Mount Apikuni logistics

For @Peregrine. This is a travel thread from SC to BDP, since you already have one set for when Perry arrives at BDP. Timelines are confusing, but I wanted to make sure they sorted some stuff out before I started posting anything. :o

So this was it; Fox was leaving behind the only thing she had known for the last half year and moving on to something entirely. It felt wrong on some sides, but for the most part, she was ready. Good riddance, she thought, although she could not help but wish she could have said goodbye to some of her more beloved pack-mates. Scimitar, Razo, Danica, Njal, and Tuwawi came to mind. Fox wondered if Bazi would tell them what had happened or where their former leader was headed.

Slowly, the duo made their way back to the plateau, but Fox knew that this would not be in silence. “Perry,” she said, once her nerves had settled a bit and she was no longer raging from her fight with Bazi, “Where will I fit in at the plateau?” she asked. She did not hold the loyalty of any of the plateau wolves, although she knew that Peregrine did. Would she be forced into a lower rank due to her newness? If she was handed a place beside him, would she have to fight for it day in and day out?

Would it be cool to set this someplace like the northwest side of Mt. Apikuni, since they're en route? If that works, I'll move it. :)

They carried onward in silence the first few miles. Peregrine almost spoke two dozen times, only to glance at Fox's face and decide he should let her speak first, whenever she was ready. When she said his name, he slowed but didn't quite stop, turning to let her know she had his full attention. Her inquiry finally caused him to cease walking so that he could swing to fully face her.

"First of all, we need to establish whether you really want to live at the plateau," he said gently. Perhaps she'd expected him to simply run with the idea, yet Peregrine was not a dumb beast. Fox and Bazi hadn't fought, not really. "If there was a way to go back to the creek, would you take it? Do you want to live at the plateau for other reasons than just because it's the path of least resistance for the moment? First, we should figure out the answers to those questions."

He paused for a breath, then added, "I want you at the plateau. I've made no secret of that. But what do you want? I'd rather see you weasel your way back into the creek's ranks if that's what you want than come with me and end up miserable. But maybe I'm overanalyzing and you're actually all about coming to be my trophy wife at the plateau." He managed a small smirk, then quietly and patiently awaited for some feedback.

That's fine with me! Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I have it in BDP. :P

The questions he asked were hard ones, and she wasn't even sure she was ready to answer them, and yet... Fox knew that she had to sooner rather than later. “I do not know,” she said after a moment, “I do not think they would take me.” At the very least, Bazi wasn't going to let her back in, and she doubted Njal and Tuwawi were particularly happy about her actions. Had she ruined her chances with the creek? Fox continued walking, contemplating her choices and wondering if she had made the right one. She had always been so sure about everything in her life, but this choice was not so clear.

“On the other hand, I can’t see myself bowing down after being at the top for so long.” Fox was hot headed and strong willed, and starting at the bottom was not exactly her idea of a good time. If Perry had been warmer to the idea the first time around, she would have again suggested they start something together. But maybe she was willing to bide her time at the plateau, regain her strength, and try him again when she was ripe for children.

"Thinking is not the same as knowing," Peregrine sagely opined, glancing off into the distance before his eyes sharply cut back to Fox's face. "I like you... a lot. I want you to be with me. But I'm also asking for your loyalty. If you come to the plateau, that cuts your ties with the creek permanently. You should be sure before you make any final decisions, for your sake, my sake and the sake of anyone else that may be affected by your choice. That's all I'm saying."

"And don't forget," he continued after a pause, "that I do not come without my own baggage. There are three kids and likely an inexplicably angry ex-wife in the picture. And though I'd love to offer you my open Beta female position—seeing as the Alpha female rank's already occupied by my good and worthy friend—I'm not sure how anybody would react to that. I'd at least like to consult with my pack before I thrust strange, unproven leadership upon them, even if their Alpha vouches for you."

There they were, the cards laid out on the table. Peregrine found himself gazing at the nearby mountain for a beat before once again returning his dusky blue-gray eyes to Fox's pretty face. "It's a lot to consider, especially all at once. And then..." He appeared to be about to say something else, to be on the verge of giving voice to a thought that had just popped into his head, but he trailed off instead.

It was Lasher who'd popped into his head. Nobody knew about Peregrine's romantic relationship with the other male and he liked it that way. Yet if Fox was possibly about to turn her entire life upside down to come home with him, then that meant he would either need to drop Lasher or tell her about him (cheating was not an option). The first option made him feel horrible; he adored the male, even if he couldn't show it openly. Yet the latter option was difficult to swallow as well. Surely Fox would be put out at best and repulsed at worst when she discovered her lover already had a lover, another man at that.

Peregrine found himself dryly musing over whether offering to share Lasher with her would sway her, especially considering how much he knew Fox loved male attention...

Fox chewed her lip as he spoke, keeping her eyes to the ground as she became lost in the rush of thoughts that made their way through her head. There was already an Alpha female? And it wasn't even Perry's mate? Not that she had thought he'd had one, but... the thought of such a thing was absurd to the girl. She knew that, eventually, she would have that spot, one way or another. Her selfish tendencies wouldn't allow it, and once again she found herself dreaming of a world where she and Perry had a little plot of land all to themselves.

