Blacktail Deer Plateau strike three

Grayday's jaw tightened. Aditya still did not seem to grasp what had him so horrified over the situation. Perhaps he was being petty. He'd never liked Engel, and each new transgression had been held against him, even as Grayday had done his best to leave it in the past. Later on, the male would admit to himself that seasonal hormones had weighed into his decision to banish the aging male - but never would he regret it, or second-guess his choice.

"If he couldn't control himself with a man, during a simple spar, how can we expect him to control himself when our packmates go into heat?" he asked hotly. "I don't know about you, but I've never needed to ask someone else to keep me from raping a woman, even after dry spells longer than my children are old. This isn't about his asinine remarks. It's about the wolves I have a duty to protect. It's about my mate and yours, and about the young, impressionable eyes we have among us."

The rage was returning, now, but the shame was tenfold. He thought about the girl from the valley who'd been beaten and raped, and about how Adeline had gone along with his every whim, never guessing that he could be doing her wrong. He'd been the adult. Engel was an adult.

"I am ashamed to have tolerated his presence among my family - my children - for as long as I did," said Grayday through gritted teeth, his expression suggesting that Aditya might want to think about feeling ashamed as well. "And I am ashamed to have allowed Dauntless to hear such talk from a man's mouth, and ashamed that Sorrel had to suffer his unwanted advances, and ashamed that, even then, I did not act."