Phoenix Maplewood Knife in the Ocean

"They're coyotes," Saena snapped in response, seeming intent on shutting down Reek's good intentions. If they had been wolf children, she might've been a little more welcoming, though Saena's true colours were shining now. She was selfish on the inside and, with fall approaching and tensions naturally rising, the dominant bitch probably wouldn't have had that either. While she would not breed in fall, her hormones were already beginning to act on her. Her behaviour was uncharacteristic for how she was a month ago, but soon enough Saena would be intolerant of any threat to her future brood, even if her heat was months away.

"They're thieves," she insisted, glaring at the spot where the two pups had been moments earlier. They seemed to be gone now. Good, she thought. "You want me to willingly give food from our family to them? They'll grow up to skulk around and steal food like all their kind." A coyote was a coyote, after all. Even intense brainwashing couldn't turn a coyote into a wolf.

Reek insisted that they were an investment. Normally she would've liked to hear his insidious plan, but all she did now was bare her teeth. Maybe they would amount to something if she left them be, but whatever plans he had for them, he could undertake them by himself. She wasn't interested. Still, she backed down with a snarled, "fine," if only because he promised they would be useful, and then she snorted. "But they're not taking any food from our pack. They get scraps if there's any left. If not, you can hunt for them yourself." She sure as shit wasn't going to be nourishing natural enemies. "And if I catch them stealing or tricking anyone even once, they're dead."

That was a promise. Any slight indication that Regipre and Sart were anything but perfectly trained little monkeys would send the alpha female flying off the handle, not only because they were coyotes but because her temper was thinning as summer ended. There was no guarantee that when winter was underway she would tolerate them around, but presently she was still just tolerant enough to leave Reek to it. And that's exactly what she did: she turned and left him there to take care of his pests by himself.