Wolf RPG

It was official - Fox had exploded. Grimm had overhead the news second hand, having few other friends in the pack after playing unconventional matchmaker to the Beta pair. But she wasn't phased. It would blow over, a slew of new faces had joined, and the birth meant that she was closer to finding out if Peregrine had been serious.

Grimm jogged smoothly through the forest, fresh from a successful hunt, feast, and cache burial. The butchering had caked her in blood, visible in the bright flecks on her white hind leg, and she was desperate for a bath.

Jaws caught sight of his elusive gray jay an hour ago as it skirted through the trees. The bird had been scarce the past few nights and Jaws was still not sure why. Perhaps it was beginning to lose its interest in chasing him and was going back to acting like a normal bird. Unconcerned, Jaws continued on his way, checking the cache's and exploring his new home.

With his face turned into the wind, the coywolf easily caught the scent of wolf and blood. He was curious, but unalarmed. Never having been one to jump to the worst conclusions, he figured one of his packmates had made a kill. As it was on his route anyway, the coywolf walked along, soon spotting the black female he had first seen at the pack gathering.

Jaws approached and greeted her with a quirked brow, noting the blood flecked on her white marking, and offered a roguish grin. "You must have been quite busy."

Out of the corner of her eye, Grimm spotted the freshest of Caldera faces as he began his approach. She slowed and turned, brows and ears rising with curiosity. Like her, he was dark, with the distinct look of someone who did a lot of sneaking around in the shadows. The coyly offered remark and the fact that he knew nothing about her instantly put Jaws in a sparse category of wolves that Grimm was pleased to see. They weren't difficult requirements to meet.

"Gotta keep busy!" she enthused, returning a Hollywood-sized version of his grin with a side of wagging tail, though both had a slightly forced quality. "You were at the 'game' thing, right? How much of a bummer was that?"

She should have let it lie, but part of her was desperate to be told that she was a good wolf, and that the comments and glares levelled at her during the meeting had been unjust.

Jaws nodded to the female. Keeping busy had become his therapy as the coywolf still was unsure about a pack lifestyle after having lived alone for so long. Fortunately for him, his perceptive mind had been keeping him out of trouble and in his Alpha's good graces. For how etiquettely challenged he could be, he had managed to curb his jest and forwardness enough to be decently mannered. But while hunting more frequently and watching the borders had come naturally, Jaws found it sometimes stressful to have to carefully reign himself in.

"Didn't bother me much," Jaws answered simply. As he was not involved in any of the drama the whole thing was no more than a bit of his time, of which he had plenty. He knew the black female had been uncomfortable there, her packmates displeased with her despite her seemingly best efforts, but he did not know how desperately she needed approval. "But I guess you would have rathered stick your nose in a wasps' nest, hm?"

"Didn't bother me much," he countered. And why should it have? If memory served, Finley had complimented Jaws on putting up with banter - like it was a skill! It was still miles better than being commended for being the pack's pet idiot. Grimm's jaw tightened at the thought. The situation was pretty desperate if that was the only 'nice' thing anyone had to say about her.

"Tooootally," Grimm agreed, rolling her eyes for emphasis. A sudden and desperate itch brought hind leg and ear together for a vigorous scratch, but she kept a squinting eye on Jaws. "I mean, 'well done for being a moron'? What'd I even do?" Let's see what he knows.

Jaws shifted his mouth when she asked what she had done. How was he to know? He had only been in the pack a couple nights and scarcely knew anyone, let alone her history with them. The most he had seen was that she maybe spoke out of turn at the meeting, but he suspected that had she not stepped on their tails before (so he assumed) then that would not have been a bother.

"You tell me," he said with a shrug, not really seeking the answer. It was her business, it was their business - it was none of his business. It might have some relevance to him down the road but even that was unlikely.

