Blacktail Deer Plateau strike three

Takes place directly after Health Class. @Engel @Aditya

The pack had been dismissed, but Grayday called out to two individuals in a calm, even tone. "Engel. Adi. Come with me." His tone and words alike left no room for argument, and without waiting to see if he would be obeyed, the male began walking steadily through the territory, not seeming to be heading toward the pond or the Door, or any other landmark within Morningside's land.

His face was stony as he walked, but inwardly, his gut was churning with negative emotions. Guilt, shame, worry, disbelief - but mostly anger. Thick, hot, seething anger.

Engel felt a pang of fear deep inside him. He gulped, yet silently followed the alpha male. He spoke no words, didn't even look at Aditya and kept his eyes ahead, afraid any one move would be considered a wrong move. Already, he was regretting his words in the meeting. Perhaps he should have said nothing, he thought.

he felt a pang of surprise as grayday called out for him, along with engel. nodding, he got up to follow, murmuring a quiet farewell to dawn before padding away. inside, his stomach was doing backflips.

it was clear grayday was angry with engel. was he angry with him, too, by extension? he was, after all, perhaps the older man's closest friend on the plateau. 

he remained silent, walking just behind grayday. worry gnawed at him like teeth on a bone. he did not usually fear his father-in-law. . .but he did, now.

Eventually, the silent trio made it to the borders, where Grayday halted their funeral march. The walk had given him enough time to bring his temper back under control, and when he turned toward the pair, he was no longer quite so deadpan as he had been before. A bit of compassion had worked its way back onto his face, but when he addressed Engel, he was resolute.

"You are no longer welcome among us. I have young daughters here, and others to protect aside from that. There is no place for your vulgar lack of control among us," said the male. "That is my final word on the matter. I don't ever want to see you around my family again."

Grayday stood and waited, not yet bristling, but ready to defend his borders if Engel put up a fight.

Engel stopped when Grayday stopped, and as he faced Engel, and smelled the borders nearby, he knew already. He opened his mouth to make an argument...then he just smiled. A sad smile, he knew better than to put up a fight. "So...that's how it is then..." He gave Aditya a side glance, but he wasn't going to stay long.

"Be good to Dawn...for yourself and her." He gave Day one last look, a lingering one before he walked right by him. He dared not shed a tear. He wasn't leaving anything behind. All except one thing... "And give Heartha's grave my regards! I gave her my last goodbye years ago" he called back, hoping to give one last thing for them to think on as he left, a wide grin on his face. Something for him to laugh at, to picture Grayday's face.

his jaw fell open as grayday addressed engel (he not knowing about the incident with sorrel). the tawny man had a dirty mouth, surely, but what had he done to provoke grayday to kick him out? nevertheless, he put on a resolute face, not daring to give engel a smile in return as he left. he didn't want to look guilty by association.

adi watched him go, then turned to grayday, a thousand and one questions brewing in his mind. foremost of which was. . .why?

but he said none of those things, instead clearing his throat and saying softly, "you brought me out here, as well." they both knew the silent question hidden in that sentence. was he to receive the same fate? for seemingly no reason at all, save for being engel's friend?

He did bristle when Engel began to run his mouth, but since he was only posturing, Grayday didn't try to stop or go after him. Still, it chafed when Engel brought up Heartha - the leader wondered who had told him about her and then made a promise to himself that he wouldn't try to find out. It was in the past, and that was that.

The male was soon gone, leaving Grayday alone with his son-in-law. He remained standing, staring sightlessly out over the valley floor. He might as well have been deaf as well, for all that he reacted to Aditya's words.

A moment passed in heavy silence before Grayday addressed the other male.

"No wolf should have to be kept safe from their own packmates," he said at last. "He lacks the control to keep from running his own mouth, and there have been other things that made me wonder about him. Today was the final straw. I can't trust him."

he said nothing at first to grayday's words, letting them soak in, one by one. he realized, with some alarm, that he had once been a lot like engel: brash and big-mouthed, flirting with everything that moved. it had only changed when the wind had knocked him out to sea, and the agouti male had almost drowned.

near-death experiences changed you, apparently. he was glad for it, for it could have been him receiving the same fate today.

still, he had no clue why the alpha had summoned him as well. a witness to his sentence? a warning? aditya nodded, saying, "he was. . ." lacking the adequate words to describe engel at the moment, he looked up at grayday. "why did you bring me out here?" he asked abruptly.

"To talk to you," said Grayday, finally turning to face his son-in-law. He did not often long for his sight, but right then, he wished more than anything that he could see Aditya's face. It was difficult to read reactions this way, and Grayday knew that he would never again trust new wolves as easily as he had trusted before. Aditya was lucky he'd earned the leader's respect before his eye had been taken.

