Daylight broke over the eastern horizon just as the dark form of the dire wolf crossed the floating bridge that connected Alias Island to mainland Boreas. High tide kept the bridge afloat, allowing Alastor to cross with ease, something he was grateful they had constructed early on in the pack's residence in these lands. It sure as hell beat swimming across the channel, especially with how fatigued he was after his long and active night bedding the in-heat Relm. Alastor had lost track of how many times he and his lover had one another through the night; all he knew was that neither had gotten much sleep. She was resting peacefully now, and Alastor had slipped out after a couple hours of rest in order to get back to his den before daybreak. That, it seemed, wouldn't be happening. Oh well, no big deal, he supposed. He would just have to deal with Manea's prying questions if she happened to be awake already.

Reaching the rocky shore of the island, the dark dire began plodding his way up through the pine forest towards the mountains of his home. He had bathed in the lake after he'd left Relm, not wanting to bring the smell of the other fae along with him when he returned home. Ordinarily, this would have done the trick, but with Relm in heat, her scent was far stronger now and permeated him like a miasma. No matter how much he scrubbed his fur, without any of the soaps or oils back home, he could not remove the pheromone-laced scent from his coat. Now he just prayed Manea was still asleep so he could sneak in, grab a few scented oils, and sneak out to clean himself up properly before she woke up. Alastor trudged up the mountain path, the morning sun now mostly up and casting bright golden rays of light across the land. Birds sung their morning songs, earning a scowl and snarl from the tired dire. All he really wanted to do was go crawl into bed now and catch up on the sleep he'd so eagerly missed out on for a few good rolls in the hay.

Alastor reached his family's den, breathing a sigh of relief as he slipped into the darkness. His movements were slow and methodical, practically tiptoeing around so he wouldn't rouse anyone unnecessarily. All he had to do was sneak down the tunnels to his and Manea's sleeping chamber, snatch a few bottles of oil, and slip back out. Easy peasy, right?

"Alastor Mendacium"

The time that Manea had spent with her husband as of recent had been fairly short. Between her usual duties, the fall out that had taken place after her attempted arrangement of their children, the trip that Alastor had taken with Avacyn to Fenmye, and Alastor’s own self interests in his begrudgingly accepted lover she had hardly had a day to spend with him, her limited time with him relegated to the evenings when he would come home to their den.

However, she had set aside the anniversary of their marriage ceremony as she always did to spend with him. Despite all of the jealousy and misgivings she had been feeling as of late while she drowned her feelings in the arms of her recently acquired lover, Manea still held this day with a very special place in her heart and they had always spent it absolutely ravaging one another just as they had when they bound their souls together and she brought him into the Mendacium family. It was exactly what she needed with how she had been feeling recently so she was very much looking forward to it.

However, as she came back to the den early after cutting her usual duties for the day short, she realized that Alastor was nowhere to be found. She frowned a bit, but gave him the benefit of the doubt and settled in on the furs in the main chamber of their cave to wait on him to return. Hours ticked by and she watched the sun as it moved across the sky, slowly beginning to dip toward the horizon as she continued to lay here alone, her confusion turning into irritation and eventually into anger. Her tail flicked and twitched, her claws picking at the fur she was laying on while the sun sank toward the horizon. She eventually ate the dinner she had planned for them alone and saw herself to bed, seething and pondering where the hell her husband was on their anniversary even though she already knew the answer. She simply didn’t want to believe Alastor could be so callous or dense to be with his whore on their anniversary.

She forced herself into fitful sleep while she tried to decide how she was going to retaliate against him when he did eventually show his face. Of course there was nothing she wanted more than to sink her claws into him, but as she had discovered in their first fight over Relm, attacking him in her anger was hardly satisfying as he took his punishment and hardly taught him a lesson. It wasn’t until she was laying awake in the wee hours of the morning and she caught his tainted scent drifting though their den that she fully knew what she wanted to do to get under Alastor’s skin.

Manea rose to her paws, tired but fueled by blinding fury, and stepped down the curved path that brought her out of their bed chamber and into the main cave. She stopped him as he was seemingly attempting to sneak into their room, coming face to face with him and being confronted by the damning evidence that permeated into his thick fur. Though she had rightly guessed that he had been out with Relm yet again, she hadn’t realized just how deep his treachery had gone. The distinct and recognizable scent of the bitch’s heat was all over him and inescapable, telling her that he had not only spent their anniversary fucking the pink whore, but had shown his blatant disregard for the single thing that she and their family held sacred.

