Northstar Vale Fight, little wolf, fight, little wolf, fight

Maman had made it clear that his interest in his daughter was very little. She had Chandra now, her ugly duckling who Chaudry felt all too sure would never grow into a beautiful swan. @Julia, however, had been born perfect in his eyes. It made no sense for a disfigured invalide to be placed above his daughter.

In the cover of night he makes his way to the whelping den where Pala lay with the children. They will be old enough to leave the den soon, old enough for Chaudry to properly present. He intends to have Pala help him make a show of it when they are weaned, once his problem is taken care of at least.

Crawling into the hollowed out ground his eyes pass over his two sons entirely, settling on Julienne with a softness reserved for only a few. He pauses to give her a gentle lap of his tongue before his gaze hardens upon Pala; the woman is only a tool in this process, and he feels no shame in it. Nudging her harshly he sees the flutter of eyelashes as she wakes. Maman rejected Julienne. She had a daughter of her own this year, but not a valid heiress. She will not walk. His words are blunt, gaze still. You will help your daughter take Chandra's place.

He cared not for how it was done. Whether she tried to talk sense into Viskani, released a rabid coyote into the den, or outright killed the thing did not matter to him. A child like Chandra was not suited to life, not in his mind.

Chaudry woke her with a start. He was angry, she could tell. He spoke of his mother's litter, that she had given birth to a daughter. Pala could not understand why he would be unhappy, not until the disdain for the child's condition slipped from his tongue. He insisted that she had to do something to change it, to make Julienne the heiress. She knew instantly what he meant; he wanted her to commit infanticide.

Disgust coating her scarred face, she rose to a stand and was quick to shoot forward with a snap of her teeth. She wanted him out of her den, out of her life. He was disgusting man, not suited to have fathered her children. She understood that now.

He stumbled back but still, as Chaudry would, he held strong. With no words exchanged except a harsh snarl she lurched for his leg now and sunk her teeth in. They were stood close together, the space was small, it was no challenge.

With what seemed to her a roar of pure rage the Montagne son and herself tumbled out of the den, Pala the only one between the pair ensuring that the children were not stepped on in the scuffle. She felt a sense of attachment to them for the first time, a need to protect.

She refused to comply with his demands, but worse, the bitch bit him. He supposed he should not have been surprised; dog ran through her blood, it was bound to come out sooner or later.

Claws and teeth were exchanged between the two, but Chaudry's advantage was clear. Pala was small, out of practice, and slow from her recovery. Grabbing her by the back of the neck he shook her before throwing the woman to the ground. With a final snarl he took a step back, eyes remaining fixed to her form as a clear warning.

Take the sons and leave. I will keep my daughter, and I will help her rise to the place she deserves. He had no need for Pala now. The children were nearly weaned, he could feed Julienne himself. You will drag her down. His words were harsh, his message clear. Pala was everything that a Montagne woman was not meant to be, Julienne would be raised to be the perfect image of it. To have such a mother would scorn her image.

He demanded that she leave with her sons, that she leave Julienne with him. She hesitated for only a short moment. Their daughter had been the prize in this situation, he would treat her well. Ludovicus and Ignace were afterthoughts, doomed to live in the back of his mind if at all.

You are a disgusting man. There was nothing else to say. That much seemed appropriate.

Retreating into the den, she gave Julienne one final look before, as best she could, picking up her sons and taking her exit. She would not say goodbye, nuzzle and kiss her, that would only make it hurt more for both of them.

With Ludovicus and @Ignace in tow, Pala left the vale. And, at the very least, she knew exactly where she wished to go.