Minutes passed in silence as they continued toward the plateau, Fox's brow furrowed in concentration. “I can’t go back there,” she said, referring to the creek. “I will try the plateau, but I can guarantee nothing.” Fox would give it a whirl. She would try standing beside him and this—whoever she was—Alpha lady. And if it left a bad taste in her mouth, she would build something better for herself.

“What were you going to say? At the end there?” she asked, noting that he had started to say something, but had trailed off.

Had any other prospective recruit seemed so noncommittal, Peregrine would have dismissed him or her on the spot. But this was Fox and he was as much male as he was wolf. He made his displeasure known in a slight frown, only to clear his expression a moment later and reply in his deep timbre, "I accept your terms." If she flaked out on him, he couldn't say she hadn't warned him, though if she hurt anyone—particularly his children—in the process, Fox would discover that there was a ruthlessly unforgiving side to him.

None of this might matter once he dropped the bomb, though, and Peregrine was aware of that even as he was acutely aware that he'd somehow subconsciously decided there was no way he wasn't about to come clean with Fox. He was not about to start off their new lives with a giant lie hanging over them, after all. At the same time, the thought made his bowels quiver (pun unintended...). He literally hadn't told anyone about Lasher, not even his brother or Blue Willow.

"I have a question for you. It's going to seem like a non sequitur but... bear with me." He paused and let out a shaky breath. "You strike me in some ways as a very natural wolf but you're also decidedly unnatural in others." He gave her a pointed look, recalling their first meeting. "What are your views on... alternative lifestyles, like... homosexuality or polyamory?" As Peregrine questioned her, he wondered if Fox would even know the meanings of those words. He had certainly never given them a second thought until recently... the latter word, polyamory, until this very moment, as a matter of fact. He was thinking on his feet.

I found the source of Perry's photo. :)
http://500px.com/photo/3309966/black-wol...?from=user

So it seemed she would become a member of the plateau. Of all the places she had thought she might end up, that was not one of them. In fact, if anybody would have asked her for a five-year plan the day before Haunter's death, she would have said that they were going to make a nice crop of babies each and every year for the rest of their sweet lives. It was strange how one death could change the course of so many lives.

Perry segued into something else entirely, and Fox looked at him quizzically. He introduced words she had never heard of, and considering Fox wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, she wasn't so great on just figuring this stuff out. “What and what?” she asked, clearly perplexed by whatever he was trying to ask her. Did Kat think Remedy was going to make this easy on Peregrine?

Ooh, thank-you! I'd heard of reverse image searching (or something like that) but wasn't sure how it was done. :)

Just as he'd suspected she might, Fox seemed utterly perplexed by the questions. Trying not to smile at the endearingly baffled expression on her face, he patiently explained, "Homosexuality as in... same-sex... sex?" That hadn't come out very eloquently but at least it got straight to the point. "And polyamory as in... being involved with more than one person at a time. Sort of the opposite of monogamy, I suppose." He swore he could see the confusion growing on her face with every word.

Deciding it would be much easier just to get straight to the point, Peregrine blurted, "I'm involved with a dude. He's not my mate or anything and nobody knows about him. I think of him as my dirty little secret." His lips twitched. It was really a misnomer, as his relationship with Lasher was actually quite beautiful, as was the male himself. "He's... my lover. We haven't done much together sexually but... he's more than a friend to me, Fox, and I thought you should know that with what's at stake." He motioned to himself, then to her.

After putting his foot back down on the ground, he cast out the line he hoped would reel in Fox and let him net her after all. She was one hell of a catch and he would be a little devastated if she slipped loose at this point. "I'm fond of him and I'm very fond of you too. If you wanted, I would... stop things with him. But there's another option, if you'd like to try it. You could have both of us. Two hot dudes for the price of one. I know Lasher would be down. The three of us could be... a trouple... or a triad... or whatever."

NP! I usually use http://tineye.com/ for that sort of thing.

Fox still didn't understand. Two boys didn't fit together like that, as far as she was concerned, nor did to girls. Sex was for makin' babies, wasn't it? Not that their coupling would result in any, but Perry had seemed to enjoy himself on some level... Fox still thought that children were the final goal. And she was pretty damn sure that two boys (or two girls) couldn't make puppies. The second part felt more natural, if only because males were often drawn to spread their seed wherever they could. The more children one had, the more likely more of them would survive and pass on their legacy.

The thought was... well, incredibly strange to Fox. It had not been something that had ever occurred to her, and she suddenly realized that this must have been what Ferdie and Jace were up to the whole time. “They were lovers?” she whispered without context, looking away from Peregrine in disbelief as these realizations filled her head. She was fairly certain now that it was what Bazi had been trying to tell her for so long. That was the unnatural thing about them that had driven them mad.

