Show me who we are today

*Jinx* · July 04, 2014, 12:58 AM

She had weathered a violent storm the night before in the centre of the Heartwood, where she awoke now to the chirping of birds. A subtle sting in her foreleg attracted her attention immediately, but it was only a small wound, the result of an ambitious bat or rodent, no doubt. It wasn't unusual for the rough Alpha to awake with new cuts and bruises. She took a moment to swipe her tongue over it before hoisting herself up, relieving herself on the spot, and seeking a stream.

Small offshoots of the Whitefish shot through the flatlands and fed its many forests, and soon Jinx found one of these offshoots. She started by drinking deeply to quench her morning thirst, then spent a short time bathing her legs and stomach in it. The water couldn't reach any higher, but she would find time to fully groom herself later. Right now, she had business to attend to.

She had been informed that Ira had returned and was looking for her. The Alpha had intentionally put off their inevitable encounter because she was furious with him. Jinx also knew that he hadn't been brought back into the pack behind her back, which was fortunate for whoever had met him there. She knew deep inside that she would not accommodate another deserter of the pack, not even her own princeling... But despite knowing this, she tilted her head back nonetheless in a summons for Ira to plead his case.

*Ira Nox* · July 04, 2014, 09:59 AM

Ira had had a lot of time to think on what he had done, the carelessness of running off to Tortuga on an impulse because he had suddenly endured the idea of being her savior. Mostly, he was full of insufferable and infectious regret. He had known better and Jinx had specifically told him not to sacrifice Silvertip for Bones, though he still did not see it as a sacrificing of one for the other. Even so, he had gotten no where near Bones and his own idiocy had nearly cost him his life though he had a sinking feeling the more time that ached by like the pulse of blood beneath a bruise that it would cost him much more than his life. How he had even been romanced the idea of playing the dark Prince Charming was still questionable and beyond that it had been stupid. He was a harbinger of death and destruction and it was proven time and time again; now he was left to face the consequences of his actions from this end of it, as well. He knew he had to face them, knew that regardless of what would come to pass that he would accept them because he deserved them.

He paused for a moment as he paced — having decided since his lesson with Kaname in the Heartwood previously that he would linger near it — to scratch at the wound on his neck. The skin was red and agitated because he had no idea how to properly care for it beyond cleansing it with salt water though for all Ira knew could have been doing more damage than good. It had started to scab though and he was careful to avoid tearing it open. It was an ugly thing and hated that he had to wear it on display for everyone to say like a giant neon sign ‘hey he failed’. It was humiliating and bothered him because he was a shallow creature who did not fancy ever bearing a scar of any type. It was why he favored the secrecy and discreetness of killing with poisons. It kept his claws from getting dirty.

Ira’s back leg lowered from his neck when he heard a familiar voice summon him in a howl, adrenaline spiking through his heart causing his veins to feel frozen as his heart dropped and then sprinted with anticipation even as his ears laid back against his skull. Jinx. Knowing he could never ignore her summons he made his way to her, pace slowed by the heaviness he felt in his entire body at the anticipation of seeing her again. He wanted to see her, of course, it was why he had went looking for her, but at the same time he didn’t because he felt nervous. Nervous for what was about to unfold wondering if he really wanted to know. He shrugged through the forest, and overgrown brush lowering his tail into a submissive pose when he found her, hating that his face betrayed his guilt, because he was guilty and he did feel remorse. He swallowed, his breath getting caught in the middle of his throat as he hindered with trepidation on if he wanted to greet her verbally or by closing the distance between them before he decided neither and stood silently there like a child who knew they had done wrong waiting for the scolding to begin, or the invitation to speak.

*Jinx* · (This post was last modified: July 04, 2014, 11:12 AM by Saēna.)

He slunk onto the scene like a whipped dog, and though knowing he regretted his decision pleased Jinx, it was not enough for the scorned Alpha female. Her lips peeled back and she bristled, growling a low demand for more submission. It was cruel to make Ira grovel in the dirt, but that was exactly what the petty Kesuk planned to make him do... Even knowing that it likely wouldn't matter.

She withheld for now from closing the distance and trying to force him onto his back. Her growl rumbled even through her words as she sharply commanded, “explain yourself.” He had been gone for much too long, and though for a while she hadn't noticed it, eventually it had been impossible to ignore his absence. To retain her sanity, Jinx had chosen not to think about it... But it had always been in the back of her mind that the young wolf she had taken in as a son had abandoned her for a taste of pirate cunt, or so she believed.

*Ira Nox* · July 05, 2014, 09:59 AM

He watched remorsefully with his heart beat hammering in his ears which had slicked down to lay against the angles of his skull as Jinx exposed her teeth and bristled at him, his body sinking lower, tail tucking between his legs in full blown submission to her, pronounced by the exposure of his throat to her. The pallid Princeling winced as the action tugged at the scabbing wound on his neck but held it nevertheless. It was a rare display, and Ira would have, under normal circumstances hated how vulnerable he was. How stripped bare and exposed inviting a death blow if she had decided to deal it…but this was Jinx; even furious with him she was still the only mother he had ever known and he still loved her. “I went to Swiftcurrent Creek like I had originally asked permission to do but when I got there Bones didn’t answer my calls. Eventually, someone did and told me that she’d been kidnapped, stolen back to Tortuga,” Ira braved a peek at Jinx’s face before diverting his eyes again, his voice calm even though he quivered with his remorse and the sinking and terrifying fear that no matter what he said she would not forgive him.

