Northstar Vale The Animal I Have Become

It wasn't long that he'd split from the pack until he felt the soft footfalls of another. It was a familar feeling now, knowing where the others seemed to be even when he wasn't in view of them. He knew now that it was only one following him: what one he didn't know, but know he did. It didn't stop him from stalking forward, nostrils flaring as he scanned for any passerby -- the different rules here were harder to adapt to than Warbone's command to leave his troubles behind, really. 

When a woman's tones called softly behind him, Zephyr froze in his tracks, body bowing from slinking to submissive beneath the gaze of his First before so mch as moving. Once he felt like he was properly respectful, the ebony brute turned fully to face Saena. He knew damn well right who she was to both the pack and Warbone, remembering well the threat to his life. It was not fear that drove him, however, and not even his respect and promise to Warbone, but his own respect for the russet-marked woman-- Zephyr hadn't been a fully willing follower and subordinate since his yearling days back in Shadowfax. Even with the Seadogs, he'd strove to get to the top, to make at least Beta, to earn his way. When that hadn't worked, he'd set off from a temporary place in Rosings to join Aggie -- she hadn't promised him a place at the top, but he'd been willing to earn it and her in one go. 
But then she'd vanished with Chusi, and any attraction he'd had to the wild woman was null and void. 

Now, though, was different. Maybe it had been the repeated breaking of his very soul, stripped of who he was and all he had so many times over. Abandoned, mistreated, hated -- here, none of that was valid. Here, he was home. He was needed. The pack was better for him here, he liked to think, and though it was a feeling he'd like validated in his vulnerable state, Zephyr didn't ask for such. One day, he would earn praise. Even without the busy buzzing of his once very active mind, the Maverick was not as feral as might've been easiest: some days, he wished that all civilness would leave him, and he could truly be wild and free here in the Vale with his newfound, dare he say it, family?

Bowing his head further in respect to the white woman, Zephyr's apple eyes refused to meet hers -- instead, they politely roamed her frame, silently awaiting a command from the First. 

Sorry his posts are a little all over the place, still trying to settle his emotions and turmoil! Anyone else can still jump in, btw!