It was impossible for Ragnar to entirely relax, especially now that he would have to tell his Wardens and eventually Pump to stretch their patrols to include the shore. It was a whole extra stretch of land they had not previously worried about and though Ragnar would never relent on his duties it irritated him because it was an extra hour or two taken away from the time he set aside specifically for Thistle and their babies; all because of some annoying, over eager wolf who thought what it took to be an alpha (wow Ragnar’s thoughts are harsh >__>) and couldn’t suck it up under his present leaders’ rule — as it was Ragnar was a harsh critic when it came to leaders because his culture only accepted the best of the best; anything less and they’d be dinner for the vultures. There were more practical ways of dealing with a leader you couldn’t stand aside from settling practically right on top of a pre-established pack who, frankly had a right to be hostile about it — providing it was the case, of course. Ragnar didn’t know for sure and wouldn’t, until he approached them; however Ragnar was far from incompetent and had been around long enough to know the signs of a newly found pack. The Gods alone knew how many of these slipping and sliding packs he had raided, and chased away from the Cove.
If Ragnar could get Pump on his side about it he would make sure they realized the mistake they made; but he was on the fence about how she would react because when he thought she would side with him (namely like with the bear) she had totally floored the Viking and been lenient, brushed it off as if it were no big deal (a fact that a bear had demolished several of their caches and had tried to kill the three/four of them was a big deal). There was about a fifty-fifty chance she would go either way. Either she would care or …she wouldn’t. It wasn’t even a matter of “oh I didn’t know” because Horizon Ridge was one of the oldest packs in the valley. He wanted to fight, to break and tear them down for being so callous and ignorant but he was on a tight leash and did not have the liberty to do whatever he pleased. As it was, he was already making plans to just “talk” well no, talk wasn’t the right word. To warn. That much was within his power.
Slowly, Ragnar focused back in upon Thistle feeling a relief at the first thing that popped out of her mouth: a question of why they would claim land so close. For a second he had considered that Thistle might have tried to soothe him and tell him he was being paranoid and worrying for no reason; or worse yet that it was no big deal. But she didn’t.
Ragnar liked to think that as his position as Head Warden he had some leeway when it came to the overall safety of the pack but he didn’t think that was the case and suddenly he was torn. Torn and hated it. If it was up to him alone he’d have went already, gave his grim warning to stay out of Horizon Ridge’s territory or die and then been on his way but it wasn’t up to him.