I'm a work in progress

Any wolf who had ever met Maverick would have told you that he was a confident and proud man, sometimes arrogant in his sense of self. Very little rattled the dire brute and even less truly impacted him in any deep, meaningful way. The renegade knew who he was, knew himself well from his time alone venturing the world, and he was comfortable with himself. That cocksure attitude had been his greatest source of self-esteem, and for as long as he could recall, Maverick had never wanted to change his ways. That certainty all came crashing down when he met Venom. The Ashen Empress pushed him and challenged him in ways no other wolf ever had. She saw the best in him, the potential for what he could be, and she loved him for who he was and who he could become. Maverick had never felt a love like he did with Venom. In many ways, the intensity of it still startled him when he really sat down and reflected on where he had ended up. The lone ranger, now willingly saddled to the alpha of a pack, living the domestic life as her prince consort. There was a lot of responsibility and expectation on him—perhaps too much for a philanderer with a wanderlust and an aversion to commitment.

But something had changed in him. Something about his desires and drives had shifted. Maverick had felt the change occurring after his late night conversation with Venom when she had shared her secret fears with him—that they would not be able to conceive a litter together, that the family she craved so deeply might never come to exist. Of course, being the good boyfriend he was, Mav staunchly refuted and disproved his lady's worries. But it did make the man take pause and wonder... what could he do to reassure Venom that he was invested in this as much as she was? The most logical next step for their relationship was full fledged commitment, a marriage and mating of the two wolves. The very thing Maverick had spent his whole life running from. The snow and sky wolf had spent days mulling things over, pondering if this was what he really wanted to do. His aversion to commitment was nothing new, but the thought of living a life without Venom haunted him even more than being anxious to swear himself to her and her alone did. Eventually, Maverick had reached his conclusion. He wanted to marry Venom Abraxas.

The Samhain festival had given him the perfect opportunity to take the symbolic first step he needed to take for his own mentality. The bonfires raged around the feast grounds, and wolves from all over Boreas and Auster came to cast their tokens into the flames to exile the parts of themselves they wished to change or abandon. Maverick stood off to the side, watching the fires burn for a time. He waited until one of the bonfires had become vacant, then approached when no one was near or looking. He wasn't embarrassed, per se, but this felt... intimate. Personal. He needed some space for himself to do what he needed to do. Gazing at the fire, Mav lifted his token off from around his neck: a wicker wolf tied up with pieces of twine he had scavenged, fashioned to be sitting with its head tipped up in a solitary, lonely howl. A representation of his solitary nature and his fear of commitment. He turned the effigy over in his paws, inspecting his work, considering it. He had been a lone wolf all his life. He had never needed anyone else and had only taken for his own pleasures. Now it was time to start a new chapter and let that past burn, not just for the woman he loved, but for himself as well.

Wordlessly, Maverick tossed the wicker figurine into the fire, watching as it snapped and crackled while it burned until it turned to blackened ash amidst the logs and embers. He was not much of a believer in the paranormal or supernatural, but somehow doing this felt empowering. Even if it was all a placebo effect, it was doing wonders making him feel more confident in himself to change. Taking ownership of the change he wanted to see in himself and being the catalyst of it all came down to his own willpower to manifest those changes. No matter how unnerving a new direction in one's life was, there was love and joy on his horizon. All he had to do was have the bravery to make that change. The corners of his lips turned up in a small, somber smile, and the wolf let the flames warm him for a minute longer before turning to rejoin the feast. With any luck, he would start to be a new man today. He owed it to Venom. He owed it to himself.

WC: 822

"Maverick"