Blacktail Deer Plateau It's wild like the river, it's warm like the sun

Although the arrivals of Crete and Atticus, the altercation with Jinx and his courtship with Hawkeye all served to divert him for a while, Peregrine could not be distracted forever from the missing piece in his life. As he walked around the edge of the plateau, he thought of one thing only: his sister, Osprey. If she hadn't shown up at the plateau by now, this meant she hadn't followed her brothers' trail. Was she still with the falcons or had she deserted, only to get lost? With a frown on his face, the Omicron contemplated all of these possibilities.

Finally, all the worry built up inside him and he found himself at a ledge, lifting his head toward the blue winter sky, pointing his nose at the noontime sun and howling. It was a deep, mournful noise as he wordlessly lamented the loss of his sister. In the course of his song, he confessed the fear that he would never see her again. During the final notes of his lament, he sought his brothers' ears especially, knowing they would empathize, even if they hadn't been quite as close to Osprey.

Feeling a little better, Peregrine turned and walked slowly into the wood, planning to hunt down Hawkeye eventually. He'd come to learn she valued time alone, so he didn't force his presence upon her, though he checked in with her a few times throughout the day and sometimes even dogged her steps, as if she were prey. He still very much wanted to claim her for his own and he learned much from spending time with her (whether or not she was aware of him), not to mention kept vigilant for advances from other suitors.

Pretty certain I need more Kat threads in my life! :D

He heard his brother's voice rend the silence, dark, mournful ripples of longing and emptiness reverberating through the still, wintry air. His heart stirred within him as the notes of that sad howl tugged at him, urged him to join and weave his own song of sorrow into Peregrine's cry. His tongue itched, his throat spasmed involuntarily, and a low, choked whine caught piteously in his throat. He missed her too. He missed her so much. He hoped she was somewhere in this vast, expansive valley, searching for them right this very moment, and that Peregrine's howl would fall on her ears and lead her to those who loved her the most.

Swallowing his stalled voice, he found his brother in the woods not far off. The howl had long since died, but it still resonated powerfully in his heart. Lifting his tail and waving it at his littermate, Atticus whiffed softly as he approached. "I miss her too," he commented, falling into step alongside his green-eyed, salty-tongued sibling. "I wonder if she'll come."

Peregrine saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned, hoping it was Hawkeye. Rather, it was his brother, Atticus. Ignoring the fleeting disappointment, he woofed in return and sniffed noses with Atticus when he came within reach. His tail arched slightly and waved to welcome his brother's presence.

"You know," he replied quietly, "I have this feeling... I don't think she is coming." His dusky eyes squinted. "I don't know how or why I feel this way. I just do." Peregrine drew in a breath, then sighed. "Wherever she is, I just hope she's safe and sound; that's all that matters. But... I have to admit, the idea of living life without her... agh." The Gamma shook his swarthy head. "It eats me up, man."

Too lazy for table right now. :P

"I know what you mean," he commented in reply to his brother's thoughts. He trusted Peregrine's assessment more than his own; Peregrine, after all, was closest to Osprey out of all of them. Atticus adored his sister, but he and Osprey never really had that "spark" or "connection" that he'd seen between her and Perry. It was okay, of course. He harbored no jealousy. Each one of them had their place in one another's world, and Atticus still had a good relationship with her.

"It sucks. Everything feels so incomplete. But…at least she'll be okay." He bumped Perry's shoulder companionably, appreciating once more the miracle that had brought them together here in this place so far from home. It was better to have an incomplete family than no family at all. Tyrannus is a dick and a half – in fact, he's a whole lot of dicks. He's a whole friggin' forest of big, throbbing, gross dicks. But only to us. He'll be good to Oss."

After a moment of consideration, he continued, "I tried to get to her, you know." He glanced at Perry's face, wondering if he too had tried. Or had Tyrannus been more aggressive with this bolder brother of theirs? "After he ran me out. I took my time, circled back around to the packlands. I…I didn't want her to think we just up and left her, y'know?" His brow was furrowed, almost troubled, as he spoke, as if he recalled a bad dream he didn't like to think about. "I almost made it. But he caught me and…well, kicked my ass." He still bore some of the bruises and cuts from the fight with Tyrannus. He rolled his shoulders as if to shrug them away.

Peregrine looked rather morose even as Atticus assured him that Osprey would be okay; he looked quite unconvinced. When his brother began cracking jokes at Tyrannus's expense, his face remained stony, though slowly a smile began to creep onto his features. It was a very dark expression, though, tinged with malice as he thought of their evil elder brother.

