Saena's looking for
@Ukko though this is AW.
Reek had informed her of his most recent decision, and though she was injured, the alpha of the maplewood set off at once. She followed a path worn into the snow by one or more of the pack members in recent days at a slow and leisurely pace, though every stretch of her side threatened to make her wince and pause. She was careful with her movements, ensuring her gait was smooth and not jerky, to avoid impacting her broken rib. At one point she wandered too close to the trunk of a tree and hisses as the bark pulled through her coat and disturbed the injury lying underneath.
She avoided the borders while she searched for Ukko. She knew the male spent a lot of his time patrolling them, as evidenced by his frequent presence around potential joiners, but it was also a place that invited conflict that she couldn't handle presently. She'd hung up the mantle of warden and was focusing her efforts on tracking game of late, and it paid off; soon enough she came across Ukko's tracks, was able to pick up a faint scent, and began winding through the trees with even more purpose.
The new change in status feels like turning a year older. Something had changed and he still felt the same as he had the day before. It is awkward and heavy in his mind, stumbling over it every few minutes. After they patrolled the border, Ukko tried to go back to what he’d been doing, but he couldn’t remember what it was he had been doing. There isn’t a desire to celebrate, something didn’t feel right with a watchful on his every move. At least there isn’t cameras throughout the pack, Ukko can’t handle big brother right now.
Since that day, Ukko hasn’t made an effort to see the Alpha again, still hiding out whenever he can.
The scent of Saena narrows his attention, turning his head to see the woman approach. Urgency to flee causes a jerk in one of his legs but he forces against the desire and shifting his direction and made his way to shorten the distance the other’s having to walk. He knows little of what happened in Saena’s absence but she is home now and headed his way. His cheeks burn with guilt—for not seeing her when she’d come back, maybe for his actions toward Reek—and his head lowers, ears drooped back, and his tail low.
When close enough, Ukko whines his greeting.
Her tongue was already forming admonishments when she came upon Ukko. She wholly expected to bark at him to hit the ground, to show utter submission and prove to her that he wasn't some big-headed egotist—they already had one of those in the form of Arion and Saena was not keen on a second one—but he saved her the trouble by lowering his head, tail and ears before she even said anything. Perhaps he sensed the ire coming off her in waves and knew better than to say anything about it. Reek might've been a pushover, but Saena was moved easily to anger, and especially so when she'd found out that the alpha male had not only not punished Ukko, but had promoted him instead.
"You have no problem submitting to me," she noted, although the circumstances were probably different. Reek had been upset and probably not at his best when Ukko had challenged him, while Saena, in spite of her injuries, stood tall with sharply cocked ears. It was irrelevant to her. "Yet you seemed to think it's fine to challenge the authority of my mate, your alpha male, who stands beside me." Perhaps gender had something to do with it. Again she felt the knot in her stomach at the thought of Ukko trying to usurp Reek's alpha position. He was one step closer now if that was his end game.
"What made you think you had the right to show such utter disrespect to your own leader, Ukko, when you so willingly lower yourself for me?"
There’s a part of him he’d never admit to that wants to fully put himself on the ground, and when she starts to speak, makes it even harder. He bites back the urge to immediately jump to his defense but he waits until she’s done, giving him the chance to speak for himself. He pieces together how little Saena had a hand in Reek’s decision, bristled up and angry now that she knows. He swallows a lump in the back of his throat.
“You were gone,” he tells her. “You were gone and he didn’t say anything. And we could have—” Ukko struggles to find the words when he realizes he’s treading the fine line of excuses, of the shifting in blame and wants to bite his tongue. Reek had been so willing to give up at his feet, he’d only reacted without thinking it through. What would he have done any differently? What would Ukko have done if he’d actually won?
Ukko clenches his teeth, turning his nose away and stares at something to collect himself. Reek may have the power to give him the title but Saena has just as much to take it away. He doesn’t deserve it, she knows that, she’ll take it back. “I thought I’d—” He shakes his head, trying to right the wrong he really wants to get past. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
"Could've what?" she snarled, pinning back her ears as fury grew. "You were thinking what? That you were better suited to lead the pack he founded in his moment of weakness?" She clamps her jaws together in a snap, sending a loud clap resonating through the forest. "This is not a democracy, Ukko! You don't get to make those decisions!" The pack belonged to her and Reek. It was a dictatorship, whether he liked it or not.
"My mate has been through a lot the past year," she chided him, "far more than you if you think his breakdown gives you the right to challenge his authority." She sniffed. "You're lucky it was him you challenged. You would not be here anymore if it had been me."
But Reek had done much more than just let the man go for his transgression. Her mate had promoted him. Saena thought it was foolish, and sought to make it known. "You are Beta to him," Saena told Ukko, "but you will not advise me. You are no Beta to me until you prove you are not a threat to this pack and to my family." With a snort, she went on. "I am having pups in the spring. I will not tolerate dissent in my ranks when that time comes. You have until then to prove you are not the upstart I now think you are, or you're done here."
His ears fall back when Seana speaks again and he doesn’t speak up in his defense, remaining silent with his head tucked. Nothing he can do in this moment will save his head and he cringes while her words, edged with blades that cut him on all sides. He’d created a whole mess he’s going to have to work to clean. There isn’t much Ukko can come up with to speak so he doesn’t and nods his head. His eyes are off to the side as he thinks about what it means, splitting up his title in limbo, somewhere between subordinate and leadership, that he doesn’t know if he can successfully convince Saena otherwise.
The only words on the tip of his tongue is an apology he can’t repeat. Ukko can’t even muster half a smile that might give him a little advantage in leeway, perhaps because he knows it won’t work. In his silence he remains, giving his leader the chance to speak again or dismiss him to accept the lashing she's given him.
Ukko has nothing to say, and Saena takes it for willing compliance. It wasn't like she'd given the aspiring Beta much of a choice in the matter. She wasn't so level-headed as her mate, a fact that often got her into trouble. Where Reek could see opportunities, Saena usually only saw wasted time and wasted effort. Ukko was neither of these things, for he was one she had trusted wholly prior to hearing the news of his challenge, provided he could turn her opinion around.
She let the silence linger for only a moment, then said, in a voice a little softer than her previous lecture's tone, "Go on, then." And with that, she rose to her own paws and turned back in the direction of the den she shared with Reek. Scarlett was there as well, so the place was cramped, but it was easier to rest there than out here, so it was where she headed.