Seaside Moors keep coming back

Surprise? @Raleska, but all welcome, set for the 16th to account for some travel time.

He knew that this was likely a bad move, but as the days wore on, he felt more and more confident that nothing was coming out of his union with Arbiter (if it could even be called that). She did not spark the fire in him that Raleska had, and she was no aokkatti. He did not feel fiercely for her the way he still did for Raleska, and he wished to make sure that she was still alive and well after the last time he had seen her. It was entirely possible she would simply turn him away, and Kaertok was prepared for that outcome, but this was his Hail Mary.

When she had been taken back to the moors, Kaertok had returned home to raise his own children. They were growing, and soon, they would be capable of being on their own. At least, that was his perspective. For now, they were at least capable of roaming the territory more or less on their own. With no word to anyone that he would be gone (or where he was going), Kaertok had slipped away from the bypass and followed the vague directions he recalled from that fateful day.

Her scent, along with several others he recognized from his time with Rusalka, were all the indicator he needed before sending up a call for the wolf he couldn't seem to put out of his mind.

So few wolves came to the border for Raleska, that at first she simply thought the call was a trick of the wind. It’d been so long since she’d seen or heard of Kaertok, that she certainly didn’t make the connection who the caller was until she saw him.

The interest in her gaze fell away once recognition set in, replaced by a cool dullness that spoke of a person well-doctrinated to hurt. Raleska’s smile was nonexistent — as was the warmth in her eyes — as she regarded the man who had left her not once, but more times than she had interest in counting.

Why must he come back, always when life was at its worse? What was it about the orbit of her life that invited him unannounced, as if he were the omen precipitating her eventual downfall? And — what now, brought him to her door — how long before he just left again?

She’d wanted more than anything to beg him to stay that night in Ankyra. She hoped he’d somehow sense it, but he’d left her anyway. Pride kept her from showing any semblance of joy in seeing him — and the memory of past hurts had her protectively hiding any emotion across her face save for disappointment.

Her stomach was twisted and tongue in knots as she managed a single, unwelcoming greeting. What do you want?

She looked as fierce and as even-keeled as ever. So much different than the last time he’d seen her, in and out of consciousness for the majority of the time. The question she asked was not a complicated one, and it did not warrant a complicated answer. He wished to tell her that she looked well, but he did not. Raleska did not deserve to have her time wasted, and Kaertok despised small talk anyway.

You, he said plainly. He’d had no plan when coming here, but the word fell out of his mouth so easily, and he could not take it back. It was the truth, and that it came to the forefront without thought made him realize that he would be willing to sacrifice quite a bit to get what he wished for. Somehow, he would make Raleska fit into his life. That is, if she would let him.

Raleska might have had an inkling why Kaertok was here, but nothing compared her for the openness in his unflinching answer.

Her face crumpled like sodden cardboard when a rock is thrown atop it. Her proud tail fell, her shoulders visibly sagged — meanwhile, a look of furious anguish rose along her dark muzzle.

You? She answered incredulously, feeling heat box her ears and sting her eyes. You can’t keep doing that! You can’t keep coming in and out of my life like that! Raleska felt outrage pour from her throat as if molten lava; did he not see how much he hurt her every time he skipped in and out of her life like an inconstant summer wind? That — this — She gesticulated all of it — Isn’t fair.

Kaertok had expected her outburst, and he continued to steady himself in the moment. The first time he had left her, he had asked her to come along, and she had refused. The second, she had been angry. The third, they’d both had children to think of. But now… his children were old enough. He had paid his debt to Arbiter and Legion. He did not feel that same connection to Legion, or even his own children that he had helped raised, as he did with Raleska. Malrok might’ve been an exception, but he would let her go if it meant that he could remain with Raleska.

Tell me to stay, and I will. It was as simple as that. He would likely make an enemy out of Arbiter, but at this rate he doubted her ability to have strong emotions. She had never shown them to him. He had never broken through Arbiter’s tough exterior, and he had resolved that he never would. She was strong, but not fierce and fiery like Raleska was.

A slew of questions threatened to break free from Raleska’s tightly clenched jaws. She couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe he was here, acting supplicant as if he hadn’t just walked out of her life so many times before. As if none of it mattered!

Selfishly she didn’t even think — or register, really — about his life or his children. She only thought of how she’d given him so many chances, there’d been so many what-ifs and teasing blips of potential future happiness — and every one of them had shriveled like a clam in the sun. 

And how dare he! How dare he thrust this moment upon her out of the blue. She wasn’t just being put on the spot — her entire FUTURE hung in the balance following whatever choice it was she made. 