Grimm had hoped to bond over some cathartic pack-bashing, but Jaws just shrugged and threw down a the conversational equivalent of a road block. He didn't seem even remotely curious about her situation, and in her present state, the Delta took it as rejection rather than as the blessing it was. With dimmed enthusiasm, she pressed on - he was still standing there, and she wasn't one to waste an opportunity. "So did Dove recruit you..? You complimented her, I figured you knew each other from before," she reminded. Because nobody would just 'take to' Dove, right? Grimm's only encounter with the Alpha's sister hadn't exactly gone well.

That the female's enthusiasm had been dampened by his lack of engagement was not lost on him, and for just a brief moment he furrowed his brows, a twinge of pity stirring in his gut. Jaws was not a cold wolf, he was just a poor conversationalist and perhaps worst at re-assuring or comforting others. He did not know what she did but did not like to see her - or anyone - suffering, whether physically or emotionally.

"No - Peregrine did," he answered her, a bit wary of her questioning about him and Dove. Where he saw no problem the white female did, and thus, he was in no hurry to make mention that they had encountered each other before he joined the pack. "She was the last one left to have something said about her," Jaws went on. "I don't know anything about her besides what I can see." That was his explanation and it was completely truthful.

Before she could prod him more about Dove, Jaws had a subject change. "Look, I get it," he said. "You stepped on some tails and now you're not sure about yourself. Head up - move forward. Maybe put out a little more..." and he trailed off, a roguish grin revealing a glimpse of his teeth. He stepped toward her, leaned close, and then backed off just as quick, his face again expressionless as he finished his statement. "Effort."

Although lacking grace and punctuated with his usual salacious humor, the advice was not all terrible. Really, moving forward and putting the effort in to reshape the views others may have formed of you (if they were worth it) was all you could do. Or just leave and say nuts to them which would have been Jaws' tactic.

"No - Peregrine did," Jaws clarified, and Grimm was moments away from bidding him a curt goodbye and heading to the borders when more words followed. She froze on half-cocked hind legs to listen - with disinterest at first, moodily dismissing his effort as too little too late, but the morsel of advice reeled her back in. Grimm's was a fickle, hungry heart.

She settled back down, physically warmed by his mannish attempts to console her. "Effort," he finished in the vicinity of her face, and Grimm picked up the grinning mantle when his faded. "Effort," she repeated hopefully.. but slumped, shaking her head. "Man, that is going to take a while. I kind of.. did something?" Oh, what the hell. "I did something intimate with Elwood. You know, the Beta; I had no idea he was into Finley. He even said he wasn't - burn, amirite?" Grimm ceased her babbling to draw a long, shaky breath, averting her eyes. "I d'no if it's something I can fix."

Jaws listened as she confessed, his lack of expression not betraying the flicker of doubt she was causing to form in his mind. Doubt not about her, but about his own standing in the pack, for the situation she described was a little too similar to his and Dove's. It was becoming apparent that the pack was more 'reserved' in their opinions regarding sexual encounters, or at least it was easy for drama to brew over them, and Jaws was beginning to wonder if him and his heedless 'rooster' would be able to stay out of trouble.

"You had sex," he reiterated in more blunt, Jaws-esque terms. It almost bothered him that her and Dove were so uncomfortable talking about something that again, was normal and natural to him. That they felt they needed to tiptoe around and choose such delicate words. "I don't see the problem," he stated as he seated himself. If Elwood was not attached to Finley at the time, and it was a consensual thing, then indeed, Jaws did not see the problem and therefore could not even attempt to offer any sort of a 'fix'.

"You had sex. I don't see the problem."