Her anger grew to something else entirely and she looked at him with a cold disgust gritting her teeth for a moment to keep herself from flying into a murderous rage. “Well, how nice of you to finally show up,” she told him, her voice dripping in sarcasm. “I’m afraid you’ve already missed the dinner I had prepared for us and obviously you found your dessert elsewhere.” She slipped past him, pointedly avoiding even touching him as she added, ”Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I have a date with a brute who actually cares to spend time with me.”

"Manea Mendacium"

The biggest downside to living with a woman who had large feline paws with retractable claws was that her every move was virtually silent. Creeping back down the curving tunnel from his shared bedchamber with a bottle of shampoo in his mouth, the Mendacium brute was surprised to find his violet queen waiting for him in the main chamber, blocking him from sneaking back out. Alastor froze in his tracks, holding gazes with the furious fae staring him down. If looks could kill, Alastor would have been struck dead in that very instant. He had seen Manea mad before, but the cold fury that seethed in her aqua eyes was unlike any he had seen from her in the past. She knew. He knew she knew. Relm's heat scent clung to him undeniably. He wouldn't disrespect her by attempting to deny anything when she had him dead to rights. But for all the anger he had seen in Manea before, this time he couldn't understand why. Was it because Relm was in heat? He knew the pink fae was taking contraceptives; she always had before, so the risk of him fathering pups with her was nonexistent. So why the seething rage?

Manea spoke through gritted teeth and cold revulsion to him, looking at him like he'd committed some vile act against her. He looked at her with an impassive expression, still not fully comprehending the depths of Manea's ire. "I was preoccupied," Alastor responded with a neutral voice, showing little reaction in the ways of shame or remorse. Alastor felt no remorse, after all. Why would he? He was just having fun with Relm, the same way she was screwing Irilyth on the regular. Nothing had changed about their arrangement. When Manea mentioned missing the dinner she had made them, Alastor furrowed his brows together in visible confusion. She had made them dinner? For what? Had he made some sort of arrangement with her that- Alastor's expression froze as dreaded realization dawned in his dark eyes. Now that his brain was cleared of its lust-added fog from Relm's pheromone-laced scent, he could remember clearly.

Their anniversary.

Before he could respond or do anything, Manea was already moving her way past him and out of their den, making a point to avoid touching him like he was some diseased leper. Alastor's black heart sunk low into his stomach, and for a moment the dire brute couldn't move he was so paralyzed with shock. When he got his senses about himself again, he turned on his heels and hurried after Manea, following hot on her heels back out into the bright morning light. "Manea, wait!" he called after her, his words slightly muffled from the bottle held in his jaws, black eyes squinting against the sunlight as he followed her down the mountain path. "Manea, it completely slipped my mind. I had other things going on that I needed to tend to. Let me make it up to you." Now that he realized why Manea was so furious at him, Alastor did feel a little twinge of guilt—still none for his actions, merely for the timing of when everything occurred.


"Alastor"

Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
____________________

Manea's gaze didn't linger on Alastor long enough to see the realization dawn on him at the significance of the day he had so easily spent without her, her blood boiling as she stalked out of the den and started walking down the path to the cave that was just a short distance from their own. This relationship he had with Relm had grated on her nerves and irritated her endlessly since it began, but for her mate's happiness she had let it slide, given Relm a position that would keep her working closely with Alastor, forgave all the time that he spent away from her side... But this ridiculous disregard for the only law that she told Alastor he must follow and the complete lack of care for his mate and mother of his children was the last straw. She wasn't sure if the reality of the situation would even penetrate through his thick skull, but she certainly hoped it did so he could come after her. She got her wish as he called after her, hearing his paw steps on the stone of the path as he caught up to her almost half way between their den and Kavik's.

She had fully intended to ignore his pleading to let him feel even a hint of how he had made her feel as she waltzed down to her lover's home to enjoy him in full view of Alastor, but the moment that he mentioned how he had "other things" going on that he had to attend to she was simply too outraged and disgusted at just how low his priorities and his regard for her and their family had fallen to not address it. She stopped in her tracks, her hackles bristling as she rounded on him, coming face to face with the ridiculous sight of her husband holding fucking shampoo in his mouth while he was talking to her. She stepped closer to him, speaking in hushed, seething tones as her aqua gaze narrowed and lit with an anger that sank so deep it made her skin crawl. "Other. Things. You had other things that were more important than being with your wife for our anniversary? Not only that, but it was more important to you to be fucking your whore while she's in heat! I don't want to hear any bullshit about her taking contraceptives or anything like that either. There is still always a chance unless she's taking a high enough dose to make her entirely infertile and with how fucking obsessed she is with you I wouldn't even put it past her for her to be fucking lying to you and trying to make you get her pregnant! Regardless of her being in heat or it being our anniversary, when did I and our family fall so far down your list of priorities that I'm suddenly the after thought? Why is it completely excusable for you to just disappear for an entire day without a word so you can go run off and fuck another woman? And I swear to the Ancients, Alastor, if you breathe a fucking word right now besides some kind of apology or heaven forbid you try to fucking excuse your behavior away I-"

