Horizon Ridge JOIN · The soul felt its worth

Akhlut is torn--he likes Pied and wants her as a member, but isn't sure of her motives.

Akhlut's dark tail flicked back and forth, betraying his curiosity as he listened to Pied speak. He hadn't been well-acquainted with her on their last brief meeting, but he found her to be refreshingly straightforward, if nothing else. Her request, however, surprised him greatly. No, Kisu hadn't mentioned anything to the Kesuk-Nereides wolf, and so Pied's request to "move," by which she apparently meant abandon her pack to join Horizon Ridge, was a bit startling.

In truth, though Akhlut liked what he'd seen of her thus far, he was at first wildly inclined to refuse her entry into the pack. A frown creased his features. "Hawkeye will happily give up her Delta so that she can join Horizon Ridge to be with her lover?" The dubious nature of this claim was made evident in the thinly-veiled scorn in his voice. If this was the truth, then Hawkeye was a fool, whatever his prior impression of her alignment might indicate. Love was not the whim on which to rule a pack. "If you are only courting with Kisu, then why could the two of you not court from your respective packs, and wait to see what comes of your relationship before upturning your lives and abandoning former loyalties?" The question was a legitimate one. Akhlut did not think Pied was one to rush into things, but then, that had only been an assumption. Perhaps she was a typical flighty female who always thought herself in love with any male passerby.

In any case, the issue at hand was not one of the alliance between their packs, or Hawkeye's permission for Pied to follow her heart. If there had been no such permission, Akhlut was unconcerned, and if the alliance between the packs was nullified by accepting Pied, then so be it. Horizon Ridge would not be greatly harmed, he suspected, by losing Blacktail Deer Plateau's friendship. In truth he would prefer to welcome Pied as another strong and capable pack memeber. But Akhlut's concern did lay in knowing this Pied's motivations. If it were solely for Kisu and solely for love that she sought to join Horizon Ridge, then Akhlut would have none of it. He was no fairy godmother, granting romantic wishes on a whim. "I care little, really, that you are ending your ties with Hawkeye. That is your own concern, and for all I know she is a weak leader and you couldn't wait to be rid of her," he said bluntly, his expression now rather neutral as he shrugged. His ice blue eyes hardened with seriousness as he continued soberly, "But what is my concern is whether you would be a Horizon Ridge member first, my wolf first, and Kisu's friend and courtier second. If love of him is all you come for, then I don't know that there is a place for you here. If he were not here, would you be?"