Viper had been keeping to herself and her commitment to the pack after her recovery of birth. A little too soon maybe, but it was easy for her to pick up and move on even through the difficult times. She left Cerberus with Siren or Moccasin but stayed with him come nighttime unless she had an overnight patrol. She was quiet with him as she was everyone else, but shared something a little more with him than others. She may not have been the best mother, or raising her son properly herself, but she still acted as a mother in those late nights with him snuggled up with her. She was traveling across the island with a kill for the stores, her avoidance of Chimera himself may not have been so public, but it was sure that their relationship was no longer what it used to be. And she put all of her deeper feelings aside and instead filled her time with work. It was practical for her, and in the mean time she was able to stay away from confronting Chimera, or Aliana, or even Siren really. It was just her and Cerberus these days. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

It was no secret to any of them that Viper had been avoiding him. The woman moved about the island like a ghost, barely seen and never heard. Once she had healed from the birthing, Chimera had ceased seeking her out at night. During the day, he sometimes went and rested for a time with the boy, but never with Viper. The rift between them grew and grew. Others took the place that she had once held in his heart. Was it all her fault? No. Did he feel like it was? Yes. Moving across the island, Chimera noticed the smaller wolf dragging a kill back to the stores. Something within the man prompted him to approach the black and russet fae. An attempt to be civil? A last ditch effort to see if they could at least speak to one another? Coming up to the fae, the giant brute nodded. "Viper," he spoke her name in greeting. That being done, he reached down and took the doe from her grasp, slinging the creature over his back so that they could walk the meat to the stores together. "You seem to be back to normal. Are you feeling okay?" "Chimera" -- "Viper"

Viper almost didn't stop when Chimera came to her, but once he approached her she halted and let him take the kill from her jaws. She found it hard to really look at him, which was so unlike her. She was much stronger than the way she was acting. "I'm fine." Her tone was both a mixture of blunt and gentle. She was growing tired of what Chimera had done to her, not that she was entirely open about it. They had their talk before she had Cerberus, but it wasn't really even clear to her at that time how damaging Chimera was to her. She moved forward as they continued towards the stores, not saying anything. But it wasn't her normal silence, this time she felt a tension between her and Chimera. And she had never felt this way before. She would do him the service of walking with him for the kill she brought back, and then she would go back to Cerberus or out on patrol. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

As he suspected, she was just as cold as ever towards him. Why had he expected any less? Viper was as far from Aliana as one could get on the spectrum. He couldn't expect the same things from the russet maned woman that he could from the clouded lady. With Aliana, Chimera received love. He received obedience. He received warmth and affection and everything that he wanted from a woman. Viper... she barely existed at all these days. Fine. She was fine. Chimera simply grunted in response before ducking into the building that housed their food. It was one of the only stone buildings on the island and it was dug out well under the sand. The room was always cool in temperature. Perfect for housing meat until it could be processed and dried. Shrugging the doe off of his back, Chi placed it upon a stone slab. Tomorrow, he would deal with it. Nodding to Viper, Chimera pushed past her and went back up the stairs and out of the structure. He wouldn't dig. If she wasn't receptive, he wouldn't force her to be. He didn't need to. She had put herself apart from the rest of them and doing so had made her less... everything. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

Viper's jaw tensed as he grunted at her, just continuing to move along on the stroll to the stores. Just as soon as they arrived, Chimera was in a hurry to leave. As much as she had distanced herself, she had missed what her and Chimera had. It was something she didn't realized she missed through her entire life. And it wasn't because of Cerberus that they didn't have that same bond. It was because of Chimera. Or, at least through her eyes. Viper leapt up the steps after him, letting out a small growl-whine towards him as if to get his attention, but once faced with him she couldn't say what was on her mind. It seemed to her that Chimera cared as much for her as Aranea did. And she was truly miserable here. But she felt like there was no where else for her to go. Take Cerberus? She doubted it would fly with Chimera. She was always so outcasted, Hattori recruited her out of pity. And so she felt Chimera could have been keeping her for just the same reasons. Through a coarse breath of frustration, she let out, "I told you I loved you, Chimera." She had before because she did. She had never felt the way she did with Chimera with anyone else. "I will never have anyone else." Her tone was almost pointing to him for the blame of the way she felt, and yeah that could have been true but it could have been as easy as walking away, couldn't it? While she had felt like she gave Chimera the options of what he needed to do to have her, she also felt almost bad for not giving with what he wanted. "I am... mis-understood." Her gaze dropped from him as did her more defensive demeanor, she was clearly upset but not angry. Because she had missed what they had, but she didn't want what he had to offer. "You will always have someone else." She stated in truth because he had Aliana, he had Siren, he had a number of others that stood beside him maybe in their own value of love, and she had no one. Though she guessed that Cerberus had filled some part of her too, just not the way that Chimera could. She spoke quietly under her breath, her expression this time both sad and angry, "I hate you." "Chimera" -- "Viper"

