Moonspear This time

[ooc] it would most sense if this were set directly after http://wolf-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=16674&pid=205838#pid205838 , but since the Harley thread is already underway, i guess we could say it is set after? :)[/Ooc

Shortly after it had happened, Charon had began to regret it. But he didn't intend to go to Ame and share his pain with her, tell her it was a mistake. He'd instructed Althaia to tell anyone who asked it was Harley who'd done it and that was the story he intended to stick with. Who wouldn't believe that Althaia would be an insolent little fucker? It wasn't hard to frame Harley -- Charon had no idea how close he was to the truth -- after his display of dominance over Charon that day.

And so he set out to find @Amekaze after making sure his scent bore no resemblance to Althaia's or the consummation they had, following her scent, without any guilt in his step. He didn't want to lie to her, but neither did he want to lose her. This was just a foolish, boyish move, his own inexperience with heat showing. He would not do it again and therefore it would be stupid to worry Ame with it. He'd just tell her about Harley, and that would be that. Even if it would mean the death of his own pups -- if there were any at all -- so be it. They were a mistake, anyway.

fff timelines are hard. i'm gonna wing it. maybe she just was super mega elusive-mode until harley crossed paths with her, idk 

In no mood, she stalked down a trail somewhere midway on the mountain with a long, striding walk meant to cover ground efficiently and swiftly. Now and then, she'd lower her muzzle to sniff the earth underfoot but largely, she arced her neck and tail in equal measure as she covered the pathway. She was not sure what may await her wherever she was headed, but it didn't leave her with a good feeling. Nothing did lately. Above all, she just wanted to stay in motion as she sorted her thoughts, and attempted to prepare for what her next move was going to be because it had to be soon

Her nose wrinkled as the winds shifted slightly, for she was feeling peeved by that alone, of all things. In the next breath of a breeze, she realized she was being trailed after, much to her own dismay. Hackles arose, and normally, he of all the wolves walking this great green earth would not receive a greeting of this sort. She slowed to a pause and let his pathway overtake hers.

The dark alpha flagged her tail and glared over her shoulder at him, threatening with a curve of her lips that he make this worthwhile -- and fast.

Even as he approached something was off about Ame, but then, something was always off about her these days. He felt her threatening glare on him but he approached her side anyway. He wondered if she knew, but then, how could she? He didn't think anyone had been watching, had they? He had been so consumed by his lust, by the spell that she had put on him, and for a frightful moment he considered the possibility that she had seen it.

But the only way forward was to act like he had no idea what was going on, so he said, "What? I didn't find his body yet, if that's what -- oh gods, he didn't come back, did he?" There was horror on his face, and it wasn't hard to sell himself the lie, too; the thought of that having happened was terrifying. He looked at her, longing for a closeness they hadn't had in a long time.

He came in beside her and she just watched sharply, unsure of what he intended to do with this encounter. When horror spread across his expression, her skin prickled at the words to follow. "No. Not that." she shook her head, attempting to be dismissive about the topic mainly for herself. Since he nor anyone else had found a trail, she was guessing Lazarus was either long gone or dead. An open-ending like that granted her no satisfaction and was just yet another matter to be pissed off about since the damage was done and the urge for revenge would likely go unsatisfied for now. Whereas in truth, a tiny part of her did hope that if he lived, Lazarus would come back for whatever reason. She could find him then if he did and maybe when he did dare to show up again, she wouldn't be on the back-end of her year's worst beating thanks to a disastrous hunt and herself.

"Were you looking for me?" she asked, although it was only a good guess that he had been truly seeking her out, and maybe even a presumptuous one at that.

"What, then?" he asked when she said it wasn't that. He felt relief blow through him, for the thought of that happening was worse to him than Ame finding out about his foolish and dangerous endeavour.

She asked why he had followed her, and Charon let out a sigh. "Not anything pretty to talk about, to be honest. Y'know Harley? That little shit challenged me, actually. It was when I ran into him and Althaia together. I think he may some weird thing for her, or whatever. It worries me -- after what happened before." The where weren't untrue, so that was easy -- even if he left out some bits.

What, exactly? She could barely decide where to begin. If it was not one thing lately, it was another, and she was tired of it. She frowned at his question and sighed softly, then clicked her teeth. Everything was far too broad an answer.

She lent him her ears and listened. "Challenged you.. How so? For rank?" she asked with a wrinkled muzzle. Harley was a tempered canine, and relatively mild-mannered to boot. Him challenging for alphaship seemed very out of character and no major wounds marred his appearance to her knowledge. He had not looked like he had just come from a challenge. Then again, perhaps she was wrong. But.. him and Charon tangling over Althaia seemed just a tiny bit more plausible (even if it did not justify Charon's involvement any) if she really tried to make any sense of this mess that had a few different vantage points, it seemed. She did not know what to think. It was easiest to go with the one that made her feel the most vicious.