Her ears pinned in outrage. Her eyes narrowed in distrust and hurt. No. Raleska exhaled through her nose in bitterness. You’re just going to leave me again. How dare you? You already hurt me once. And now you’re back here acting like it never happened? Like you never walked out of my life? 

I can’t give you a chance to do it again. I shouldn’t give you another chance. It would be stupid of me, and I’m done making stupid choices.

Raleska’s gaze searched Kaertok imploringly — begging, hoping that he might fire something back. That he might give her a reason to doubt herself and let him back in, rather than sabotage any chance of future happiness.

So many times in his life, Kaertok had let others make his choices for him. Raleska had been one of them, in a way. She had told him time and time again that he was no good for her, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to believe that was true. If he returned to Legion, he knew that was it. But he saw no future there. Arbiter had been fair to him, and he fair to her (in his own way), but fair was not what drove him. Raleska was something else. She had that drive in her that so many Tartok wolves had, and he could not leave it be.

I do not joke, and I do not act as though I have never let you down. But we could be something. I feel it in my bones, and I know you do, too, or you would not have given me an audience. She wouldn’t still be standing here if she didn’t want something out of this. Maybe she wanted to kill him, but she hadn’t done so (yet).

"No," Raleska bristled, feeling her cheeks light as if coal stirring beneath a disturbed fire. "You don't get it." Why did she have to beg him, or tell him what to do? He was so god-damned autonomous when it came to what he wanted to do, but now he was figuratively submitting himself to her feet, making this grandly romantic gesture of subservience when all she had wanted was a little fucking volition of his own accord...

She suppressed the urge to snap in his face. Instead her tone became eerily quiet. "I shouldn't have to tell you. You should just want to, because you believe it is the right thing to do." By submitting to her will or waiting upon her beck and command, he was making himself the martyred marionette and she the cruel master that pulled at his strings. And down the line he would become embittered she had been so controlling, and she would become indifferent he'd turned so feeble: how was that possibly a recipe of happiness? If she wasn't always around to tell him what to do, who even knew if he would stay?! "I don't feel shit in my bones, except for I've been let down too many times -- by everyone -- to trust in that to change.

Do it, or don't.

But I am not your master. And I won't beg for what I deserve, either."

A master is not how I see you, Kaertok said. He could have had that in Arbiter if that had been his desire, but it wasn't so. He wanted an equal, and Raleska was the only wolf he had met who had come close to meeting that. Who leads Rusalka now, so I may let them know my intention to stay? he asked. There was no play in his voice, no tricks up his sleeve.

If his children wanted to find him, they would learn to be skilled enough to do so. Briefly, he wondered about Raleska's own children. Had they survived? What of their father? Kaertok did not know, and he quickly realized he did not care.

A long look delivered to Kaertok, disbelievingly. She did not believe he was capable of guile, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of mistreating her again either. He'd never tried to hurt her, for what it was worth -- but she still had the abandonment issues to prove that people could (and do) hurt you without ever intending to do so.

Raleska wondered how @Rosalyn and @Erzulie would feel, just as Kaertok asked of the leaders. That he was another man coming into their fold so shortly after upheaval didn't escape Raleska, but she kept that negativity to herself. Instead, she studied Kaertok a moment longer before she tilted back her head and called for either or both to come at their leisure and see if Kaertok passed muster among them.

wintersbane had capitulated swiftly. rusalka belonged to the wives now; there was only the matter of what to do with it.
erzulie had set a wide band round the moorland to patrol. in her muzzle a rat that had tried to escape the inexorable snap of her teeth, a plaything for her children.
raleska's summons, rising. the harlot changed her trajectory, wondering why the young woman sought her.
but the moors were flat, and even at a distance she could see the glinting pale form of a stranger near raleska. a male stranger. she came upon them both with cinnamon hackles lifted, throwing the rat aside and studying the man for a long, harsh moment before she deliberately turned back toward raleska. he need not speak.

She'd risen, but it was time to truly step up.  Rosalyn had allowed herself to become lax in the previous months where the pack was concerned.  Beyond ensuring her family thrived, she'd had little other drive.  Now the borders and entry were hers and Erzulie's alone until they chose a second.  

Rosalyn paused short at the summons when when she arrived within view.  It wasn't practical for both to be there, and she was tempted to continue in her marking.  Curiosity won out.  Raleska had just spoken of barring all men entry, yet here she was, summoning them to survey one.

Rosalyn's demeanor was neutral as she approached.  She had made plenty of judgements already, but she'd reserve showing them until Raleska spoke.

Raleska summoned the leader(s), and Kaertok awaited their judgement silently. He wondered if they would remember him, and he wondered if he would recognize them. It had been a long time since he had lived among them, and his time with Rusalka had been rather short, but with the constant change in leadership, it had not suited him at the time. But he had helped to save Raleska's life, hadn't he? He had not forgotten that he was part of the reason she stood here today.

