Catori took a deep breath and smelled in the chill - it was like home, but unlike it entirely, given that Catori would lack the bitter bite of the chill from the sea itself. It was like a kiss from the seas, cold, commanding, and she longed for it. Catori crept along the Plateau in the early evening and tried to skirt anyone. She had a plan. A mission of sorts. Which really only came into fruition when she'd caught the scent of the Alpha. Playfully Catori darted across a recent path, rubbing herself against a few trees until she'd established a little trail of her own. 

Away from the rest of everyone to a little thicket she'd taken up as her own, Catori had made a small haven. She'd lined the area with the skins from her kills and had made it as comfortable as she possibly could. Everything about it seemed cozy, and she yawned as she stretched out and laid down - just hoping that maybe @Grayday might be enticed to come find her. 

 

Dusk was swallowing up the lands and it came earlier and earlier it seemed. The dance between sun and moon, those eternal lovers, always entranced Catori. Many of her family had woven beautiful stories of their fabled love - it wasn't unlike life and death themselves. Catori was watching the skies as she waited peacefully to be found and had drifted a bit, caught up in the tales of old. It was enough she didn't hear Grayday approach, it was enough that even a seasoned loner who knew how to watch her back was caught off guard and was pounced on. 

The weight of the Alpha male settled above her and for a moment there was a flare of something else deep in her, but Catori shook that off. No. She wasn't some wilting youth who'd never been pursued before. Even with the promise of a position of power (well, his power but still) she could stay steadfast. His kisses made her coo a bit, turning her head to press a few playful nips to his cheek. "Missy?" She echoed with a laugh. "Not one I've heard before." 

 

Catori could only laugh when he nuzzled against her, marking her up and making sure there was no contesting the fact that she was entangled with him. When he settled down next to her Catori leaned against him, pleased with his warmth and just being entirely swept up in him. "Your woman?" She asked boldly. She wouldn't skirt around things with him as she saw no real reason to. If this was the train they were already on then why did she need to keep wondering? "You'll have to come up with something better than Missy." She concluded with a little smirk. "Missy sounds far too...spunky. Not enough sweet." Although she felt she had plenty of spunk, leaning up to press a few kisses of her own along his cheek and down to his chin. 

"Hmm. Casanova seems too obvious. As does Captain." She contemplated titles to give him, in between each one pressing another kiss to another spot. She'd keep on until told otherwise as she considered what she might call him. She had no problems with having a special name for just the two of them - and maybe she should have thought to tell him of Sunny's roaming eye but she hadn't. Not then. He vanished like everyone else did whenever she was with Grayday. 

"Maybe Braveheart." She tested it, he was brave - he went after what he wanted and she knew even in the relatively brief time that she'd known him just the type of man he was. She was certain about few things, but, she was absolutely certain about who he was. 

"Did you even ask permission?" Catori asked with a coy smile, her eyes trailing slowly across Grayday's body. She knew the look of his eyes meant in the coming years, hell, even months if fate was cruel, most of his vision might be stolen. Would he see her face in his dreams forever, or would he get to see any children that they did have? Catori let out a ragged breath at the thought and pressed her face into his scruff, breathing deep in his scent and the reassurance it didn't matter. She didn't need to worry other than how she might be able to support him in the long run. 

"Pookie?" She answered with a little laugh and tilted her head to let him chew and tease at her. "Whoever would have known you were so sentimental." Catori hummed out quietly. She had a good handle on who he was at his core even if most days it felt like she had no idea who she was. Still - she yearned to know more.

 

His reaction was even more charming and Catori's smile was gentle. She let him figure out himself; neither giving in to his anxieties or doing much to soothe them until he asked in that gentle way that she was wasn't she? Catori hummed to herself as if considering it directly, while they'd never put a title to whatever they were doing she had known in a sense. It was inevitable as the sky darkening as the sun set and the moon swallowed them up. "I would hate to run anyone else off," She purred out as he tucked himself against her scruff. 