"Just—fuck that guy," Peregrine spat quietly. He knew Atticus made a good point though: at least Tyrannus wouldn't view Osprey as a threat. "You're probably right, though."

Atticus's tone of voice drew his dusky eyes and they sharpened on his face as he explained how he'd tried to get to Osprey. The thought of their sister thinking they'd voluntarily left her sent a ripple of pure indignant, loathing fury through him. He calmed an instant later, telling himself that Osprey would know they'd never do that. Besides, he doubted Tyrannus could somehow cover up what he'd done.

"Yeah, he threatened to kill me," Peregrine said flatly. The memory was actually a painful one, yet more than anything, it bred bitter anger. "I think she knows, bro," he added, touching his nose to Atticus's cheek. "Thanks for trying, though."

He didn't want to linger on this subject, so Peregrine cleared his throat and asked, "So... have I told you that I'm courting Hawkeye?" In fact, he hadn't. Peregrine hadn't yet told anybody the news, yet who should be first besides one of his brothers?

He nodded in response to Peregrine's comments on their sister, not really knowing what else to say. He hoped that Osprey would come, but that was the best he could do — hope. She didn't know they'd been thrown out. He was sure Tyrant Ass wouldn't straight-up tell her that he'd thrown her brothers out of the pack; Atticus imagined he'd come up with some bullshit story to feed to her, probably paint them all to look like traitors and cowards or something. And even if she did piece together what had really happened, their trail was bound to be weathered away and nearly gone by now. Was it even realistic to hope that she might find her way to them? Atticus was nothing if not a realist, sometimes, and right now, his inner realist was telling him that the odds were pretty grim.

There was always that hope, though.

Peregrine swiftly changed the subject, and delivered to Atticus news that was probably supposed to be good. But it wasn't. It hit him like a poisoned arrow to the heart, embedding itself deeply in the aching tissue and festering there. Goddammit, he thought to himself, swallowing a thick lump in his throat and grimacing. Every fucking time. Somehow, whenever he developed feelings for someone, he always ended up being the loser. There was definitely chemistry between him and the peculiar Alpha, but he guessed he'd never have a chance to find out where it led. "That's cool," he said, a ball of ice burning deep in his stomach. "Good for you, man." His plastered a smile on his face and did his best to breathe false cheer into his voice.

*snugs Atticus* [mate]

It never occurred to Peregrine that his brother might also be interested in Hawkeye and he was so caught up in his own excitement that he didn't notice the faltering of Atticus's smile nor the tightening of his eyes. Unaware of how hurt and disappointed his litter mate felt, Peregrine unknowingly rubbed salt into the wound by puffing out his chest playfully and grinning.

"Thanks. Yeah, can you believe I've bagged—well, almost bagged—an Alpha female? She's hot, isn't she?" he said, nudging Atticus, seeking his sibling's approval. "I never really thought about mate-ship and stuff 'til I got here. Now we'll need to find you and Crete ladies!" he quipped.

Only now did he give any thought to which females may have caught his brother's eye, though Peregrine still didn't consider the possibility that Atticus might like Hawkeye. She was out of bounds in his mind, not that he actually gave it a single conscientious thought. His mind flew to every she-wolf in the pack—not that there were many in Sausage Fest Plateau—but her.

"There's that Vires chick. She's all right. I've smelled a couple new she-wolves around... you met any of them?" Peregrine asked benignly.

HAHAHA Sausage Fest Plateau. XD <3

Peregrine gushed on, seemingly oblivious to the pain he inflicted upon his brother with each ruthless twisting of the knife he had callously planted in Atticus's chest. His heart burned and howled as if literally stabbed, toxic fingers of cold anger and hopeless desolation creeping outward from the wound. Tears of bitterness and betrayal might have stung his eyes if he had not been so preoccupied with holding back the vast thunderheads of rage he felt building within him with each word that came out of Peregrine's mouth. He prattled on and on, words raining upon him unheard and tumbling loosely away like arrows bouncing off the side of a warship. Frozen fire simmered behind pale blue eyes and his mouth was dry with the heat of his temper.

"No," he replied, his voice hollow. He felt like he was drowning. Suddenly he wanted to be alone. "Thanks, but I don't...want anybody else." Too late he realized the "else" he had let slip, but he doubted his brother was astute enough to notice the implications of that word.

