Seaside Moors Momma's in the beauty parlor, Daddy's in the baseball pool.

for what little it seems to be worth, he admires her loyalty; but too many years of seeing it wither away, carved by the sea of time has made him skeptical of it. wolves will only serve to disappoint. in the end, loyalty means little. loyalty to the wrong wolf could cost lives. you keep saying steal, wintersbane capitalizes upon it. i stole nothing. i demanded nothing. i issued a challenge. no one said he had to accept; but he did. and i won. and that was as simple as it was. in that regard, there was nothing stopping someone else from challenging him in return. nothing from stopping anyone from sparring him and if they won casting him out to the cold.

i made a choice. he made a choice. we fought like men …and i said nothing of betrayal. you are worried about me ruining your home, your peace. why? i only want peace for myself. i want to have a family. maybe he could’ve done it without clawing his way to the top rung but he knew the laws of nature: top got priority breeding; the fact that he felt like he was unworthy of the alpha’s time was another matter all together. i’m giving you the option to make sure i lead rusalka into prosperity, which i plan to do anyway. if she wasn’t going to accept it …then why complain?

don’t complain and belittle me. if you don’t like it: change it. you have that power. it’s not betrayal if it’s fair. he snaps, a crack fissuring in his otherwise calm facade. has anyone even bothered to recruit? the cubs almost outnumber the adults. and wintersbane knew how fickle subordinates could be — he’s been fickle himself but also saw first hand how the tides could turn. there’s trouble brewing in the wilds. how long do you think before rusalka is drawn into it? from the whispers he’s picked up on his travels, not long he thinks.