Wapun Meadow in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

Komodo's command releases all of the tension that has been piling since her children came into view.  She offers him an inscrutable look before moving towards her children, crouched against the meadowgrass, tail beating as it curls underneath her.

She watches Yakone carefully.  She knew the kind of man Alexander was, although she had learned the lesson much too late for it to do her any good.  Perhaps if she would have fled to Undersea while she was still gravid she would have a happy family.. but hindsight is twenty / twenty.  The brute breathes her daughter's name and she tenses, frozen, before the barrage starts.

Well, it wasn't the first time a wolf from Bearclaw Valley had been furious towards her for doing little else than dare to exist in front of them; perhaps with her gone the two women — who she assumed were still around — had finally curled him around their finger.  It was so par for the course she should have at least half-expected it, but she had mistakenly assumed with the children present that her former husband would not have been so petty.  Yakone's ears splayed atop her head as she flattened against the ground, and her eyes sought her mother's.

She assessed her former mate with a cold, level stare, expression stoic and furitive.  Was this what he wanted to accomplish here?  Frightening his children, spewing unwarranted vitriol towards someone he was once supposed to love?  No.  He'd never loved her.  If he had loved her, making her his mate would have been more than just for show.  If he had loved her, he had shown it so poorly that she felt unsafe enough that the only option she saw was to leave her children — whomst she loved dearly — in his hands.  Why had her husband's everything been so pitifully little?  Anything to keep those girls from leaving, anything to keep them from being displeased.  His raven's feelings always fell second-best to the Redleaf girls.  In 'Io's mind, she'd been just a sex toy to him; she could come to no other conclusion... and she'd had plenty of time to mull about it.

She snorts, opting to remain silent, then her eyes flicker over to Nunataq, who postures defensively.  She feels something akin to triumph as her gaze lingers upon her firstborn.  She both looked and acted like her mother — who could quite honestly be a handful — and she had been blessed with the easy child, the favorite child.  She was thankful that Yakone had slipped out behind her unnoticed that fateful night; Yakone the empath, Yakone the sweet.  Xan had been left with a cowardly boy (who would surely disappoint his father) and a girl who was... exactly like his ex wife.

He no longer holds any kind of power over her.  With this realization, 'Io is released from her prison of sorrow.  She rises to her full height then, expression still unreadable and flat, before she calls to Yakone with a note shared only ever between the mother and her child.

If he was going to be that way, she'd just leave, and she'd be sure that Alexander never saw his daughter again.  She wouldn't stand to be vilified in front of them.  She turned on her heel, never once having acknowledged Xan, and made to leave unless he did something deliberately to stop her.