The Sentinels I'm afraid to sleep because of what haunts me

WC: 611

It seemed that Wraen was not willing to give him even an inch, and all he sought was a little reassurance that she might not fixate so heavily upon the mortifying aspects of being dead. She made wild claims of flying to the moon every month- which he knew would have to be just pretend, given the facat that no wolf could fly, but see seemed to be enjoying the aspect of getting to be wicked far too much for Bronco. It made him uncomfortable to see her so fixated on joking about being a witch, as it removed part of the soft, gentle charm she'd shown him as he'd grown up. But he was an adult now- and he couldn't expect her to treat him like a child all the time anymore. 

And then she mentioned his mom, and he wondered for a second if Niamh had told Wraen about how she had nearly crushed him. She'd pinned him down during their last fight, long enough for him to go limp, lose consciousness and relieve himself. There was no way Niamh would have told her about that, though- and he suspected his mom was at least a bit ashamed of the way things had played out. So it pulled a small trigger with him to have his mom mentioned, inferring that since he'd survived her upbringing, he could handle a poltergeist, and wouldn't need a guardian. He blinked owlishly when she clicked her teeth at the end of his nose. She was perhaps getting a bit too wound up in all this hag talk for Bronco's comfort, and he was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed. 

Perhaps it was because the wolf who should have been his guardian growing up had passed away so early on in his life. Grwing up without a father had inevitably had its toll on Bronco, and he realized it now at this point in life, that perhaps he'd never reallt felt truly safe being raised primarily by his mother. The only real reason he could find that he hadn't turned out to be a total psychopath, though was because of the others who'd had a hand in raising him- Towhee, Wraen, and Finley to name a few. 

He was surprised to hear that his mother hd had something to do with Arcturus needing to leave, and rolled his eyes when she said that Niamh hadn't pushed him away with her savage teeth, but with her charm. "Awwwh c'mon Wraen, we both know that's not true. I'll believe you when you say you're a hag, or about poltergeists, but there's no way my Ma scared Arcturus away with her 'charm.' She don't have any," He answered ruefully, and he didn't like the tone with which she seemed to scorn Hydra for having been the one to train Arcturus, and yet he'd fallen victim to his mom's charm. This was about as far as Bronco was comfortable going with the entire topic- and at the end of the day, he'd never been comfortable talking about life after death, considering how he had no idea what happened, but still grieved for his father. 

He simply chose not to respond about Hydra. He felt Wraen had dealt his alpha an insult, in criticising Arcturus' lack of ability to deal with the powers of his mother's charm, but he'd let it pass. However, he didn't want to hear any more of it. 

"Well...I gotta get back to the pack, so Meerkat doesn't start to worry about me," He said. "An' I'll see you again soon, Wraen, OK?" He asked, again, a flickering light of worry in his warm gaze.