The male let loose a heavy sigh, knowing that he had little choice but to assume Aditya was being his usual forthright self. "Do you understand why this has happened? Did you listen to what he said?" asked Grayday, having only been able to go by Aditya's words and tone of voice when the incident had occurred. It hadn't given him much confidence, especially beside Dawn's vehement questioning.

grayday seemed a little annoyed with him, and aditya was taken aback by that, flicking an ear in startled response. "look, i know who he is. he's got a big mouth. and he told me about the incident. . .with you." warm embarrassment flushed over him; he didn't want to even touch that story.

"but besides that, it's just been words, with him," aditya continued. "he says stupid things, but i haven't known him to be a predator." he regarded grayday with curiosity. "have you? besides. . .you know. the thing between you two."

he was flustered, and abashed, and didn't want to be having this conversation right now. not to mention reeling from the departure of someone he'd considered a friend.

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."

he was about to respond in turn, blood in his eye as he realized grayday blamed him for some of this, for some reason, when something he said brought aditya up short. "sorrel?" he asked, incredulous. "he went after sorrel?"

sweet, meek sorrel. defenseless, save for her brother's constant presence. shattered from some event in her past. his stomach turned to think of engel acting on his rash words, and turned further to think he had acted upon one of the weakest members of their pack. their family.

"i didn't know," he said, eyes hollow as they returned to grayday's face. "i. . .i didn't. . ." a torrent of emotions swirled through him as he contemplated what this meant. anger, shame, disgust. a man he had considered his friend. . . how could he have done such a thing?

"i was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," aditya murmured, feeling low as dirt--lower, perhaps. he looked toward where engel had disappeared, his breath leaving him in a sudden, ragged exhale. "words. that's all i thought they were. but sorrel. . ."

he went to say more, to apologize, to plead, but his throat closed suddenly, blocking all speech. his gaze fell to the ground beneath his paws.

Grayday sighed once more, this time in something like relief. He knew, he knew that Aditya would see his side - he just hadn't known the full story. And Grayday understood. Engel could be charming, at times. He seemed utterly harmless right up until he wasn't. "It isn't always as easy as good and evil," said Grayday, his voice simply tired, now. "He isn't a violent man, isn't mean - he was downright friendly, most of the time. I truly don't believe he meant any harm. But that doesn't make him harmless. And however much we want to accomodate wolves like this, we must always weed out the snakes in our midst."

He tried to meet Aditya's eyes, wanting to convey the seriousness of this message. "We can't ever make excuses, or take chances. My children live and sleep and play on this plateau. Yours may one day as well."

yours may one day as well. not only did shame rise up in him for the fact that he had apparently befriended a sexual predator, but the sadness that came earlier from waiting for children was back, in full force. he flattened his ears.

"he was a friend," he said, his voice devoid of all emotion. it would come back, later, but now he was just tired. "but he fucked up." okay, there was a little anger left. it swelled within him, a small sapling, before retreating back into nothingness.

"i'm not. . .him," aditya murmured, looking up at grayday. "when i was younger, perhaps. but not now. i won't side with him. i'm not him." his voice was half-businesslike, half-pleading. hoping grayday wouldn't think his choice of friend reflected poorly on him.

he straightened his spine, gold eyes taking on a new glint, a weight that hadn't been there before. "he's gone, damn him," he muttered. his gaze snapped to the borders. "i won't let him get close again."

"Of course you aren't," Grayday agreed. That had never occurred to the male - it was Aditya's perceived lack of awareness and concern over the situation that had so angered the leader. "I rely on you, Aditya. You and I are the men of this family. I just need to know that you're with me, and that we're on the same page," he said quietly, not mentioning Sunny or Shale. He loved them both dearly, but Aditya was the one that he saw stepping up, even after this debacle.

His brow furrowed as Aditya's chagrin grew. "You aren't going to run off again, are you?" he asked tiredly, heaving himself to his paws and gesturing for Aditya to accompany him along the border. Grayday began marking over all traces of Engel's scent. "Sorrel is shaken, but unharmed. If he'd hurt her, he'd be dead by now."

his heart skipped a beat as grayday laid that new designation on him--man of the family. he'd have thought it would go to his son, or at least his brother, but no. . .it was his title, given to him by the one who mattered most. second-most, aditya amended, thinking of dawn.

dawn! he swallowed heavily. how foolish she must think him, for not only putting up with engel for so long but actively enjoying his presence. he had done yet another disservice to his mate, and he felt adrift in the shame of it all.

"i'm with you," he said simply, rising to mark the borders. his gaze cut sharply over to grayday at the alpha's remark, but he shook his head. "i'm not going anywhere." his heart lightened a bit, to know that sorrel was okay, but he still felt tremendous sorrow and pity toward the girl.

"he will not come here again," aditya vowed. he lifted his leg just high enough to be effective, the scent of him angry and disgusted and disappointed altogether.