i am not your autumn moon

Her gestures touched him. Not just the touch of her as she nuzzled into his neck -- a motion which kindled a different sort of fire in his heart, more an affectionately companionable candle-flame than the lusty inferno that had raged there in times past -- but also the way in which she subtly implied that she would defend and protect him and Crete. That touched him. Nobody had tried to defend them from Tyrannus when the elder brother had banished them. That Hawkeye might be willing to do so -- and against her mate, no less -- meant a lot to him.

Her words rang true to him, and he knew she was right. But it was still so hard to put aside the anger in his heart for how his brother had gone about it. Peregrine's Alphaship was unnerving, yes, but he could get used to it. What really rattled him was in the way his brother had handled it all, allowing those who would be most impacted by it to be the last ones to find out. He looked into her watery eyes, sorrow briefly blooming within him for being the reason they were so. "I know," he admitted, his deep, rumbling voice low and soft. As before, his eyes only lingered on hers for the briefest of moments before falling back downward again. There was a kinship between them, yes, but she was still his Alpha. "You're right. I guess what festers in me so much is that he didn't think to talk to Crete and me before announcing his promotion. He had to know how that would affect us. It's hard to explain, but it was just too soon. I mean…just a short time ago, a brother we loved got promoted to Alpha and turned our lives upside down. Now here we are, putting the pieces back together and getting on with our lives, and again -- a brother we love gets promoted to Alpha. It was just…too soon. The wounds hadn't healed."