Her words suddenly cut off when she heard a noise behind her, her ears perking as she glanced behind her and her gaze fell on the now familiar snow and shadow visage of Kavik. She could tell from the look he wore that even if he hadn't heard what she was saying to Alastor with her hushed, almost growled outs words that he could at least tell that something heated was happening between them. Her hackles settled with a slow sigh through her teeth and she glanced back to Alastor as she considered her next move. In all honesty she was more in the mood to rip something apart limb from limb—perhaps a particular pink thing—than she was in the mood to fuck her paramour, but at this point she didn't know how else to make Alastor understand what he was putting her through and how he was making her feel. She turned on her heel and walked away from Alastor with an angry flick of her tail, stalking across the short distance to where Kavik was waiting. Her paw lifted to his cheek, her leonine paw sliding to the back of his head as she pressed her lips to his, kissing him deeply and passionately with her tongue immediately finding his and letting the fury and betrayal she felt be the fuel for her vindictive moment of lust in full display of Alastor.

After a few lingering moments she slipped away, a slight smirk tugging at her lips as she looked up at Kavik before turning a bit to look back at Alastor. "Oh, you two probably haven't met yet, have you? I know you've been so busy lately," he said to Al, her scathing, sarcastic tone returning. "Alastor, this is Kavik. He's been kind enough to keep me entertained while you've had... other things to tend to." She stepped over to Kavik's side, leaning into him as she added, "Well, if you don't mind, I think I also have some things to tend to. It looks like you were just going to wash that wretched smell off of you anyway. Wouldn't want to hold you up."

"Manea Mendacium"

Kavik was not a brute who enjoyed waking up early in the morning by any means. He much preferred laying in and getting a few extra hours of sleep when he could, but in his efforts to make himself more useful and available to win the affections of Manea, he had been forcing himself to get up and at least run a patrol or do a bit of fishing to help benefit her pack. Manly activities that if a certain violet fae were to catch glimpses of him performing might work to further fan the flames of desire he was trying to stoke within her. As icy blue eyes peered open to the encroaching morning sun, the arctic brute gave a groan and stretched his muscles out across his spacious fur bed. The dire wolf rose, gave his snowy coat a shake, and trudged out toward the mouth of his den. Time to begin another day.

When he reached the entrance to his private cave, however, the still groggy brute was surprised to find the Matriarch standing face-to-face with a black and red brute he hadn't met yet. From the looks of things, Manea seemed about ready to tear the other brute's throat out, her barely contained rage burning hot in her cold glare and her hackles raised, ready to strike. The man looked absolutely speechless, his overly fluffy tail sunk low to the ground and shock etched across his face. Kavik had not been able to hear the words Manea was snarling out to the wolf who appeared to be in a shitload of trouble, but there was little doubt that this was an unpleasant conversation between the two of them. Manea looked over to him, her enraged expression melting away like ice on a summer's day, and then with a parting glance to the black wolf, she turned and strode gracefully over to him. Before Kavik could get a single word out, Manea had brought one of her leonine paws up to cup his cheek and guide his mouth down to meet hers.

Kavik gave a small sound of surprise as Manea kissed him deeply and passionately, tasting her tongue as it sought his out between their mouths and wrestled with his. That sound soon became a delighted murr while he kissed her back, not sure where all this fiery passion had come from, but hell, he wasn't about to question it! Their lips parted after a few long, savoring moments, leaving Kavik pleasantly dazed and more than a little confused. The white brute grinned back down at Manea when she smirked up at him, his blue eyes smoldering with a lecherous fire for her stoked by her sudden advances. But Manea wasn't done, it seemed. She turned back to the black brute, making some scathing remarks about him being busy before introducing them. So this was Alastor, her husband!

Realizing he was getting caught up in the middle of some marital strife, Kavik's grin widened and he shot Alastor an all-too friendly smile, really twisting in the knife Manea had plunged into him by emphatically explaining how he'd been keeping her entertained and her bed warm in his stead. "Nice to finally meet you, Alastor. Manea has been a most hospitable host," he said to the shellshocked man, leaning back into Manea while she pressed her side to his. To add to his cheekiness, Kavik began to slowly brush his bushy tail up the back of Manea's thigh right in front of her husband, letting his feather fur tease at the edges of some very sensitive flesh beneath her tail. His eyes didn't leave Alastor's, blue piercing into black, practically daring the other brute to do something about the position he was being subjugated into.

