wrath of the northmen

@Pump & @Thistle Cloud

Edited my posts a bit. Again, I'm so sorry for jumping the gun.

Betrayal. One of the most absolute things he refused to forgive for. It came in all shapes and sizes, in all manners of ways. It always seemed to come when he was least expecting it. In much of a sense it was, in Ragnar’s reality, his fault. His fault because he had let himself get too comfortable in these posh summer lands. He had taken the hybrid’s words upon honor alone though she was no Viking and her honor could not be counted upon in the same way. This, he realized as he stormed to and fro in a manner that could have been considered an aggressive pacing, had been his own stupidity. He had worked tirelessly to prove himself to not only her but to the others as well, a willing participant in the contribution of her pack despite that it had been borne of his selfish desire to gain himself the title as her Second in Command. He had grown to respect Pump and even, in his own way, liked her. At the moment, his grievances didn’t even concern the Beta rank, though he supposed it played a small part, but instead how Pump had done little in his opinion about the way the female at their borders had spoken to him as if her sarcasm and lack of respect was no small matter.

It might not have mattered to Pump but it certainly mattered to him.

It was the source of his rage now, no longer hidden behind mischievous smirks and loaded looks but let out of his body in a rush of heat as if it were a living thing coiling from the silken tendrils of his platinum silver fur. Ragnar didn’t care if the new recruits were frightened of him or not - most of them were intimidated by him of their own accord anyway - but the allowance of that kind of behavior to a superior festered like an open and infected wound beneath Ragnar’s skin. Not to mention the female’s brazen audacity to throw Thistle in his face in an indirect threat, at that. As if she held any sort of power and yet Pump had seemed allow it, made it sound to the Viking like she was even standing up for the female despite that she had told the girl to stop insulting him. It was not enough for him. He was her warden, and he had trusted her, trusted her with the life of his mate and children during the meeting (though at that point no one but Thistle and himself had been aware of their mateship). Ragnar had trusted Pump and she had seemed to have so willingly - for a wolf she did not know, whom Ragnar did not trust (and he swore if she stepped a toe towards his mate he would rip her spine from her back) - stabbed him in the back.

It was a costly mistake, because he was a more dangerous enemy than he was a friend, and her betrayal stung like the deep lash of a whip across his back, never giving him peace from it. She had stuck up for him but she hadn't attempted to stop the female the first couple of times she had talked down to Ragnar and the Viking was having a hard time letting that go.