The two matriarchs arrived, and Kaertok's stance shrank as much as it could on his large form. He was here as an underling, no longer the leader of Legion in this moment. His tail swept beneath his belly and his ears flattened against his head in deference. He felt their eyes upon him, although he did not chance an upward glance at either of them. Rosalyn and Erzulie, still here and still kicking. He did not remember them very well, but he did remember them.

A long time ago, Kaertok had been an important part of Raleska's life. He had helped her look for her mother, he had protected her on more than one occasion -- and once, he had even saved her life.

She wondered if that Kaertok was a ghost, a memory -- and this one was simply another iteration of the man who had caused her so much heart-ache.

Erzulie came first, tawny hackles raised -- Rosalyn came second, posture neutral yet no less intimidating. Raleska's ears swept back in deference to both, a savage beat of strange pride twisting in her heart that she came from them and their ilk. "Kaertok," she introduced to them, though she recalled that he had met both on some distant shore long ago. "He wants to stay. He was one of the wolves that saved me back at the Sound." Raleska offered quietly, finding her own gaze lingering earthbound as Kaertok's did.

the man did not speak. her wife arrived, and erzulie warmed imperceptibly beneath the silent presence of the fierce pirate. 
raleska was direct, deferential. a daughter of rusalka. her child, if the harlot had any say in it. at length, her observant stare shifted from the sea-maid to her pale companion.
he had saved raleska. erzulie until this moment had thought the new mother only beneath the care of stryx and sugar glider. that a man had been involved was surprising, and for the first time she wondered what it was that compelled him to leave the pack wound so thickly through his withers.
kaertok was well-built, mannerly, and strong. but had not wintersbane been the same? and look what he had tried to do. "if raleska speaks for you, den dere be a place here." reluctant, but she trusted the loyalty of their adoptive daughter. erzulie glanced to rosalyn there, waiting to see what she might say.

Raleska did speak for him, and Erzulie offered him a place.  Rosalyn was surprised and more than a little skeptical.  She knew nothing of this man... if he had truly 'saved' her, where had he been?  And what had changed to bring him crawling to their doorstep?  Perhaps he'd been cast out, had nowhere else to go.  She herself had been tempted to pull those strings many times over, and she wondered again how it would have gone over if she and Erzulie had been forced to call a favor of the Redhawks.  Not well.

Being in the right place at the right time earns you a chance. she agreed, not bothering to hide the reluctance in her tone.  But don't take your place here for granted.  She'd not felt active dislike of this type for the others who had joined of late, but none of them had made personal audience with Raleska either.  She didn't approve of the assumption that it was easy to draw, and her eyes would be on him, seeking any reason to take him to task.  Any man would need to prove himself twice over to the pirate, but even then they would never deserve a daughter of hers.

It was perhaps lucky she did not recognize him enough to know a chance had already been taken and used.  Otherwise she might have had more to say.

Last from me, I think!

Neither of them made any indication that they recognized him. Perhaps his brief presence in Rusalka had mattered only to Raleska. That made the most sense, considering the bulk of his time had been spent with her and not others. Raleska introduced him not as a wolf they had once known, but as one of the wolves that had saved her life. Somewhere deep in the lifeless chasm that was his heart, a tiny flicker of flame bubbled up. He did not even have that for his children, but Raleska was decidedly different.

The other two seemed to defer to Raleska on his acceptance, and that was when Kaertok knew he would not leave. Not this time. He had made the mistake of leaving Raleska before, but he had seen where that had led him. Aimless, wandering, searching for something that could only be found in one wolf. He nodded curtly at Rosalyn's words, not daring to utter anything in fear of cracking the thin ice that was his place in Rusalka.

With that, he made the fateful step over the boundary and cut ties with the children he left behind. They were not the first to be victim to his wandering ways, but they were the first to be aware of it as it played out. As for Arbiter, he truly believed he had given her everything she had wished for. Jomyo he still considered a friend. And should his children ever find him, he would tell them the truth.

Raleska was thankful for several things -- for one, Kaertok's silence (how rare in a man!). For two, the hard eyes of her leaders -- they permitted Kaertok among them, but not before a subtle knife was pointedly sharpened: do not take your place here for granted.

Yeah, Raleska's eyes seemed to glower -- she turned wordlessly to Kaertok in the hopes to scry from his facial expression his thoughts. Finding no visible thought she could discern, she turned to both Erzulie and Rosalyn deferentially. Each of them were given a soft buff with her head before she turned back to the pale wolf by her side. "I'll show you the rendezvous." Raleska offered, a long look of wordless gratitude exchanged between her surrogate mothers before she was off.

last for me <3 WELCOME (back)!