Grimm laughed out loud - a loud, wide-mouthed HA!. "You'd better watch out who you put your dong in around here," she warned with a shake of her dark head. "They take this shizzle really seriously." Although, who was left? Somnia was recovering from Ashton's departure, and both Finely and Fox were spoken for. Dove, maybe? Magpie? "I kind of wonder if I should've tried the wandering lifestyle before I settled here," Grimm admitted with a shrug. Had it not been for Peregrine and his many dreamy features, her stay at the Caldera would have come to an abrupt end after the recent game. "What about you? You seem like a dude that could weather the loner lifestyle. What made you settle here? "

Despite the small flicker of doubt from her previous words, her new warning did nothing to concern him further because the longer he thought on it the more he found nothing to worry about. Peregrine had given him the names of those who were 'off limits' and Jaws had made no attempt on any of them, and he was not told he could not pursue his casual pleasures, rather the opposite. As for him and Dove, he was a lone wolf at the time and thus far nothing had become of it. The white female was a bit dramatic and perhaps others would be too, but Jaws still saw no error in his actions, so he metaphorically shrugged off the doubt. He could always leave if his carnal desires became a problem.

When Grimm inquired about his reason for settling at the Caldera, Jaws grinned devilishly. "Seemed like a good idea at the time," he replied, not bothering to share with her the extent of his experience with the 'loner lifestyle'. "Perhaps it was all the single girls Peregrine mentioned..." The coywolf stepped toward Grimm and leaned in close, his muzzle hovering just to the side of her own, his gaze locked on her. He issued a soft, salacious question, almost whispering. "I don't recall your name being on the 'do not touch' list - is it?"

Jaws avoided the question with such finesse that Grimm didn't realize that she had been ignored. Before she knew it, he was in her personal space, fixing her in a stare that was equal parts hot and cold - like his eyes, some part of her brain noted whilst the remainder struggled to work out what was going on.

".. no, I don't think I'm on any list," she squeezed out, pupils darting nervously between silver and gold. His breath was warm and steady, whilst Grimm's appeared to have stopped completely. She sucked a lungful in through her nose and leaned back to create a bit of space, returning a poor attempt at a matching grin. "Are you making fun of me?" Grimm had never been pursued - or shown any genuine interest, really. The dalliance with Elwood had been an unfortunate one-off.

That the young girl was new to the game was not lost on him; her mannerisms and inquiry betrayed her inexperience, but it was endearing in a way. When she leaned back, Jaws did not move to close the distance. He stayed as he was, his unkempt tail swaying, his grin closing over his teeth to allow for a more subtle smile. "No," was his simple, honest response. His head tilted ever so slightly to the side, and he regarded her with an inquisitive look. "Why would you think that?"

"No. Why would you think that?" The question was sincerely spoken, plunging Grimm back into the backwaters of awkwardness. She made some snort of strangled noise that was apparently a string of words, because repeated a second time they spelled out: ".. I d'no, I just assumed. It's not like I've done anything sexy in the past ten minutes?" God, she was blowing it. He was seasoned, suave, and handsome - like a rogue and wifeless Peregrine with a charming snaggletooth. Grimm could only imagine the calibre of ladies he had seduced, and the idea that he would take any interest in a mannish goof was laughable. Or? She tilted her head in the opposite direction.

Grimm's comment caused Jaws to drop his head and shake it lightly as he laughed softly. Where some inexperienced females could be down right frustrating (he was briefly reminded of Dove), she was rather amusing in her innocence. The coywolf allowed his head to hang, glancing up at the female as his smile broke again into a toothy grin. When he drew himself to his full height again he took another step toward her, speaking as he moved around her. "Girls," he began as his breath bathed her ear, so near to it was his muzzle which then brushed only the tips of her fur as it moved down her neck, "don't have to do anything to be sexy," his voice drawled, his muzzle now hovering above her back. But Jaws would hardly give Grimm a second to process anything before his teeth nipped her flank so teasingly as he strolled past her and continued on, until he was gone.

Grimm's ability to speak clocked out, and she was left flapping her gums uselessly over her shoulder at Jaw's retreating back. It took her a few moments to regain composure and begin work on a witty riposte, but it was slow and ultimately fruitless work - and Jaws was already long gone. Grimm was left alone to walk it off and begin search for a replacement set of metaphorical pants.