Porcupine Ridge Seasong saints

Jhala had been a great disappointment to him. She had been appointed by what he now thought of as a greatly flawed system, and despite the promise he had seen in her, she could not have failed in more ways than she had. She had failed to uphold her trade as a mercenary, had failed to defend the pack as its beta, and had failed to be any sort of respectable packmate or wolf at all by ditching everyone without a word. Taggarik was eager to replace her with a wolf worth their salt, someone who could break the curse of the beta female position.

The black wolf drew to a halt with Diane, stepping ahead so that they may speak face to face once more. But he did not bar her path. "She left without a word," he informed, his mouth forming a hard line and his ear giving an irritable twitch. "She will not be welcome back. I want you to be the beta she never was and never will be, the beta this pack deserves. I believe in you. You're a good wolf with a sensible mind." He had been wrong before (ok, these days it seemed he was wrong all the time) but he hoped he would not be this time.

He stepped toward her, his tail drifting side to side in a light wag, his expression soft, hopeful. "So will you be my beta female? I mean, you can wait and decide later when you're not so horny," he teased, understanding that he had threw a pretty big offer in front of her while she was battling her loins and all the conflict that came with one's heat.