"Kävik av Fjellen"

Manea stopped dead in her tracks when she heard his words. Alastor knew he had said something that had fucked him over when he saw her hackles raise, the fur on her back bristling and standing on end. The vitriol in her furious gaze when she rounded on him, storming right up to his face with fangs bared, seething with a rage he had never seen in her before. Not even the battle with Sparrow had made her this angry. Alastor's flowing tail sunk low to the ground, his ears flicking back, but not fully folding to his broad skull yet. Abyssal black eyes searched Manea's aqua pools for any signs of the woman he knew, but there was nothing there but hate and malice towards him. She hissed her irate words to him through gritted teeth, her tone low and deadly. Yep, he had fucked up... Alastor bore the brunt of Manea's verbal onslaught of his character while she tore him asunder with her words, his expression flinching every so often beneath a particularly hateful remark, but still trying to remain impassive and measured. But when Manea began to spew venom towards Relm, then the Mendacium man could sit idle no more.

"She is not a whore, no more than your golden slut is," he snapped back on reflex, pointedly interjecting the hypocrisy of Manea's targeting of Relm when she had her own bitch on the side to play around with, and now some new guy he'd caught wind of through the grapevine too. "Say what you want about me, but you will leave Relm out of this. This is between us." Manea pressed on though, criticizing him for galavanting about as he pleased and putting his family second to his whims. This time, Alastor's eyes began to narrow back and his teeth began to show some from around the bottle still held in his jaws. How dare she accuse him of abandoning his family?! Yes, he had fucked up and disrespected her, but he had been nothing but a good, loyal, and loving father for their three children, always there when they needed him. He wanted so badly to cut in again, but Manea threatened him if he dared to breathe another word, but he didn't let her finish her threat. "You'll what? Kill me?" Alastor's black eyes flared with the challenge he issued, knowing Manea would never do such a thing and ultimately cripple herself in the process, as she could take no other mate after him.

The arguing wolves were abruptly interrupted by the sound of paws coming from the nearby cave. Alastor looked up with Manea to see a white brute shaded with splotches of pale gray watching them. Alastor had no idea who the fuck this was, but it was apparent Manea did by the way she turned and approached him. What happened next left Alastor stunned and speechless. Manea grabbed the stranger's muzzle and crushed her lips to his, kissing him with a deep and intense passion right before his eyes. Alastor's body froze, his mind going blank while he tried to process what he was witnessing. The other brute kissed her back, both wolves making soft sounds of enjoyment for the duration of their kiss, and when they parted Manea took her place at the stranger's side, leaning gently against him like a lover would. Black eyes shifted between the two as Manea introduced the dire brute as Kavik, the wolf who had been "keeping her entertained" while he'd been with Relm. So this was the boy toy he'd heard about. And just down the fucking path from their home?! Manea might as well have moved in him!

Manea's white paramour gave him a wide smile that made him want to slap the stupid grin right off his smug face and made some comment about Manea being a hospitable host to him. Alastor's lips peeled back to bare his fangs in a silent snarl, but Manea once again cut him off by dismissing him to go wash the smell of Relm off of him while she tended to some things with Kavik. Alastor was not a dumb brute by any means; he knew what was happening and what Manea was insinuating. For a brief moment, the dark dire considered what the consequences of committing violence against the two of them might be. Treason seemed like an executable offense, but maybe he could get away with just killing the white prick. Ah, but Manea was protecting him... He didn't think she'd ever cause him any real permanent harm or try to kill him, but in the state she was in, did he really want to take that chance? Besides, he knew he had no leg to stand on when he'd just spent the better part of the last week with Relm instead of Manea. He was stuck in a terrible catch-22 with no way out. Narrowed eyes glaring between his wife and her paramour, Alastor responded with a dark snarl and clenched his jaws so hard the bottle shattered in his mouth, sending a spray of glass shards everywhere. Shampoo and blood spilled from the dire brute's mouth, but he paid no mind to the sting of glass in his flesh nor coppery and chemically taste on his tongue as he turned and lumbered back off down the mountain path, not sure where he was going, but wanting nothing more than to be anywhere else but here.

