and tilt his head to the world behind them.

"I have been making plans with Deathbelle to expand the Ashen Empire. You look now upon the terratory of the Ashen Armada, and its warlord leader. Will you take your place at my side and help me form this extension of the Empire?" He asked her, words and voice serious but his eyes where dancing. He looked absurdly pleased with himself as he made Zee the equivalent of a queen. She would finally have the rank she deserved.

Zee listened to his speech with growing confusion, her head tilting further to the side as she struggled to keep up. Ashen Armada? Was that just another name for the Empire to which they both belonged? And wasn't he already the Warlord? Though he said this was a way of extending the pack, and with that realization his words started to sink in. The servant girl's lips pursed, her brow furrowing slightly as she looked up at him. "Do you mean..." She asked softly, her words trailing off. She dropped her gaze from him to stare at the ground, reeling with the emotions that came with Sirius' claim. It was true - she'd always wished to be queen - but had she ever told him that? Did he do this for her? Her paw shuffled against the ground absently and she hummed thoughtfully. Ever since she'd come into this land she'd aimed to find herself a place as alpha, and to earn that right and respect. Was it the same if Sirius won it for her? If this was an extension of Ashen, how would they possibly expect the Klein's to respect two former slaves as their leader? "Sirius..." She began after a moment, peering back up at him with soft blue eyes. "I don't understand. We have our place in the Empire. I'm a servant, I cannot be a queen." Her voice was extremely quiet, fighting against her desire to take the rank. "I haven't even won a fight, you deserve someone... better." "Speech"

She did not share his excitement. Instead she professed self-doubt, and the word 'slave' bounced across his mind. slave, slave, slave like she was condemned. His anger surprised even him, exploding out of him like a punch. He rocked forward on his hunches, shoving his face into hers, as his expression slipped into an angry snarl. "You are NOT a slave!" He spat. "You are a companion and a trusted friend to the empress. You are MY mate, and a queen who's voice is equal to my own. You are are MINE. And I, who have no ambition to, would rule the whole fucking world if it kept you safe and at my side. You will never be a slave again, over my dying breath." He snarled, almost frothing at the mouth as his anger boiled over. He was sick to death of others, even Zee herself, calling her a slave. Over his fucking dead body alright. "Perhaps you made a mistake picking me as your husband, but now you'll have to damn well live with the consequences, because I fucking love you" he proclaimed.

He took a deep breath in an effort to call himself - his anger was only partly at Zee, for believing the role given to her defined her life. It was it witnessing others... and the memory of he himself, treating her like a slave, that drew him over the edge. He was calm now, deceptively so.

"Besides,"he said coldly. "Its already done, Deathbelle released you to me, my Queen." She claimed she hasnt earned these honors. But any who doubted her could go fuck a hog. She was HIS.

Sirius' anger was intense and Zee stumbled back as his snarling face pressed close to hers. Her ears fell to her skull as they caught his loud words, an unreadable expression in her usually soft eyes. She chewed her gums quietly as the titan raged onwards, doing her best not to flinch away from his fury. A very large part of her knew he'd never hurt her out of anger but she had seen the damage those oversized fangs could do - as well as felt them upon her own neck. His passionate tantrum cooled itself after a while and her ears lifted cautiously from her skull as if she expected him to explode further. When he was finished, she let out a held breath and gave him a small stern look. It was hard to match his height but she lifted her head regardless to meet his towering form. "That's no way to speak to your Queen." She mumbled, one side of her lip twitching in the beginning of a smile. "Speech"

His Zee wasnt one to back cowardly away from stern words. She held her ground, ears folding to her skull as through to tune him out, partly lifting comically as through to say 'you dome yet?' But something must have gotten in, because when she spoke, it was in acknowledgment of her position.

The titans expression melted into a warm smile, there was the response he had been expecting when he had first told her. He crept closer, winding his tail across her leg as he looked down into her cool blue gaze, leaning his head into her antlers, mindful of the servant coiled there. "Your right, of course. Forgive me my Queen for my heavy handed words. You deserve only honey to fall upon your silken ears." He purred, the change of dynamic in the unpredictable titan absolute. His grin was wicked, and satisfied as she accepted she was no longer, and would never be, a slave.

"Would you like to survey your domain, my queen?" He asked of her then, his temper completely gone in the wake of her acceptance. "And help me lay the ground work for the rules and structure?" He had had a few ideas himself but wanted to wait for her to go over them before he settled them in stone.