“I…it was stupid. It was an foolish impulse. I thought…,” He took a deep breath, afraid his voice would crack and not exactly from his puberty. “— that I could save her. It was a grand vision in my head that I would be the hero and that she would come to live in Silvertip and everything would be fine.” Except it hadn’t gone at all how it had played out in his mind and everything was so far from fine it wasn’t even remotely humorous. “They caught me and attacked. I should have never done it. I shouldn’t have disobeyed you just because I thought I could be a hero,” At that Ira did laugh though the sound was harsh and without mirth. “I’m sorry. I never meant…I’m not a traitor. I would never …my loyalty is to you. Only you.” Where he realized it should have stayed only to her from the very beginning. He didn’t regret the time he had with Bones but he did regret going after her. “It was idiotic and it nearly cost me my life. I promise I’ll never do it again. I’m not like that ignorant stupid arrogant cur Majesty, please, please believe me.” He felt like a dirty and hungry beggar instead of a Prince. Maybe he had lost the right to that title. Maybe he had lost the right to everything. He didn’t know but expected he was due to find out very shortly.

"I will do anything it takes to prove it to you," He gasped. "Anything." He was already planning on trying to poison Erika's children if she was, indeed pregnant. If she wanted the babes mangled and bloody corpses he would bring them to her. Even as he promised it he had no idea of any ramifications his pleading might be attached too, though he didn't care at that point. He didn't expect her trust blindly put into him but he was willing to go to the ends of the earth to earn it back...if she would let him, or if there was anything to earn back.

*Jinx* · July 07, 2014, 06:16 PM

She listened coldly as he did as she told him, though by the time he was finished, she looked more unimpressed than ever. Jinx suspected that he thought she might think that saving Bones' life would indebt her to the Silvertip wolves and would convince her to move to the mountain, but the Kesuk knew better than to believe that. She hadn't known Bones at all, but she still fabricated an image of a self-serving little wench in her mind. The pirate cur would have gone straight back to Swiftcurrent Creek like every other thankless damsel in distress in the real world.

“So,” she said flatly, “you abandoned our family here, those who provide for you, to chase after a female who has done nothing for you but bat her eyes.” Maybe he thought he could save her, and maybe he had intended to bring her back, but at its core the issue was that he had left for a woman. It was as simple as that.

“There was another here who did that. Put their loyalty in someone she thought she could fuck over those who protect and feed her. She tried to do it in secrecy.” She fixed a heavy glare on him and said icily, “where do you think she is now?”

*Ira Nox* · July 10, 2014, 09:56 AM

This was going about as well as Ira had subconsciously feared and accepted it would, which was to say: not very well at all. She was angry at him, she deserved to be angry at him. He had went off and done a stupid thing. He accepted that fact and intended to learn from it though it seemed learning from it would without a doubt being in the hardest way. “No!” He protested, the word bursting from his lips in his panic. “No, I didn’t abandon you. I know going after her was wrong and stupid but I didn’t abandon you. I wouldn’t. Not ever,” She was the only family he’d ever had (that he could remember) and the fear of losing her because of his own stupidity had swollen within his chest like an ugly monster that was attempting to claw it’s way free of it’s prison of flesh and bone. “Even if it would have worked I was going to come back…I would never leave you.” Because on the scale of who mattered most to him it was Jinx though he understood how that could have been morphed by his own teenage stupidity and by the recent betrayals she had suffered. “I am not like them,” Ira hissed in his rising panic, his breath coming out in quick rasps and pants, his pupils dilated with it. “I am nothing like those traitorous curs,”

“Majesty always was as worthless as a pile of dog shit,” He had tried to be all high and mighty with Ira only to have Ira laugh in his face which had led to a growling match that would have been toe to toe with the reaction of a three month old being told off. He had liked to brag but as far as Ira had always been concerned that was all it had been: bragging. “And his whore is better off gone. I will tear the sniveling fetuses from her womb myself.” Even if, which he had a sinking realization that was probably going to happen, he would probably go after her and her children as ill guided revenge. Because why should someone else be happy when he wasn’t? “I didn’t abandon you…I promise I didn’t. Bones is dead to me.” It was cruel and caused the pain in his wound to flare though it was likely less of that and more because he had shifted his weight lower to the ground, hating himself.

*Jinx* · (This post was last modified: July 16, 2014, 04:49 PM by Jinx.)

A lot of what Ira said fell on deaf ears. The Ouroboros Spine queen had already decided his fate. It was truly a shame, for if she had looked beyond her own need to cut the disloyal from her ranks, she would have seen the sincerity in him. She would have recognized that he'd made a bad choice, something she had done easily dozens of times before. Unfortunately, Jinx was unforgiving in this case, primarily because he had gone off in search of a woman that was not herself.

He proclaimed that Bones was dead to him, and this caused the Kesuk to bear her fangs at him. She could never be dead to him. He could think it, and Jinx knew he would try to, but the wound he sported would forever be a reminder that he had gone to save her. That he had failed to do so. Bones wouldn't exist the way she had to him, but she would never be dead to him. It was as good as saying Kaskae, Arktos, and Vex were dead to her, which was nothing but a facade.

“You are just like them,” she said coldly, turning her back on her adoptive son. “Your motivations were different but they had the same outcome. You left for something other than your pack, and so your pack will no longer welcome you.” Having made her decision, the Alpha female gave him one last chance to say anything he wished before she disappeared back into the trees, retracing her previous steps. There was an undeniable pain in her breast as she left Ira behind, but Jinx forced herself not to look back.

If she had looked back, she might have noticed a small dead bat huddled at the base of a tree near where she'd slept for the night, its lips limned with bloody spittle and foam and its sightless eyes staring unblinkingly into the sky.