She turned more to drape a paw across his free leg, claws digging in a bit to the softer loam as if to keep him there. She didn't have to, of course, not when he gave so willingly and she took so greedily, stealing his time, his attention, his energy. "I wanted to hear you say it." Catori decided finally; she'd left him to squirm enough hadn't she? "Even with knowing it is so good to hear." 

 

Catori wasn't exactly cruel, and she was just fine with Pema, but, it would be different if she saw the woman trying to entice Grayday. That would probably bring her to a frustrated and heated boiling point but so far there was nothing to build up. Who knew how things were among the rest of the Morningsiders - and Catori had to admit she hadn't pried very much. "You've alluded to liking that playful nature." The Spiritwalker reminded him with a little smile before she pressed another few kisses along his jawline. "Really, you've no one to blame but yourself." She still felt that giddy sort of buzzing - she was unable to think of anything else but happiness.

She savored the admission, letting her eyes close just to hear him - she didn't need to see him as he moved beside her as she felt everything she needed. This was what it was about, wasn't it? Happiness and pleasure came from within, not from seeing things - it was hearing them, and smelling them, and the feeling of them. "I am yours," She echoed but it was with a resolve - if he had needed to know it he merely had to ask. 

She might have forced his hand in that, a bit, but, all good things came to those who waited. Or took what they wanted. Whatever one called it when it came down to matters like these.

 

Catori let him settle and smiled down at him, soothing any errant hairs along the way as she bathed him beneath the moonlight. He seemed to settled and at peace and it was almost alarming to think that maybe she was the cause of this - in reality, it was that way. That was the entire point. The example she'd seen in her family had always given her a fair look of strong women and the men who adored them. Rather than keep them regaled to the den and whelping they stood beside their women with pride and worked as a unit. That was what she wanted. 

"I'd considered a moonlit sacrifice." Catori deadpanned, leaning down to open her jaws wide - encasing his neck for a moment before she pulled back. "But you are so very charming and I'm not sure how it might benefit me to wed you, not even bed you, and then behead you." Catori grinned down at him and licked his nose. "I wanted something nice and cozy. I'd been gathering the furs maybe to start with the kids - teach them different scents, see if they can track.....I got indulgent though." Because it just felt so nice and he made it feel even better. 

 

Catori knew it was such a taboo thing and yet she couldn't deny the delight of it. Feeling his pulse against her teeth, knowing that one good bite and it would be all over - she didn't want that of course but still. She wouldn't take his life - not in this literal sense. He was no long just Grayday though, father and leader, he was Grayday, father and leader with Catori at his side to support him. He'd never exactly shied from the sharing the load and she appreciated that but Catori did strive for elevation. She wanted to selfishly be his first choice in who he reached out to for things. Of course his older children had positions in his life she would never take from them - nor would she try! - but she wanted him to know he could reach out to her for any reasons. 

"Wed, yes." She said in a near sing song voice, giving a little hum at his tone. "I wanted you to find me after all." She hadn't taken that from him - she'd lead him exactly where she wanted him to find her. Beneath the moon where no one else was present; she was a selfish thing and she did admit that. "Did you think I would do all this for someone else?" She asked idly. "Or that someone else might do this for you?" He'd known it was her and pursued of course - but Catori was unaware of anyone else's affections for him. She wouldn't be surprised of course. He was good enough for her - anyone else would be a fool not to see it too.

Catori couldn't help but give a little laugh at that, shaking her head. "No offense to him, he's cute and all....but I'm not interested in anyone younger than me." Catori said firmly. It wasn't that she didn't think he didn't have his own values and worth but she'd always been more comfortable with someone closer to her own age. That just made more sense to her. They were at closer points in their lives and she didn't imagine Grayday was much older than she was, despite siring two litters that were very different in their sizes. She leaned in to nuzzle against him, breathing in his scent slowly. "You've got nothing to worry about." She assured easily. 

He seemed to grow more serious and Catori's ears shifted to focus more easily on what he said. That his feelings ran so deeply made her heart stammer and no doubt he'd feel it, as close as he was. "Gray," She murmured soothingly, trying to catch him before he went too far off the deep end. "Baby, look," She couldn't promise that they'd never be apart and she couldn't promise that things would always be perfect. "I'm not going anywhere. I still want to work and I still want to travel but I'm not going to put aside those dreams and I'm not going to put aside these dreams. You and your family - I want that. I want to be part of it. I do, Grayday." She promised earnestly. 