His emotional state changed as quickly as the anger came on and Zee let out a calming exhale as the brief anger faded away completely. He was relaxed and looking very pleased with himself, and Zee cocked her head to give him a crooked smile. He always knew exactly what to say, and she was pleased to hear his over-the-top apology. "You're forgiven - this time." She relented, grinning playfully at her husband. "I suppose that would be good." Her domain. Their domain. Her dreams were beginning to come true and it was all thanks to the warlord who'd won her heart. "Tell me your plans for our armada." She requested of him, stepping away from him to beckon him forward to lead. They had a lot to discuss, and the new queen's heart soared at the thought. "And Deathbelle ... are you sure she will be okay? She will be losing her warlord and her handmaiden... and the pups, how will they fare without us every day?" She tsk'd sympathetically, thinking of the young ones who'd already lost a father an uncle and others of their pack. "Speech"

His grin was still just a little too self-pleased as he looked to his Wife. He had finally done it, she had risen in a heartbeat from slave to queen, and none could ever hurt her without facing his wrath, for what warlord would not burn nations to keep safe his queen?

She forgave him, and moved their attention to the Empire. He was all to happy to comply, as he took the lead and began to walk from the spot he had called her to. "They will not be without us" he said smugly "come and see our design"

He walked to the cove that stood in the four corners of the soon to be Empire, and tilted his head towards the Shrine and Island. "Deathbelles palace will be on Nephilim island, and most of her pack will reside there. She will also control the Shrine. Her Armada will lie in these two plains beside it, and well I will rule these two lands, ultimately Deathbelle will be Empress of all, and members of our packs can stay from all borders without consequence. So she will not be without us because we will belong to one Empire." He explained.

It was somewhat a unique development for this land, for technically he was King of his own terratory, but he looked to Deathbelle for leadership. Still, he had autonomy and would make the rules and decisions that effected his Armada, and they would answer the call if their Empress ever called them to arms.

"I would like you also to look over the rules and ranks I've began to contemplate" he said, and began to list them to her from memory.

Zee listened intently as her husband led her around their part of the empire. The volcano's wrath had done a number on the eastern lands, even winter had seemed to skip the areas so close to the volcano. If the territory had not been covered in ash she might have been able to see even grass in absence of the cold and snow. She could see the potential beauty however and could imagine how their lands would look when nature resettled itself. "It will be lovely." Her response came. The new queen leaned into Sirius' side gently, a smile upon her face. "It all sounds perfect." She had no need to mess with his rules or regulations, nor the petty things such as the rank names. Zee trusted Sirius more then she trusted any other soul and knew he'd make the right decisions for their empire extension. Excitement began to build deep in her chest and she looked up at him eagerly with a question on her lips. "When?" "Speech"

He took a while to list through the rank names, rules and all sorts he had been slowly conceiving for the pack. Once she agreed with him, he gave his head a slow, thoughtful nod. “I was considering constructing an obelisk in the center of the territory, and chiseling the rules into its surface, that way none can ever say they simply forgot” he said, a sly grin on his muzzle. The tenacious wolf had had some success with carving from rock in the past, and he didn’t shy from a challenge. She would ask only when, and he grinned, looking down at the wolf in his side as he pressed a kiss to her nose. “The pack is already ours, but we will reside in the Oasis beside the red rocks until the Volcano settles its pace. I will begin renovation in the meanwhile, and I would like you to have first pick of den” he told his wife, his queen. "Speech"

It didn't surprise her to hear his plans for a carved obelisk in the center of their territory-to-be, but she gave him a smile and shook her head in disbelief regardless. "Oh, so you think you'll have enough time to do this project between everything else that'll need to be done?" She questioned playfully, nudging him with her shoulder. "We need to find members, build dens, mark borders, check on prey population, train guards and healers and hunters as well as managing their schedules." She began with the important aspects of forming a new pack, listing them off as best as she could remember to ensure their armada would have a proper foundation. It was everything she'd ever dreamed of and she'd thought hard and long over her lifetime on what she'd need to do to ensure a pack's health and prosperity. "Then before you get to your obelisk carving I'm definitely going to need some pillows." The new queen looked up at him fondly and with a broad grin, remembering their feather adventures and their journey towards falling in love. "Speech"

