Horizon Ridge Dusky Dawn and Furry Paws

It was true that while Pump did not make any specific mention of killing Thistle herself the casual way in which she said that she would kill the babes - new and utterly innocent to the wrongs of their parents as they were - created no bridge of difference to him. He could not see any mother willingly letting anyone kill their babes, even if the executer was the Alpha. Everyone was determined that Thistle’s Crete was gone but this was not a truth that Ragnar could willingly accept. Of course the absence of her first lover had given room for Ragnar to claim Thistle as his wife, he could not see past the fact that wolves did not just disappear off the face of the earth. He wanted answers - and maybe if he was being honest to rough the Plateau up - maybe duel to the death even though Ragnar already had Thistle.

Ragnar listened to Pump’s words, the dictation that the children would not even belong to Thistle and essentially himself, and instinctively it threw his paternal instincts into abrupt and forced overdrive. They were his children, their children not anyone else’s. Not even Crete’s (who was the biological father to them), and if Ragnar wanted to scoop his wife and kids up one day and depart the Ridge he would damn well do it. Did she not think that they wouldn’t rebel? Ragnar’s personal experience with children - especially when they hit the six month to a year range - was that they needed their freedom or else they would rebel. She could not chain them to the Ridge, after all. She was dictating to them and the babes what could and could not be done and a quick glimpse at Thistle hinted that she was not exactly pleased either. To Ragnar it appeared that Pump was punishing the babes more than she was Thistle.

Ragnar let the silence fall upon him, figuring it might be better if he did not open his mouth until he spoke with Thistle, first. He did not wish to step upon her toes by speaking out - even about their mateship which might at the moment, serve to make things worse. Instead he turned and walked off in a different direction than Thistle though he planned to double back and meet up with her. Of course, he intended to pay the Plateau a visit too, at some point, dissatisfied with the too simple conclusion that the Plateau male had vanished.