As he walked away, Viper began to speak. Chimera politely stopped and turned, letting the woman have her say. It was more than she'd said to him in weeks, months maybe. He'd lost count. Mismatched eyes stayed fixed on the small woman as she spoke. It sounded as though she blamed him for the love that she'd felt for him. He stayed quiet, letting her continue if she wished, which she did. She loved him. She hated him. He reciprocated. Once the russet and black fae was finished speaking, Chimera didn't immediately launch into speech. Age and family had tamed him somewhat and he didn't immediately give way to anger or rage like he may have once upon a time. Instead, the two-toned brute moved forward until he was towering over the small fae. Leaning down, he placed a soft kiss upon Viper's forehead. His voice, in accompaniment, was soft as well. "I can never be what you need me to be." He would never be able to be true to only her. The rest of the women of the pack accepted it, but Viper couldn't. This was the result of her unwillingness to bend. Had she been content to be loved alongside others, the woman would have never wanted for anything. He would have cared for her as deeply as he cared for the others. She would have had a place by his side for all of her days. He would have loved her, kept her safe, provided for her and whatever children they may have produced along the way. Instead, she chose to be alone. Chimera stepped away, putting distance between them once more. He cared for her, but she had made her choice. "As my first love and the mother of my son, you will always have a place in my heart." But again, he couldn't be what she wanted. He had changed, had become more loving, more compassionate to those close to him. Viper had no changed. She remained hard. She remained the same. As one that had changed, the benevolent King offered the woman a way out. "I'll give you this opportunity to leave Fenmyre if you believe you'll be happier elsewhere, but Cerberus stays." Chimera would not be swayed on that. The boy was Chimera's eldest child. The eldest Prince of Fenmyre. He was too important to go traipsing off with Viper to be raised with grunts and gestures. "He stays here with his family, his brothers and sisters. He gets raised as the prince that he is. He stays in his home." Truthfully, Siren was more of a mother to the boy than his birth mother was. He didn't need Viper. Acting the way that she was, none of them did. Even Chimera. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

As Chimera came forward to her she resisted moving away from him. The last time they had fucked was against her own will, and while she hadn't fought against Chimera, he had known that she wasn't happy with him them. Sure he may have been different now, or at least had some other kind of outlook with his many children around. But Viper wouldn't have known that, she wouldn't let him that close to her anymore. She didn't know him anymore than he knew her. He was calm and kind, but it wasn't what she really wanted. She wanted him to chose her, but that would never happen. She would just be outcasted yet again, left behind by someone she loved. She was asking Chimera for too much, but to her it was everything. And she felt like she would never have that feeling again. She knew somewhere in her heart that she was doing Cerberus wrong and that maybe he wouldn't even love her very much either, but she was doing the best she knew how. Siren could teach him to be smarter than her, Chimera could probably teach him how to defend himself better. What was even her place in the world anymore? Just as he had let her talk, she let him. And it hurt her with how he felt about her. That she was his first love, that she would always be special to him. "You don't get how badly I want to be with you." She had confessed with distress in her voice, but she never shed a tear. "Right now." Her paw had lifted up and lingered at his chest, but she wouldn't touch him. She had put this barrier around herself. "But I hate you Chimera." She went to turn away, to head back towards her den with Cerberus, "You can't keep me from him." She spoke over her shoulder as she took steps forward. She wasn't going to leave him behind, he was the only thing that kept her going. She would even stay miserable watching Chimera with everyone else just to be here with Cerberus. "Chimera" -- "Viper"

In typical Viper fashion, she was... irritating. The woman still thought that he didn't understand how she felt. "I do understand how you feel, but there's nothing that I can do about it. In the end, this is your choice. This is about what you choose to do. You choose to stay or you choose to walk away." She was so adamant that he didn't understand, but he did. The situation wasn't difficult to wrap ones mind around. Not being with him was her choice. Distancing herself was her choice. All of this... each little step along this path... it led them to where they were now. Viper had chosen paths that led her further and further from Chimera's side while he had chosen paths that led him to the love and admiration that he needed. Viper reached out as though she wanted to touch him and the massive brute stayed still, continuing to look down upon her. Though he didn't put the entire blame upon Viper for this situation, he certainly blamed her for most of it. The woman liked to pretend that she gave him everything and that she was the one that was treated so poorly, but the damage that she'd acquired paled in comparison to what he'd done to Aliana. He'd almost killed the clouded woman in his lust and rage. All that Viper had suffered through was a bit of a hard bang and the inability to share. The woman turned, shooting her last retort at Chimera and the brutes natural arrogance slid into place. "Don't think for a moment that that statement is true," he spoke, his voice low and smooth, but full of warning. "I could easily keep him from you but I'm choosing to allow you in his life. Remember that." Cerberus was his son. He would not be leaving his family. He would not be leaving his home. Chimera no longer cared what Viper did, but if she left, she left alone. "Chimera" -- "Viper"