 

Catori couldn't ease his worries with simple words - it wasn't like he could see in some crystal ball how their paths would go forever. She gave a little hum, pressing a kiss right between his eyes. "I don't know what's going to happen, I can't promise you nothing will ever go wrong. I want to but I don't lie and I don't want to start with you." Catori said evenly. She was passionate about it but she wasn't yelling at him - absolutely not. "We'll still see the world in bits and pieces. Take the kids too, let them see new places." Catori wanted to ease his concerns but it was so hard to do so when she didn't even understand the root of everything.

"This is about what you said the other day. Before meeting up with Dawn." She said finally. "Okay. Talk to me, because I might have the title but I don't exactly do the whole....mystic thing always." Catori wanted to joke and it fell a little flat; this was something serious to him but she wasn't sure about the details surrounding Grayday and his families' histories. 

 

What it sounded like was foul play. That someone, or something, might have been preying on the mothers. But if there was no proof of what happened to them - well, it was a natural assumption that something else had gone wrong and it was in the mothers themselves. Catori grimaced, teeth grinding together for a moment as she considered what he was saying. "I'm not leaving." She said passionately. "And if I had children I would die before I left them." Catori knew that. There was no chance she'd leave her little ones behind. 

"Hell, if I left you I wouldn't do it like a coward and just slip away." Catori was certain about that much - she could only make a promise for the ways she would behave. If they soured, somehow, she'd face that hard conversation. She'd be a stronger woman she'd make sure that they were on the same page - partnership was stronger than anything and she wouldn't expect to just lose that by slipping into the darkness. 

"You can't make a promise about giving me a whole family. Your family has to let me in. I have to let them in." Catori explained. "And if we had children, well. That's a conversation we can have then, too. I've spent heats alone. I can survive them." Even though it did suck to do so alone. 

 

Cat breathed out an easy sigh when Grayday seemed to settle some too. She could only take away the anxieties that she could manage - and every time that they did talk about things she'd do her best to actually listen. Knowing now that some of Grayday's specific worries rounded around the experiences he had it made more sense about his hesitations. Catori moved back a bit when he readjusted himself, eventually slotting herself between his legs so that she was tucked safe and sound against him. "You probably put it there," She pointed out with a little smirk, eyes flashing up at him. 

"Probably part of your master plan, I'd imagine." Catori wasn't above teasing him further, pressing a few near lazy kisses to his jawline. "Do you have a surname?" She asked - almost as an afterthought. "I'm Catori Corten. I think...I think I'd always be Catori Corten, but, if you have a name to use I'd still like to carry it." She admitted. She was a proud thing after all - and that extended to Grayday, too. 

 

His touches were gentle as ever but Catori couldn't promise such sweetness always. She pressed a few teasing nips along his cheek when he teased her ear, tail swaying against the ground behind them at the contact. She did enjoy that, she definitely did. It was a surprise almost given that she tended to think of herself as more reserved when it came to the physicality of things - but then, wasn't it appropriate that she was giving and open to him, too? "Hmm, I'd like to see how creative you can be." She purred, smiling up at him as she let her tongue tease just along his cheek and down to his neck. 

Catori felt more possessive of him carrying her name - of being claimed in such a way, that even their children might carry on her family name and the rich heritage that went with it. "Grayday Corten of Morningside," She tested it - and she did smile at the sound of it. "You sound regal." She almost teased, nuzzling beneath his chin. "Catori Corten of Morningside," She followed it up with a name of her own, but it felt as comfortable as saying Catori the Spiritwalker Corten, or even Catori Corten the Spiritwalker, however one chose to say it. "I've got a leg up on you given I'm used to long, drawn out names." She said with a playful laugh. 

"I won't be upset if it sounds too much for you." She promised. "But if you do like it too, I certainly won't mind you carrying the name either."