Stone Circle ; all have been led astray

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After Goose had made her plea to the patriarch, she watched for his reaction with bated breath. His expression softened — just slightly — at her appeal and he turned to look at the raven with a quirked brow, surely to see if the younger would reply. But it was the elder who answered first, and to the pale's surprise, and intense relief, his response was fair. Her feeling of ease didn't last long, and waned as quickly as it had come once she saw the look on the raven's face, his mouth contorted with displeasure. Something felt off. Oath didn't seem to be bothered by this though, and Goose reverted back to her earlier stance of selective mutism and cowering underneath her friend's chin, leaning into her touch, once again trying to flatten herself into the ground.

Goose looked up in disbelief through fluttering lashes when Oath submitted, even muttering her appreciation, although hesitantly, under her breath. It wasn't a stance she often took and it looked foreign on her, not exactly in place, like two pieces of a puzzle that didn't quite fit together. But this is what had to be done, so the pale mirrored her friend's actions, gaze shifting to the patriarch's with maybe a little more sincerity than Oath could muster. Maybe, just maybe, they had done it. They were in.

That was until the matriarch came barrelling in.

The pale didn't even have to speculate if this female was the top dog. She pushed forward into the circle with a sense of authority and belonging that made Goose wince, and she regarded how even the younger male stepped aside for her, letting her take her rightful place. The dark huntress was all teeth, lips pulled back over sharp pearls, hackles and banner raised high to the sky gods. Round abdomen. Probably carrying pups. She felt Oath wrap herself protectively closer to her bodice, but instead of making herself tall in retaliation, she shrunk her form down, ears flattened and frame ducked low. The white dove then started to panic when Oath didn't say anything. She always said something, that was her signature move — and she was good at it.

Mahogany eyes darted between the three strangers as they tried desperately to read and deconstruct this developing situation, but her attention quickly honed in on the raven as his posture shifted, suggesting an increase in confidence at the welcoming of the female. When he addressed what Goose soon realised to be his mother, her heart dropped, the feeling weighing heavy on her chest. His words contradicted what the patriarch had previously said to them, painting a different picture entirely for the matriarch than the one that had just unfolded. The pale looked frantically towards the elder, trying to gauge his reaction to what appeared to be blatant disrespect towards him. Was this their pack's norm? Whatever this family feud was, it certainly looked the like pair of she-wolves were going to be the fuel that would be added to this domestic fire.

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