Through the black tunnel of his anger, he caught on to a subtle thing – his brother had only said they were courting. He had not said they were mated. In his own words, he had only "almost bagged" the Alpha female. He held this idea close in his mind, like a child holds a firefly in his enclosed hands, close to his heart, peering in at it cautiously lest it fly out between his fingers and be lost forever.

If not for one little word, Peregrine might not have cottoned on to his brother's romantic aspirations toward Hawkeye. Yet when that tiny little else slipped loose from his tongue, something finally clicked in the Gamma's head. He froze, looking searchingly at Atticus, and the possibility finally dawned on him. His mouth felt dry and his insides clenched with a thousand emotions all at once: anger, jealousy, guilt and despair all among them.

"Dude," Peregrine started, "don't tell me...?" The look on Atticus's face said it all for him, though. "Well, fuck," he whispered lowly.

He felt bad for his brother and was even tempted, very briefly, to tell Atticus that he'd step away from Hawkeye. He wouldn't want Atticus to have her, either, but it seemed fair if they both agreed to leave her alone, for the other's sake... Peregrine contemplated this for a very long moment, yet simply couldn't bring himself to say the words. He felt like a selfish piece of shit, putting a girl before his brother, but maybe Atticus would find it in himself to be happy for him after the initial disappointment...?

"Att, I... she's given me the chance at a new life and happiness again after having everything—Osprey, especially—ripped away from me," he said in a light, almost pleading voice. "I didn't know, man. I didn't know." And still he couldn't bring himself to be selfless, to give her up, to keep the peace between brothers.

I blame "Shark Tank" for this post sucking so much in comparison to my previous ones. Watching people's dreams being crushed is distracting and fun. XD

A fleeting sense of panic raced through him as his brother figured it out, but it was quickly replaced by anger as Peregrine rambled on about a new life and happiness after having everything ripped away from him. Did he think he was the only one of them who had suffered, who had lost? He had lost his home, his family, his sister too. Crete had lost Osprey and their mother and the Falcons too. Did Peregrine for one second think he was special? Did he seriously expect Atticus to rejoice at having a girl he'd been interested in swiped right out from under him like this?

He wanted so badly to spit these words at Peregrine, to make his brother understand how he felt, even just a little bit. But he didn't have the balls to do it. He'd never been much for confrontation. He wasn't as brazen and fearless as Peregrine was. He was a chicken-shit. Maybe it was better that Perry and Hawkeye hook up. No Alpha wanted to be with a loser who couldn't even stand up to his brother.

"No!" he protested, shaking his head. Another fake smile. "No," he assured his brother, though his pale blue eyes were strained as he glanced at Perry. "It's okay. It's…it's fine. I haven't known her that long anyway." The more he thought about it, now, the less he could understand why he was so attracted to her to begin with. He really hadn't known her that long at all. He didn't realize that it was purely hormones driving him, not so much his heart. But it still stung, to be the loser before ever even having a chance. "She is hot though, isn't she?" He flashed another empty grin, trying to lighten the situation and take the pressure off of himself.

The way Atticus rushed to reassure him, to smooth out this strange wrinkle between them, made Peregrine want to gather his brother up in his arms and squeeze him until his eyeballs popped out of their sockets. The urge to just drop Hawkeye and never look back washed through him again and he felt like he could—and would—do absolutely anything for his brother, for either of his brothers. When Atticus continued to feign camaraderie in an effort to lighten the situation, it made Peregrine feel almost goofy with affection... then, a moment later, incredibly guilty when he realized it still wasn't enough to make him give up Hawkeye.

"Atticus Romulus Aer DiSarinno... you are a way better brother than this douchecanoe deserves." He didn't have arms, yet Peregrine stepped closer to Atticus and wrapped his neck around the other male's. He couldn't bring himself to denounce his new sweetheart, so instead he said, "Forget about girls. You're so ridiculously, selflessly awesome that I've gone gay for you, Atti." The swarthy Gamma grinned dopily, then slung a foreleg about his litter mate's neck and planted a gigantic kiss on his cheek.

It would be fine, he told himself. Everything would be fine. It wasn't the first time he'd lost an opportunity at love, and it wouldn't be the last. He barely knew Hawkeye, didn't even know her surname or where she was from or what her favorite kind of meat was or…anything, really. The woman he lusted after was just that – a woman he lusted after. The more he reminded himself of this, the easier it was to accept things as they were. In her presence, of course, it was different. It was so hard to be reasonable and think with his upper head when he was shipwrecked, adrift and lost, in the tide of her intoxicating pheromones.

