the scent of birth on the breeze.

yipping coyote calls and the squalling of newborns.

the prophet prowled the marsh in search of the new mother and her young. a winding and broken trail led her in circles for a time. almalexia was not deterred. head low, eyes burning, she pursued her quarry with single-minded determination. this was no coincidence.

almalexia would send a message.

Ash Paw was not one that usually fought, but her children's lives were at stake. The careful life she was cultivating them for. Her fury at Ingram was absolutely paramount, but her fury at his former nightwife, that was something that the gods should tremble at. And the fact that the shebitch was now near her territory, near the man who pledged himself to her. And she was begging like the whore she was. Oh Ash Paw had enough. The she wolf had only ever seen her when she was complacent and friendly and in heat. She'd never seen her with such fury like the valkiries she would ride.

Because there was hatred in her eyes and poison in her thoughts when she left the pack lands. It wasn't even that she had lain with him. She herself had pups with a different man. The thing was that she held him on like a puppet on a string and that drove Ash Paw to absolute hatred. Ingram could hate her for this. He could leave her, but the simple fact was he wasn't strong enough to stand up to his ex wife, but Ash paw was.

Her children were almost weaned. So much of her smaller stature had returned. She still carried some of the weight from birth and the sweet scent of limited milk, but she could fight with the best of them she supposed even now. And if it got to bad, she'd leave.

Upon the marshes she traveled, staying clear of the poisons and the toxins that lay upon the mire. Blue eyes alight with flames and then she saw her and a hiss left her lips.

So you get used like a whore and then continue to beg like a wretch for the leavings of a man who is already claimed. He left you honey, just because he f***ed you doesn't mean you get to keep him.

She lifted her head with haughty gaze. Her tail lashing behind her, growls in her throat. Leave these places. Or I will kill you. There was no emotion in her words. It was intoned and flat. A promise not a threat. If she couldn't kill her, she's sure do her damndest to take some of her with her.

her hunt, interrupted.

ah, ingram's woman.

the prophet stilled and regarded her in silence. her body changed by motherhood, her eyes ablaze with a jealous fury for that which could never be hers. did she understand what she sought to hold, to keep?

divinity; did she bleed for it, for him?

did she know the taste of his agony, the hotblooded scent of his fury?

almalexia laughed, a terrible cracking sound.

he will never be yours,

he was mine from the first day.

but she had never needed ingram. perhaps that was what he desired, to feel needed by some small mortal woman who clung to concepts like whoredom as if morality might hold any weight in the emptiness of the beyond.

such petty things her keeper had chosen to concern himself with.

you are a woman; a powerful creature for a mortal. capable. why do you fear his decision? i do not, an arrogant toss of her head, a lash of her tail. he will come, or he will not. this is fact. yet you debase yourself by coming here in desperation.

you would do well to leave this place. run back to your children. i will not trouble you. you are nothing to me.

her plans were much larger than this woman could ever loom.

Ash Paw would have balked at being called anyone's woman, she belonged to no one. There wasn't a jealousness to her rage, it was an anger borne from a wolf that used and abused. She didn't like wolves like that. That took what they wanted and used other's up until there was nothing left, as far as she was concerned this wolf was terrible incarnate and she wished all hateful things upon her.

Ash Paw raised her head. Of course he won't. He belongs to himself. There is no ownership in a relationship, but perhaps that was where you went wrong.

Ash Paw chuckled dryly, a strange light in her eyes at the comment. You needn't remind me of the power I keep, Almalexia. (I am pretty sure they told ash her name when they met, but I coudl be wrong)

Ash Paw snorted. She wasn't here for the choices Ingram would make. She was here because this she wolf was too near her pack and her young and she didn't like it. She knew those children hadn't belonged to Ingram or to the nightwife, they had both been too young. And given the false prophet's biased and debased beliefs, she was almost certain, though she had no proof that this shebitch had stolen those children and she wouldn't have it near her.

I will tell you one more time, LEAVE.

Ash's eyes blazed again with righteous fury and she shifted. A low warning growl in her throat. This she wolf needed to leave, she was again too close to her children and she hated it.

such fury. such jealousy. the prophet hid her glee in a solemn look. okay, she said.

she whipped around and fled, quick as a passing shadow. let ingram's woman follow as far as she dared; let her think almalexia departed. she would return.

oh, it amused her to no end.