- exit Alastor -


"Alastor"

Warning: Alastor is an explicitly mature character for violent and sexual content. Read his threads with caution.
As his mate, Manea may enter any of Alastor's threads not marked Private.
____________________

Alastor truly didn't know when or how to shut his mouth. He wanted her to keep Relm out of this and keep it between them? Fine. She would be more than happy to put the entirety of the blame on him. It made her sauntering over to Kavik and flaunting her equally as obvious affair in front of him all the more sweet. The way Kavik immediately seemed to catch on to the game she was playing and how willingly he went into making out with her in return only make this even better. Kavik certainly could have backed off and refused to get into the middle of this fight she was having with her husband, but instead he leaned in, kissing her back with just as much fervor and with soft sounds of enjoyment being shared between them. When she came to rest at her paramour's side she felt Kavik lean back into her, his wandering tail making her gasp softly and a grin pull across her features as she shot a lecherous glance his way. The pale brute fully leaned into what she was trying to do and normally she likely would have felt some kind of guilt torturing Alastor like this, but her anger at his utter audacity and lack of respect for her and their family burned all of that away. As long as he was going to continue being the hard headed, short sighted brute that he was currently being then she was going to let him feel the betrayal that he had given her.

She could see Alastor looking between them, perhaps trying to calculate what violence he could get a away with. In a way she hoped he attacked Kavik for sleeping with her. As much as she was enjoying Kavik's attention and the sex with him, this whole arrangement had stemmed from the fact that she felt as if Alastor no longer craved her the way he once had. His attention had strayed elsewhere and now he was having to pay the price of that. She gave him a daring glare, tempting him to act and show her what this offense really meant, wanting him to show her the violent demon she had married, but instead he did none of that. He just continued to make a fool of himself by shattering the bottle of soap he had seemingly insisted on continuing to hold in his mouth and then turned to stalk away from them down the mountain path—undoubtedly back to Relm to fuck away his sorrows if she had to hazard a guess. A snarl twitched at her lips and she briefly considered going after him, but instead she let him go with a shake of her head.

"Don't ask," she said to Kavik with a pointed glance as soon as Alastor was out of earshot. She didn't want to discuss any of this with him. Right now the only thing she really wanted to do was follow through with the threat she had made and get Kavik to make her forget the last couple of days. She tipped her muzzle up, nipping at the edge of his throat as she said, "Come on," before turning into his cave and walking into the now fairly familiar space. She had made plenty of visits since she brought the snowy man home and in her efforts to not outright enrage her husband she had kept their flings to Kavik's den—though now that rule would likely be off the table until Alastor got his priorities in order. Bringing Kavik over to his bed, she pushed his shoulder and shoved him down onto the furs and onto his back, moving over him as she straddled his waist with her large, leonine paws on his chest. "We're not leaving here until you make me scream loud enough to make him hear me from across the island," she promised with a grin as she pressed back into him, a furious, lecherous fire in her aqua gaze.

"Manea Mendacium"

As cocky and confident as Kavik was, with the rage he saw in Alastor's face, he was half convinced that the brute might come to blows with either himself or Manea right then and there on the side of the mountain. From the way Manea had described her husband, he didn't exactly seem like the stable type to take confrontation well, so violence was the expected result. However, much to his surprise, the black wolf didn't come to blows with either of them. Instead he glared, snorted, and stomped off back down the mountain path, leaving him and Manea behind. Kavik watched the other brute leave for a moment, just in case he decided to come back for bloodshed after all, but once he'd been gone for a few minutes and the threat had passed, all of his attention was back on Manea.

The snowy brute had, in fact, opened his mouth to ask the violet alphess what all of that had been about before she cut him off and bid that he asked no questions. So he simply shut his mouth again. "If you insist," he remarked with a casual roll of his shoulders. The Mendaciums' extramarital affairs and problems didn't matter to him. If anything, they offered him leverage he could use for his own benefit and advancement with Manea, so he was silently thankful to Alastor for making such an idiot of himself! As if reading his mind, Manea nipped at his throat, making his fur bristle in a lovely way, and then urged him to follow her. Large paws followed with eager steps as she led the way back into his cave and toward his bed.

As soon as they'd stepped onto the plush furs, Manea shoved him to his back, Kavik landing on the bedding with a soft grunt, and then his lover was upon him. He gazed up at her with smoldering blue eyes and a lecherous grin as she straddled his waist in a way that was fast becoming familiar to him, pressing their bodies together while her large, leonine paws rested on his broad chest. His own paws lifted to rest on her hips, rubbing over her feminine curves and shapes as he savored her nubile beauty. Her half-threat, half-promise that they weren't leaving until he had her screaming loud enough to make her husband hear them was met with a husky chuckle and a slow roll of his hips up into hers, grinding their bodies together. "Hope you don't plan on going anywhere for a while then, beautiful," he rumbled in growled tones back up to her, timing the next roll of his hips with hers pressing back into his until he sunk home inside her with a growling moan, his claws biting into her thighs as he began to move in tandem with her, eager and ready to begin working on some of those screams with her.