So a little genuine warmth crept into his previously empty smile, and a tiny bit of light kindled in his eyes, as he began to forgive his brother. The friendship and comaraderie they shared, and the ridiculous jokes that quickly resumed between them, helped a great deal. If things could just stay the way they were, Atticus could deal with Peregrine being a mated man. Of course, right now, he didn't put two and two together that by becoming Hawkeye's mate, Peregrine would become her Alpha male. That would be a huge problem for Atticus, but he didn't know that yet. He didn't make the connection between mate and rank.

For now, the brothers shared a hug, and Atticus laughed with a mixture of mock horror and genuine amusement at Peregrine's feigned declaration of gay love for his brother. Atti placed a forepaw companionably on Perry's shoulders and, gesturing…downward with his pale eyes, commented, "Just keep…that…away from me, 'sall I ask. I already have a colossal shlong that drags the ground behind me. I don't need another one." His face lit up in a wicked grin, the evil, mischievous gleam reserved exclusively for his brothers creeping into his eyes. There was no wound that penis jokes couldn't heal.

These guys make me laugh really hard. :x

Just as Atticus did not suspect it, Peregrine also didn't realize the correlation between mate and rank. He'd even told Hawkeye he wasn't interested in status, just her. When the time came, he would certainly embrace it... and do his damnedest to reassure both his brothers that he would not be following in Tyrannus's footsteps. For the moment, however, the two brothers remained oblivious of the fact that they'd only stepped into the spurious calm at the eye of the storm.

Peregrine laughed uproariously at Atticus's rejoinder, bumping his muzzle along his brother's. "If I buttfucked you, I'd tear your asshole wide open. It would turn inside out and drag on the ground too. I couldn't do that to you, dear brother of mine." He snickered at his own vulgar language because that was another thing Redleaf-DiSarinnos liked to do: laugh at their own jokes.

"I really do love you, man," Peregrine said more soberly in the next moment. "I love you so much, I'm going to spare your beautifully puckered asshole." He just couldn't keep a straight face and laughed some more, his foreleg lifting in the air to clap against Atticus's shoulder.

Lmfao, omfggggg I am simultaneously being horrified and laughing my ass off at your reply right now Kat

Atticus's eyes literally bugged out as Peregrine smoothly replied to him with some of the most horrific vulgarity he'd heard in a while. The mental image it brought to mind was not something he wanted to think about too much. "Good god!" he exclaimed with horrified amusement, hastily crab-stepping sideways away from his brother in a moment of extreme homophobic anxiety. The fear he felt for his ass's sake was very real, in that moment. "You nasty, rotten bastard," he insulted his brother lovingly, not even really sure what to say after such a magnificent display of obscenity. Seriously, what the hell was there to even say? His best attempt wasn't all that great, but he nevertheless laughed and shook his head as he continued, "I think you're being a little over-confident there, Pencil Dick. The only asshole you're any danger to is a canary's."

Perry's grotty. >_>

Atticus darted out of reach, squeamish in the face of his brother's perverted sense of humor. "Too far?" he questioned jokingly, wiggling his eyebrows. Of course he'd taken it too far; it was the Redleaf-DiSarinno way to be as obscene as possible! Mission: accomplished.

"Hey, I've got some stuff I've gotta do—hunting and all that," Peregrine said after a beat. Truthfully, he was going to go find Hawkeye but he didn't want to rub it in his brother's face. "I'll see you later?" he added in a hopeful, looking-forward-to-it kind of way.

But before Peregrine could trot away in search of his lover, he managed to plant one last smooch on Atticus's muzzle. He then turned and departed, a cheeky grin on his face, although the sentiment—his deep fondness for his brother—was altogether completely genuine, if not actually to the level of incest.

LOVED the thread! I hope Atti gets over his (NON-Perry-inflicted) butthurt soon so we can have more like this. :D

"Never," he commented in reply to Peregrine's "Too far?" Even if it was totally and completely over the top, he never tired of his brother's utterly disgusting sense of humor. That was the Perry he knew and loved, and he wouldn't have changed him for anything. Peregrine excused himself to go hunt, and Atticus smiled and nodded in agreement. "Catch you later, Dick Breath. Good luck hunting. Bring me a bite if you get anything." He snorted as Perry planted another kiss on his muzzle and bumped him companionably on the shoulder before turning and heading out to do some crying over Hawkeye exploring of his own.