This was all especially likely if what he mentioned was true -- them having a weird thing for each other, whatever that entailed exactly. Amekaze grimaced, and let it evolve into a small silent snarl before anymore was said. "He tells me she has come into season, despite having no right to it." The first of many problems to uncover themselves.

He frowned at her lack of answer. He didn't want things to be this way. He wanted things to be as they were before. He didn't want to end up like Floki, losing her. Perhaps even losing his mountain.

Charon laughed at the thought Harley would challenge him. Ame said Harley had divulged she had come into season and he nodded. "She has. It turns out that's what he was challenging me for. At first he left, because like you said, she has no right to pups. But later I found their scent lines mingle again so I followed them and found out that he had mated with her." His muzzle wrought into a snarl if distaste, and his lie was suddenly not so far off in his mind. He believed this had happened. He looked at Ame and said, "That is why I came to seek you out. I think... We should remove them. Or at very very least punish them severely for this." He moved a short distance closer, longing for things to be the same as they were. And he felt they could be, if they would remove the sordid specks upon their lives -- make it about the two of them again. He would care for her and her pups, and he loved her, still -- a thing he had ironically only started to realise after another had hurt her by how far he'd go to harm his mate's wrongdoer.

She was interested in hearing these details, and curious to apply a little compare and contrast to the different timelines painted out for her by Charon and Harley both -- who were two males with the scent of an omega's heat in their nose, and thus, prone to clouding their better judgements. That was what made her uneasy. It was a grim reminder how simple they were. Since she was present for none of it, this was all she would have to go on: their word, and the feeling in her gut on which was right and which was not.

Whoever mated who, she could at least find the common denominator in Althaia.

Amekaze licked her teeth and let  her lips pull back slowly as he spoke. "I never wanted her here," she said and tipped her muzzle upward a few more degrees, and begun to arc her body to be broadside in front of his. "She has been nothing but a waste of our mountain, and has no respect for it. This is only further testament to that," she growled darkly and realized it was no wonder why her kneejerk reaction to meeting her was just kill her. This. "And Harley claims to have seen you mate her."

Charon had no idea of any allegations made against him, didn't even know that Harley had returned to see him mate with Althaia. He looked at Amekaze, could see her thinking and weighing the value of his words. It wasn't hard for him to believe his own lie, for he had always been prone to twisting the details when it worked in his favour. From garnering attention over his tragic life as a child to this.

Truthfully, he considered the option that Althaia carried his children, and he wanted to meet them, to see if any of them were his -- but he was no fool. He knew that it was better to play his cards on one table, and there was no choice at all in this matter: he had never even intended to claim Althaia, and even if things were rough between him and Ame (and, in a way, that made him feel like he had deserved to do what he did; she was his slave, after all), he wanted her. If nothing else, all the strife they had gone through and the pain of what happened made him realise that he loved her.

Amekaze was quick to turn the blame towards Althaia. "You're right. I thought I could trust her on her word, but we should have just eaten her the day we found her." He wrinkled his nose in distaste, but soon he was distracted by another thing altogether. Luckily, he'd learned from young age to conceal any form of feeling caught -- the only thing that showed on his face was how indignant and outraged he was by this allegation (which, it helped, he was). "That little fucker! What the fuck would even possess him to accuse me of such a ridiculous thing?! Sounds to me like he was trying to set you up against me to conceal his own sordid deeds." It made sense, all the puzzle pieces were falling together. She hadn't been there, nobody'd been there, so no one could ever prove a thing against him. It wasn't that he enjoyed lying, but it was better than the truth at the moment and, better yet, very plausible.

The timing of this all was what particularly bothered her, especially with her own flanks just beginning to show the telltale signs of her own pregnancy -- the only one that would ever matter here so long as she breathed. Another female going into heat was bad enough, and wrong in many ways. It set her off, angered her, and since it came from an omega female already, the next step was out and probably with blood on her haunches before she could cause more unrest in the male minds of this place. She just had not made her way to her yet.

Charon deflected the allegations and she was stone-faced with a short nod. Amekaze wasn't interested in watching the blame pass around between them. Harley may have reached her first, so Charon's potential involvement did sting her more than anything, but she could believe the wolfdog to have done what the alpha said as well. It was a wicked mess, so she was opting to blame everyone for her trouble.