- fade -

"Kävik av Fjellen"

Something that Manea had come to enjoy from her lover was the eagerness and willingness to give her exactly what she wanted. He met her lecherousness with his own and they came together in a wonderfully wild way. She hadn't quite seen the same violent, deadly passion in him yet that had originally attracted her to Alastor, but the intent and focus he kept was sometimes a good thing. He was more nuanced than her husband typically was and that was enjoyable in it's own right. A wicked grin pulled across her lips as he rolled his hips up into hers with the promise of keeping her here for a while to make sure she was screaming for him, making her groan with delight and shiver with anticipation. Her previous fury and betrayal was funneled into her own fiery lust that she unleashed on the pale dire wolf beneath her, using him to soothe that inferno and have her own small piece of revenge for the injustice she couldn't fix without setting her whole world on fire.

- fade -

Manea settled in against Kavik with a breathless, trembling sigh, a grin still lingering on her lips as she rested her head on his chest and curled into his masculine form. She wasn't sure how long she had been tucked away in his den, but he had certainly kept to his word and gave her the satisfaction she desperately needed and the pleasure she badly wanted to wash away her anger from that morning and the previous evening. She rested like that for a bit, catching her breath and letting herself enjoy the afterglow before she allowed her thoughts to be brought back to the ever present issue of her marriage and her wayward husband. Her paw trailed over the side of his chest where her head wasn't laying, letting her claws lightly graze over skin and comb through snowy fur. "If you want to ask now you can," she murmured while her aqua gaze followed her own paw following the slight curve of his torso.

"Manea Mendacium"

Kavik could barely tell which direction was up or down once he and Manea finished ravaging and rocking each other's worlds. Hell, he didn't even know what time it was or how long they'd been at this for! Not that he really cared, of course; he would have spent all day tangled up in the violet fae if given the opportunity—which it seemed might be the case for today. He collapsed onto his back with a deeply satisfied sigh as Manea settled in on top of his form. The alabaster dire wolf immediately moved to wrap his lover up in his strong forearms, looping one around her back to hold her snuggled close to him while they basked in the afterglow of their impassioned fucking and the other coming up to stroke slow, soothing paths along her forehead and down the back of her neck, cradling her head on his chest while her paw roamed over his torso. Gradually his heavy breathing began to settle as well, and once they were both relaxed, Kavik could have easily drifted off to sleep with Manea in his arms.

The violet woman's murmured words perked his ears atop his head, and Kavik slowly peeked his eyes open to peer down at her while his digits slid up to caress Manea's cheek, tracing slowly over the white lines of her facial marking before moving up to playfully roll her ear between two toes. "Do you want to tell me what he did to upset you so?" he asked, looking at her while he gave her the option. While he did want to know, he also knew prying into sensitive personal matters could wind up becoming a bomb that blew up in his face instead. If Manea wanted to talk, he would listen and offer his insight and opinions. But if she just wanted him to help her forget everything, well, then he'd wipe her mind blank with as many rounds of vigorous sex as it took until she couldn't even remember her own name.

"Kävik av Fjellen"

Manea's gaze fluttered a bit as Kavik's large paws caressed over her head and neck, the gentle affections making her hum softly with delight. She hadn't spent a lot of time until now cuddled together with him like this, usually enjoying her fun and then going on to whatever task her pack or family required of her, so this felt like a bit of a treat to see a slightly softer side of the wildly lustful brute. This wasn't exactly the thing she had brought him back to Elysium for, but with the turmoil she was currently situated in and not knowing when she might have Alastor in her bed to cuddle with again this was something she'd let herself enjoy. When she offered the opportunity for Kavik to ask questions about what had brought her to this point of laying in his arms after fucking her anger away, Kavik turned it back to her with a question over whether she wanted to tell him what Alastor had done to upset her. She considered it for a moment, wondering if she should just keep the transgression to herself and fight it out between only her and Alastor, but in the end she felt like Kavik might as well be at least slightly in the know since she had drug him into the middle of it.

She sighed softly while her paw continued to trace up and down over his chest and side. "I told you that Alastor and I were not strictly monogamous when we met and that is true. However, when he got together, we had agreed that anyone else we wanted to sleep with we should share with one another or eventually bring the other into the bed with them. We've had other partners and such all through our relationship. However, there's a girl that he has always been very protective over and very clearly has developed something more for than just a physical attraction." Her ear flicked with a bit of irritation and a frown pulled at her lips but she kept going. "I have my own fae that we started out sharing and I came to love so I've started keeping her for myself as a bit of tit for tat, but he's gone beyond that now which is kind of where you came in." She glanced up at him, her paw tracing over his chest and along his shoulder as she spoke. "It was a bit of petty revenge, but nothing that didn't feel was fair."