Shaking herself away from that thought, she peered apprehensively at Peregrine. “Eventually, your pack will find out,” she stated, “What do you expect this Alpha female of yours will think? And why did you not take her as your mate?” Her tone was mildly accusatory, but she couldn't help but feel her skin crawl. Had she just gone away with another Ferdie? What had she been thinking?

As soon as he finished speaking, Peregrine held his breath. He braced himself for a myriad of reactions, all of them negative. He simply didn't expect acceptance on any level, though he hoped for it, deep down. He hoped he could have his cake and eat it too, though he didn't mean to be greedy. He was just beginning to discover that love (and lust) were not finite resources, at least for him.

When she didn't immediately spit on him and run for the nearby hills, Peregrine's breath gusted out of him. "Wha?" he said in reply to her whispered query. It hadn't seemed meant for him, though the following two questions were definitely aimed at him, as were her sharp gray eyes.

Fighting against the hope that threatened to blossom in his chest, Peregrine said, "I guess... if you take me up on my offer, it's true. Lasher doesn't deserve to be hidden forever anyway," he admitted. "And Willow? I imagine she'd be accepting, probably more than anybody else. She's not my mate because I don't look at her that way. Actually, I think she and my brother, Atticus—y'know, Bones's dad?—will eventually tie the knot."

His eyes searched her face, wishing he knew what thoughts and feelings were whipping around behind those eyes. She didn't seem immediately opposed, though perhaps she was just holding back before unleashing her distaste on him. Peregrine's eyes closed briefly and he thought silently to himself, What will be, will be.

Fox wasn't sure she believed him about Willow (whom she assumed was the Alpha female beside him). It seemed that Perry's brother, the one that fathered Bones, was going to eventually take her, anyway. And where would that leave Peregrine? More importantly, where would that leave Fox. Her selfishness and ambition had not been dampened so much by her departure from the creek. “So you and I would be below them,” Fox grumbled under her breath. It seemed as if Peregrine trusted this Willow character an awful lot. Perhaps too much for Fox's tastes. But this was only the immediate future. Maybe, with enough time and convincing, Fox could eventually lead Peregrine away from the plateau. It was a long game, which was not her strong suit, but it felt like the only option.

“I will meet Lasher,” she said after several long minutes passed as they crept slowly toward the plateau, “but again, I guarantee nothing.” How would she even know if she liked him? What if he was a total weirdo? Little did she know, she'd already met him and had gotten along with him swimmingly. Fox's noncommittal remarks were becoming a trend.

Fox's grumbled reply actually elicited a nervous laugh from Peregrine. "Priorities," he quipped, then said, "Actually... I'm the senior Alpha. If I wanted, I could ask Blue Willow to step down. I wouldn't do that, though, unless she volunteered. I could actually see her doing just that, for what it's worth, you power-hungry biatch." He smirked to indicate he didn't mean anything by that.

When she agreed to meet Lasher, Peregrine tried to restrain himself, yet somehow a grin crept over his face. "I'd like that," he said, controlling his voice somehow, "and fair enough. We should be heading home then," he added, trying not to skip and click his heels together as he began moving again.

"Just wait and see, Fox," Peregrine said after about fifteen minutes of traveling in thoughtful but companionable silence. "I'm sure you'll eventually get your way and become queen bee. Then you'll not only have the Alpha male lavishing you with his attention, you'll also get his highly attractive lover. Maybe even at the same time." Peregrine's eyes gleamed at the thought. "And when the time comes, you'll have our babies."

He actually surprised himself with that last bit, though the swarthy leader honestly found that the idea of sharing paternity with Lasher didn't bother him at all. They could share Fox, as long as she was open to it, and raise their family as a unit. He'd already done something similar once, after all, albeit under very different and decidedly less happy circumstances.

Feel free to archive this. I think it's concluded enough. :)

She wondered, for a moment, if Perry had been surprised by her comment. Fox had always been ravenously ambitious (and a power-hungry biatch), and she did not think she had hidden such thoughts from him. Perhaps she was wrong. To know that Peregrine was the "senior Alpha," gave her a bit of comfort, although she was not sure that he would ever have the balls to actually do anything about it. If he didn't, she certainly did.

Comfortable silence passed between them, although Perry seemed to excited for any more than a quarter of an hour at a time. She curled her lips into a grin—the first one since they had parted ways with Bazi, when he mentioned that she might be queen bee again someday. In her mind, of course, it was more of a "would be" rather than a "might be." The thought of having not one, but two, males at her disposal was intriguing, although she couldn't imagine what he meant by "at the same time." Perhaps he just meant in the general sense of the phrase.

But it was the last bit that really piqued Fox's interest. Children had always been her main end-goal. Fox had been driven to procreate out of instinct, and although she wasn't capable of doing such things yet, she knew that her time would come soon enough. She was also reminded that Peregrine had children of his own. Now that was not something she was really looking forward to. She couldn't have been too much older than them, and she wasn't quite sure how they would think of her. Fox was no replacement for their mother, nor was she sure she wanted to be. She decided she would cross that bridge when she got there.

For now, she merely trotted alongside Perry, content with the silence and his occasional yammering on about future plans.