Horizon Ridge JOIN · The soul felt its worth

Hope this conclusion is OK!

Akhlut listened with cocked ears to Pied's simple statement of intent to serve the pack as well as he hoped she would, and turned his head aside when she spoke of Jinx, nodded briefly at the assertion that Pied and Jinx would be discreet about their differences. That was as it should be; the past was in the past, and whether Jinx had been Pied's Alpha in the past was none of his concern now. Ranks shifted all the time in the lives of wolves, and the top dog today might be too weak to fulfill his position tomorrow. It was a sobering thought for Akhlut, newly crowned and his mettle not yet tested by outside foe or inside challenger, but it reminded the male of his resolve to hang onto the mantle of leadership at any cost. Even the wish of Pied and Kisu to be mated was a sort of threat, wasn't it, for Akhlut himself had no mate to share his public or private lives with, and he was not in a position to bear pups to carry on his line within the pack.

A soft rumble in the back of Akhlut's throat expressed his unease with these truths, but he returned his thoughts to the present, where Pied gushed happily and apparently quite innocently about having a mateship ritual. She, at least, seemed to have no eyes for his throne, and Akhlut was momentarily relieved. A smile came to his lips as he said, "I doubt you came all this way to stand on the borders with me, Pied. Go and find Kisu, and when the time comes for the pack to meet, if you still wish to be mates, it will be done then." This was dismissal, for nothing else that Pied said would convince Akhlut of her devotion to the pack; only in her actions would such a thing be determined, and so he would watch and see what unfolded in the intervening weeks between now and the joining ritual that he really had very little intention of denying the pair.