That brought her to today's clash, at least with broad strokes of the situation, and a slightly irritated sigh left her as she turned her gaze back down to follow the path of her paw once more. "Yesterday was the anniversary of our marriage ceremony. He never came home. That was bad enough, but when he finally showed up this morning he reeked of her and her scent made it blatantly obvious she's in heat." That was maybe the biggest slap in the face of them all—that he would so careless as to risk breaking the one law she gave him to follow. It didn't just feel disrespectful to their marriage, but to her as the Matriarch and the leader of their pack and family. If he were to get Relm pregnant she would have to be the one to carry out his punishment and ensure those pups were killed and with knowing how Alastor was with pups she doubted that he could forgive her for that and yet he gave her no choice. "So... That is why I nearly murdered my husband this morning and came to fuck you instead."

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

It seemed Manea would opt to tell him the troubles she was facing, as after a few moments of deliberation, she began to reveal to him the details he didn't know. The Mendacium Matriarch explained how her open marriage with Alastor worked, the rules and agreements they'd made, and how both of them had broken them by taking their own individual partners. But where Manea had done hers as a vengeance, Alastor's seemed to be coming from a more emotional aspect, which made things messier. Kavik was quiet while Manea told him of her woes, giving quiet hums of acknowledgement while he took in the details of the skirmish he'd found himself in the middle of. It seemed the alpha couple had more marital strife than they let on. Unfortunate, but that worked out brilliantly for him.

The friction came to a head this morning after Alastor had apparently missed their marriage anniversary yesterday in favor of fucking his in heat mistress. Even without being in a committed relationship, Kavik knew that was a cardinal sin of any male. He flinched and grimaced on Alastor's behalf; oh yeah, the black brute had fucked up royally. The clash he had witnessed outside his den was just a brief glimpse of the fighting they had been doing, and was the catalyst for why Manea had come to him for some morning sex after nearly tearing her mate's face off. With the foggy details now laid clear, Kavik could see the fissures in the seemingly strong union between the Matriarch and the Commander. What an interesting position he found himself to be in...

As Manea finished her tale, Kavik breathed a slow sigh, still holding her close while stroking over her head and ear, letting a sharp claw dance delicately over the edge of her ear while they cuddled in their post-coital bliss. "Well, it worked out well for me," he remarked to her final statement with a bit of a sly smirk. "Do you want me to kill him?" His offer was punctuated by a husky chuckle, just a little bit of dark humor offered to her to try and bring a little smile to brighten Manea's face. Ah, but this was also a serious matter too. Icy eyes peering down at her, Kavik slid his paw down to cup Manea's cheek just below her swirling eye markings, guiding her head to look up at him until aqua eyes met his pale blues. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Manea." Kavik leaned his muzzle down to slowly and softly kiss Manea's lips, a far cry from the impassioned making out they did amidst the heat of their lusts, but right now it felt like exactly what she needed. When he pulled back, he fixed her with a rueful smirk and stroked over her cheek again with his paw pads. "So... can I do something with you today to make things better, or am I still just your means of getting even with your asshole husband?"

"Kävik av Fjellen"

Manea scoffed softly and smirked as Kavik took in all the details she laid out for him and replied by saying it had worked out well for him. "It certainly did," she replied with a chuckle. She wanted to feel bad for pulling him into this absolute mess her husband had created, but in the end he was benefiting by getting all of the lecherous fun he could possibly handle so perhaps she shouldn't feel too bad for him. To his offer of killing Alastor for her she just smirked and glanced up at him, chuckling with him before she replied, "No, if anyone is going to kill him it'll be me." She hoped that it didn't come to that, she hoped that Alastor would come to his senses eventually, but if not then she would be the one to handle this, no one else.

When she felt Kavik's paw on her cheek, she let him bring her gaze up to meet his, finding a surprising amount of softness and sympathy in his expression. The attempts at humor and the offers of violence had been expected and comfortable, but the tenderness caught her off guard as he expressed his sympathy for what she was going through and pressed his lips to hers in a soft kiss. She returned the tender kiss even though it surprised her, her body relaxing more into his as he drew her in with this unexpected show of gentle affection. The wild, lustful sex had cooled her anger, at least temporarily, and had given her a reprieve and a sense of revenge that she had needed in that moment, but this reminded her of another side of her relationship that she had been missing and in a way it made her heart ache with an unanticipated longing.