She had no interest in seeing the Spear raise.. others, and against her wishes no less. Not when everything should go towards her own. The truth of it was they could likely support two litters if hunting remained on the rebound after the famine. However the memory of that was too fresh, and she was greedy. Knowing that this was her first litter, where a lot could go wrong naturally, made it so. "Regardless of who covered her, since I am led to believe someone did despite her being of absolutely no genetic worth to this mountain of mine, nothing good waits for her when I find her." Her bristles rose up taller and she stared him down. Harley or him, it was about to be the same to her; they were both fighting for second place on the shit list beneath Althaia's musky presence, regardless of who aimed to plant their roots in the omega. "She is your thrall, are you going to take care of it or will I have to?" her teeth clicked dangerously not too far from his scarred face while her words were low and venomous. She'd not realized getting that close, but fury licked at the back of her emerald eyes; she was prepared to make this ugly if she had to.

"Are you going to believe some worthless mutt's words, or mine? Why on earth would I want anything to do with an omega?" he snapped impatiently at her cold expression, for it seemed as though she could not make up her mind about matters. She seemed to blame him as much as Harley, which seemed unfair to him, considering he thought himself to be innocent in the matter. A victim, no less, but of course she would not understand that, and so he could not tell her the truth.

She asked him to finish off his thrall -- challenged him to do so, rather, for he felt denial would result in a fight as her teeth snapped shut dangerously close to his face. His lips peeled back to reveal an ugly snarl. "We should do this together." And in a way, it could perhaps give them redemption. Redemption for Lazarus, for not killing the Redhawk wolves when they had a chance. In a wicked kind of way he hoped this would be a teambuilding exercise, their snouts painted in blood while they finally got the revenge and control they so desired. He knew he did.

And after roughly pressing his wrinkled muzzle along Ame's nose, a dangerous and bold move to show her he was still the man she had mated, he turned to find their scent trail -- for doubtlessly they were together -- but not before waiting to make sure Ame joined him.

Her eyes narrowed and she huffed in response. That was what she had thought. He had no reason to do anything to some lowly omega. He could, and did, have far more valuable prizes, although she wondered if he still believed that after Lazarus. She did, because the actions of some male's rough handling were not going to diminish her worth by any means. The very notion pissed her off.

He stepped along a fine line here, and it felt like he went right down the middle. She wasn't backing off, ugly snarl or not. In fact, she'd match it. It was good he was not resisting the idea. She would have been more convinced of him having bred her if he even did in the slightest, "Fine. Together," she agreed brusquely and flashed her teeth silently as his nose ran against hers. A warning, just barely concealed.

She moved on to join him on the trail.

Being a heartless bastard who was only interested in making the best of this life, it was easy for Charon to appear innocent in the matter. It wasn't that he was completely vicious and would throw anyone under the bus for his own glory; he wouldn't have done this to Flóki. Probably. Or Amekaze. He had only a handful of wolves he truly trusted and loved, though, and the many losses he'd suffered had made him indifferent to others. As if they were objects to use, because they weren't built to last, anyway. It's not like they'd stay. Harley had said he'd stay forever, but what good was such a promise if he was going to be a disloyal dickhead?

Her body language was noted, though ignored for the time being. Being bold, aggressive and proud was what had always attracted her, he so guessed (well, he didn't know for sure, but those moments he was the most cruel, violent and arrogant were those that had drawn her in) and so that was what he would do now. Seeking boundaries, hers and theirs. "I bet we'll find those little shits together," he said with a derisive look on his face and he continued on in silence. It was not an uncomfortable silence, as their silences never were, not until that one painful day they'd run into each other at the water. He silently prepared for the bloodstains of his pack mates on his teeth. He did not think them innocent, however; in his mind they were the ones who'd orchestrated this all and so the fact that they would pay was just. Especially after the shit Harley pulled on him.

His tail lifted and he wore it like a banner of his intent for war while he moved along until he found her scent trail and started to follow it.

my last post! c:

It took her a few strides, but she loosened up and began to settle into the mindset of the hunt -- even if it was for pack mates, one of which she had held in a good favor. Althaia, not so much, but that was who Amekaze was most interested in running down because her follies were the most offensive towards the gravid alpha (and by extension, her litter) for the time being. Harley was likely bound to catch himself in the crossfire, maybe even willingly if what Charon suspected was true, not that he would find himself perfectly safe regardless.

In her own way, she welcomed the focus it would give her. A very welcome distraction from all this bullshit that was also a solution (to one problem of many) was good, so she believed, and she moved onward smoothly and with purpose now as her tail rose tall. Towards the notion of them probably being together, she scoffed. Most likely. "That will make this easier, then," she sneered, and let this get underway because she was ready to deal with this and move forward. The sooner, the better.