the colours that i can't change

<style type="text/css">q {font:13px Georgia; color:#BA6D00;}</style>Her ears hung back with poorly veiled disappointment that Chakra's position did not accompany a tale of bloody conquest—she privately believed Styx and Katrina would have better served the worms of the earth than any wolf in existence—but there was nonetheless respect shining in her eyes. The female had done the unthinkable: claimed the land left behind by a pack that had dissipated not long before her arrival. It was conquest in its own right, and respectable to the Kesuk, who believed in the philosophy of taking but never giving.

An excellent turn of events nonetheless, she toasted the Neverwinter queen, suspecting she might have the discipline to keep her own pack together. Jinx didn't think it was prudent to discuss her own reasons for leaving Neverwinter, and decided to stay with the silent implication that she had simply melted away into the night, dissatisfied with such lacklustre leadership as had been shown by the dark-furred pair who once headed it. There was no need to speak of Bon Dye and Jinx's own weak leadership there.

The opportunity to collect her ferns was gratefully seized, and she fell into step parallel to but somewhat behind the Alpha, mindful of her etiquette in lands that were not her own. Ordinarily, she might have tried something crafty here... But there was majesty in Chakra that reined Jinx in, and put a muzzle on her otherwise unpredictable self-reliance. Her gaze snagged on the ancient evergreens that towered over them as the pair prowled masterfully into the Feralheart's territory; they never ceased to amaze her, even now.

Tell me, she practically purred, pleased to be in the company of somebody who seemed to truly value what it was to be a pack wolf, what have you gathered of the other Alphas? I may speak for mine own, my lady, if it please you. She could speak for Hawkeye, too, but she dared not test any ground with Chakra, lest she find herself on the unfavourable side of the woman's ire for making comments about a pack that was not her own.