Emberwood spider and gioma had a love few others had seen,

A rational man might have detected the glint of absurdity in Constantine's claim, or even the pompous preposition of Wylla, of all wolves, being bested by anyone -- as such, Ingram wasn't rational and felt it in his duty to defend his presumed dead sister's honor in the most pugilistic of endeavors.

His passionate outcry was short lived -- partially because of the shock of being rudely deposited on the ground, and also because of the understandable incapacitation that arises as a result. He seethed under Constantine's fanged rule but it was no use: he was firmly and authoritatively held in place.

It took him a minute to register the muttered words of his rival, but once he understood Wylla's life was not implicitly nonexistent he slumped to the ground. A bevy of emotions mixed in his stomach, some of which might have also been his lunch -- but he swallowed back any consumable uprising by hoarsely uttering a deflated and unsatisfying  "I'm sorry."