Moonspear Psychological and emotional damages are no longer considered valid claims

Dragomir hadn't seen Isilmë in a while. That wouldn't have troubled any normal juvenile who was accustomed to time alone and had friends to spend time with, but Drago was neither of these things, so her recent scarcity was keenly felt. Coupled with other discoveries and the lack of substantial food, although he wasn't starving to death, it was a recipe for an exceptionally bad mood. A lifetime ago, Dragomir might have easily bounced back from his negativity with the promise of a game or a hunt, or a run through the woods.

Not today. Today, the only thing that would calm his aggrieved heart was to eliminate the things that caused it. Vercingetorix was dead and gone, a fact Dragomir denied in his heart in spite of knowing in his head. He was gone too soon. He hadn't fully atoned for leaving them in the first place, and for every bit that Dragomir hurt and missed his father, he hated him too, unreasonably, for leaving him. His mother was another matter, one he put from his mind with a huff as he tramped along one of Moonspear's lower ridges. Best not think of her at all. She was equally unreachable right now as his deceased sire.

All he wanted to do was find his sister and take comfort in her presence, but she didn't seem to be around, and the lack of anyone else to talk to about all his fucked up emotions only made his fur ripple with unchecked agitation.

@Tye

He had been fortunate enough to have come across some squirrels. They had put up a little fight at first, yet seemed resigned to their fates as they collectively dropped from the trees. He watched them for a moment - sniffing, cautious since the moose - and saw that they could barely rise to an escape. Their deaths were swift; their meat was warm, but also thin and tough.
Tye ate one without thinking. Devoured it with a few crunches of his molara and eager thrashing. The other he gathered by a limp tail and sought a cache for a deposit; however he didn't get far. The sound of something large and agitated erupted from a lower ridge. He dropped the squirrel carcass and peered along the path, nervous of what he may find - or what manner of creature might seek him.

Dragomir didn't realize how hungry he was until the scent of new-spilled blood tickled his nose. Automatically he rose his snout into the air, sniffing greedily, before changing his course entirely. What he wanted was his sister's comfort, but what he needed was hot flesh in his belly. Food would soothe his temper much faster than his sister; if only he knew that this scarcity precluded her complete disappearance from Moonspear, his priorities might've been different.

It took Dragomir no time at all to locate the source of the smell, and there he found a dark-haired wolf standing over a perfectly fresh squirrel carcass. Ordinarily Dragomir wasn't the kind of wolf to attempt to assert any sort of dominance, least of all over an adult, but his stomach spoke louder than his sensibilities as he approached with a growl and lifted his tail.

Share, he demanded.

NANOWRIMO: 146

The creature turned out to be a wolf, go figure. They had the same shrewd features of the queen and her sisters, which made Tye immediately wonder if every beast upon this mountain was swathed in dark furs and animosity; but he did not feel the same intimidation from this boy as he had from the other adults - perhaps due to his age and his size.
It helped that Tye was in good spirits; his hunt having left him warm-bellied and pleased with himself, even if he was still haggard and thin from many days of starvation. He was not so eager to give in to this boy's desires, and without even thinking, he took a step that appeared possessive of the carcass. One spidering limb drifted forward and he planted his paw a little ahead of the dead squirrel, his thin body looming over it.
His tail remained low - it was more habit than anything now - but his ears pivoted forwards and surprisingly, he stared at the boy with a daring sense of challenge. Mine! Tye's posture was saying, choosing to ignore his social position in the heat of the moment. No adults were around to force the issue.

Dragomir didn't know what he was expecting, but Tye's defensive posturing wasn't it. He splayed his ears to the sides for a moment, taken aback that the other wolf didn't simply hand the squirrel over, and his tail dipped from above his back to somewhere between his back and his haunches. Apart from Mal, this was his first time attempting to show dominance over another wolf. He truly didn't know what he was doing; he lacked the hormones necessary to drive his actions.

Nevertheless, Dragomir recovered and pitched his ears forward. His lips came together in a tight pucker, revealing only the tips of his teeth as he growled out a warning and took a stiff step toward Tye, tail flagging. His eyes scanned over the other wolf for some sign of insecurity or weakness, something he could exploit to drive the confidence out of Tye and win the upper hand for himself. He was underweight and unkempt, clearly not well taken care of, but who wasn't underweight these days? The juvenile didn't fare much better.