At his latest suggestion, she seemed to scoff, her playful words teasing and pointed at the same time. She would give him a list of tasks they needed to perform, a hint of just how busy they were going to be, leading up to their pack forming in truth. Just because he owned the land, didn’t make him an Alpha yet. “Scheduling is your expertise” he teased, but he took her words to heart. He had a lot of planning ahead of him, and his only working experience with a pack came from what he had seen in the Ashen Empire. He snorted in surprised, delighted amusement at her next words, and this time his bow was so low, he almost scrapped the earth with its motion. “As my queen demands, so it sha’ll be done” he promised, eyes sparkling. Surely crafting pillows a second time won't be dearly as dangerous as the first. "Speech"

There was something about standing here on their new lands and playfully poking jabs at each other that thrilled the new queen. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed her husband in the last season. With the pups being born and all his responsibilities since taking the title of Daimyo and Warlord they hadn't seen much of each other and hadn't had the time to simply be together. Zee leaned into him and murmured a happy noise, eyes sliding shut as she took in his scent. "I'll do whatever you want." She relented easily, happy to manage the scheduling after all he'd done for her to get them this far. The titan bowed low at her request and snorted in amusement at her latter request. She laughed loudly before lifting a paw to tap lightly upon his nose. Never had she been the one he'd bowed to and the sight of it made her heart race with excitement. "Yeah okay, Vessel." She joked, using the title he'd given her back when they were both mere slaves. "Lets just find a better craftsman then Dutch this time." Her soft eyes looked down at him lovingly, and after a moment she dipped her own head to touch her nose to his own lowered one. "Save your bows for our empress, silly." The tone in her voice was soft and playful and punctuated by a kiss to his muzzle. "Speech"

He laughed at her easy admittance, wasn’t that his line? He pulled her close, ruffling his muzzle against the side of hers, moving carefully around her horns so he didn’t jab his scruff with them as he bent low to the smaller wolf. He bowed, and joked, and she swatted his nose with a paw, but he could read the excitement racing in her beautiful blue gaze. She called him Vessel, and he chuckled softly, remembering also that that was how he had first introduced himself to her. It felt like so long ago, hadn’t he known Zee all his life? He scoffed when she mentioned Dutch, who hadn’t come through on both their pillows, and Deathbelles armour order. Her absence had left the two scrambling dangerously in order to fulfill the Empress’s request in time. She touched her nose to his, and he looked up at her with a soft, warm smile against his lips. “I’ll save her some, but the rest are yours” he promised her, as he straightened, and then proceed to gently shove his head into her side, in an attempt to topple over the smaller wolf. Let them play in the ash, and laugh together, and know what they were building would stand the test of time. "Speech"

She was about to argue his response - that none should be hers - when he straightened and promptly pushed her to the side. She wasn't expecting the assault and in her bowed stance was easily pushed to the ground. A lighthearted giggle peeled from her maw and she kicked off the ground to regain her feet, launching herself at him high so she might be able to land her body upon his back. She might have been small, but she hoped with enough force he might at least wobble. "One day." The queen threatened. "You'll pull a stunt like that and I'll finally beat you." Her grin widened at the thought, imagining the day she might finally win a match against the Ashen Warlord. "And when I do the whole world will hear about how someone finally made a loser out of such a mighty warrior." It wasn't going to be easy, but under his guidance and training there was still hope that she might one day match him. Not in strength most likely, but once she learned to take advantage of her agility and speed she might find out how to manage his brute force. "Speech"

To hear her laughter made everything worth it. His beautiful, wonderful Queen was happy, and what more could the Tyrant wish for in life? He had given her part of an Empire, with no authority but Deathbelle to answer to. He was prepared to give her so much more, to give her everything. She was the love of his life, the enigmatic once-slave with more spirit than most hardened warriors he knew. “I’m counting on it” Sirius said, an easy grin on his expression, but his eyes were a dare. He wanted Zee to beat him. He already thought her so much more wonderful than he. “I would never be ashamed to lose to you, and I would tell all of our fearsome match, and your inevitable win. Let them fear and love you both.” He promised, crawling up her body to look into her eyes, holding his weight above her, as he looked down into the startlingly-blue gaze of his wife. The outline of a teal moon highlighted one eye, and he would kiss the marking, before trailing his nose half way up the left antler above her forehead, dancing eyes never leaving hers. "Speech"