As Kavik pulled back from her lips again and gave her a smirk, she leaned her head into the touch of his paw with a smirk of her own. "You're already making things better," she replied to his question, her smirk growing into a more proper grin as she added, "by helping me get even with my asshole husband." She chuckled and tipped her muzzle forward to press her lips to his again, picking back up where his softer kiss left off with a more passionate tenderness as she allowed herself to indulge her heart in what it was longing for. When she broke their kiss again that longing and desire and reached her eyes, her aqua gaze meeting the ice blue of his with more emotion than she really wanted to allow herself to feel right now. There was a moment of hesitation before she allowed herself to ask softly, "Would you make love to me?"

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

Manea dismissed his humorous comment by claiming the right to take her husband's life if the matter ever came to it. Though it was said with a chuckle, there was enough of a dark threat underlying her words that made him believe the violet alphess might actually murder her spouse if she felt wronged enough. Kavik smirked to himself; he could only be so lucky for that to happen. As they kissed, Kavik felt Manea's body tense with surprise before relaxing into a limp, cozy state up against his, feeling her lips moving tenderly back against his. It was a small and simple show of affection, but one he hoped lifted her spirits a little bit. For all her power and poise, confidence and control, Manea seemed so... sad in the aftermath of the fight with Alastor. She didn't deserve to be treated that way. This was how she deserved to be treated, and if the arrogant ebony asshole wasn't going to give this to his mate, then the arctic wolf would be more than happy to provide what he lacked.

Their lips parted, and while he stroked her face, Manea leaned into his touch and assured him that he was already making things better. His smile widened, a casual yet roguish flash of pearly teeth. "Good," he said simply in return. "I'm here to help you get back as much as you want." Manea tipped her muzzle back up to his, which he happily received with his own, kissing her back with that same growing passion. It still wasn't that wild lust they'd just blown each other's minds with, but it was definitely hotter than the gentleness he had shown her a moment before. Already he knew where Manea's mind was going, even before she asked him her question with desire and longing swimming in her aquatic eyes. Kavik smiled gently, rubbing his paw pads over her cheek and trailing his claws down the side of her neck. "I'd make love to you all day, every day, Manea," he replied in hushed tones, placing a playful lick to the end of her snout before wrapping his strong arms underneath her forelegs and around her barrel to he could more easily shift and roll them over on the bed.

Kavik wound up on top of Manea, holding her close to him as she lay beneath him, their bellies pressed together and bodies pulled up snug to one another. He gazed down into her hypnotic gaze, losing himself in deep aqua pools while he slowly pressed a hind leg between her thighs to spread her out for him, then shifted to settle himself between her legs. His movements were slow, savoring, feeling every brush of fur on fur and each touch of her warm skin. Kavik's muzzle dipped to the hollow of her throat, drinking in her scent while he nuzzled along her collar and nibbled at her neck. A large white paw trailed down her side, following lithe muscles and sumptuous feminine curves until it wrapped around her waist as the other held her around her back. Kavik kept his gaze on Manea's all while he brought their bodies together with a slow press of his hips, breathing a heavy sigh of satisfaction before capturing her lips in another kiss as he made slow, passionate love to the Elysian queen.

- fade -

"Kävik av Fjellen"

Manea hadn't been sure how Kavik would react to her request since it was such a departure from what she had originally indulged with him in, but the snowy brute didn't miss a beat and immediately agreed with the promise that he would make love to her all day, every day. A smile tugged at her lips as he gave her a playful lick and when his forelegs wrapped around her more slender form there was no resistance form her as he rolled them to place her on her back under him. Her paws traced up over his chest, along his collar bone, and around his neck as he settled himself between her hind legs, her aqua gaze lingering on the ice blue of his. Slower, more tender movements were not something that she normally gravitated toward, but with how raw and vulnerable she felt in her current state it felt like a soothing balm on this wound she was nursing.

Her head tipped back and her breath caught as his muzzle lowered to the base of her throat, her toes curling and holding on to the thicker fur at the back of his neck from the nibbles he placed along her neck. She let herself get lost in the feeling of his paws savoring her body and when he pulled her tighter into him she clung tighter to him in return. Her eyes returned to his and she held his gaze even as she gasped softly when he brought their bodies together until her eyes fluttered and rolled back as her head tipped back again, giving herself over to everything he was offering her. None of this solved her problem, but where the angry, wild mating had given her a way to vent her frustrations, this gave her the tenderness and affection that she hadn't known she needed. A moan escaped her as his lips caught hers once more, shutting the rest of the world away while she enjoyed this moment of relief.

-fade-

Manea | Temno | Ciemny