Which was really the point of all this, wasn't it? If times weren't so lean, Dragomir wouldn't dream of challenging another wolf for his meal, not even the lowest ranked in the pack. But times were tough, and judging by the scent of blood lingering, Tye had already partaken of his catch. To hog more when another hungry pack mate came along was just selfish, wasn't it?

NANOWRIMO: 243

The boy looked stunned for a second. Tye felt proud of himself for about as long as that lasted, and attempted to raise his own tail a little to accentuate his point, but he saw the teeth and remembered his agreement with Hydra. The feeling of his tail shifting out of its naturally low, curved position did not make him feel any better; down it went again in correspondence with all the posturing of the other wolf.
If this boy remained displeased then all he needed to do was summon an adult - or Hydra directly - and Tye would be a much more substantial meal than the pitiful squirrel. It was a safer bet to curb to the boy's will. In moments the altercation was resolved as Tye ducked and snaked backwards.
His tongue flicked from between his front teeth and he backed off the squirrel, his body a dark sickle curve, ears back and eyes averted humbly.

Omg yay I did it! was the best descriptor for the feeling of elation that swept through Dragomir when Tye backed down. The juvenile didn't need to know that it wasn't really his actions that elicited this response in the Omega. He didn't need to know that Tye was more worried about what Hydra would do if she found out than he was about respecting Dragomir. In that moment he felt only the validation of being recognized as a more worthy beast ... a thought that might've made him feel a little sick if it wasn't his natural instinct to jockey for that position.

Admittedly, Dragomir did feel a little weird in the aftermath as he swept forward to grab the squirrel. What did you say to a wolf you just dominated for their food? Hey, thanks for the meal, buddy, I'm Drago, what's your name? That seemed like a good way to rub it in. There were no hard feelings on his end for what was a ritualized part of everyday life for a wolf, although these were his first tentative forays into that side of pack life, but what if Tye held it against him?

In the end, as he tucked into the squirrel he had taken from his packmate, Dragomir opted to ask, who're you? and hoped for the best.

The boy swept forth and grabbed the squirrel. Tye watched, thinking about how fortunate he was the boy didn't go a step further and grab at him. He was glowering a little bit while Dragomir stripped the little body of meat, his ears twisting at the crunch of bone, the scent of blood that briefly lit the air.
When the boy was finished (and it had not taken long) Tye felt the burn of a gaze upon himself and ducked as if to avoid it, averting his own eyes, letting his face go slack of any expression just in case it could be used against him. His tail a sickle against his belly, his head level with his chest and tipping lower... He didn't know if he should linger here or leave now, and waffled about instead.
Tye needed to replace those squirrels with something. He was suddenly very aware that he'd eaten one of the pair himself, which flew in the face of what Hydra wanted too - that food could've been cached for when times were rougher, and instead he'd stuffed his own face, what would happen if -- who're you?
Right. The boy. His voice was almost shy, like he couldn't figure out what to do with the omega either. The boy murmurs in response, N-nobody. Um... Tye.

Had there been much consideration in Dragomir's mind, he would've reached the same conclusion as Tye: this meat would be better placed in a cache for someone who desperately needed it. There was no room in Dragomir for such thoughts. He wasn't much good at being a pack wolf, having had little stability in that department to rely on during his formative months, and it would take time for him to learn that the pack's strength and his strength were intertwined. All he thought in the moment was that he was hungry, Tye had food, and now it was his, so he scarfed it down as quickly as he could, tiny bones and all.

You can't be nobody if you're Tye, Dragomir reasoned, canting his head and licking blood and gristle from his lips. With a little food in his belly, he felt a lot more social and friendly, so talking to the black-furred Omega came easier. I'm Dragomir.

He found himself wondering what this wolf's story was, why he was so skittish, why he submitted so easily to the testing pressure of a younger wolf ... it wasn't the outcome Dragomir expected when he made an attempt at posturing. He was glad for it because it meant he was being taken seriously, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't baffling. Rather than asking Tye about his story, however, Dragomir ventured, you must be a real good hunter if you could bag squirrels. I haven't been able to find anything in ages. Can smell 'em sometimes but never find them. D'you like hunting?

On this subject did they talk for a time, and then they parted, Dragomir strangely feeling no worse for how he'd taken Tye's food.