Word Count: 746
The edgy, quaking anxiety that had plagued the silver-furred hybrid for many weeks now seemed to subside the slightest bit. She had been able to distract herself from it for some time, drawing her attention elsewhere with the company of others, but always once alone again, once her thoughts truly kicked in, the hybrid woman felt that same fear rising up in her, the strange and foreign thing that was like an infection inflicted upon her by the Dahlian subleader. Kaena had yet to learn of his usurping of the leader, Cercelee, though she'd discovered the departure of the third in command, Cwmfen. The silver-furred Centurion could not have placed faces to these canines; she knew only of the former structure in Dahlia de Mai thanks to Onus. He had shed light on some of the inner workings of their western neighbor, but the rogue coyote had not been able to give Kaena any information as to why Cercelee would allow such a beast to be her right hand. He seemed as at a loss as she did, and it was partially in thanks to Haku and the threat he posed to Onus's children that he and Cwmfen had departed. The world felt like a less safe place with his watchful eye; if there were any allies she might have sought within Dahlia de Mai, it would have been that coyote—without true loyalty to the clan, only to his children, Onus provided a much-needed insider's perspective on their western neighbor.
Now that was gone, and Inferni had to rely on its own strength. Kaena did not think this was troublesome for the clan; their numbers were large and within that membership there were many strong coyotes, perfectly capable of holding their own. They might have been the smaller cousin of the wolf, but that made them no less vicious. For the most part, too, they were hybrids. Some carried dog's blood, many carried wolf's blood, but all had chosen the lifestyle of the coyote in the manner that Kaena had so many years ago. Perhaps they did not rip the wolf out of them as Kaena had tried to do; perhaps they did not subdue their wolfish instincts as well as she had, but there were many years of practice that the silver-furred hybrid had to rely on. She had lived on the border between coyote and wolf all her life, and she was quite experienced in rejecting the wolfish instincts that came with the package in most instances. This was not one of them, and though she felt the faintest edge of her strength returning to her, there was still that fear of being struck, reprimanded, punished. The monochrome canine could not shake the idea that she was totally at fault here, almost completely to blame for what had happened to her.
As she stood there, still shivering slightly and waiting for whatever might come, something rather unexpected for Kaena happened—both were in Lupus form, and it was not so much a human hug with arms as it was the canine equivalent, a sudden warmth and protective pressure over her back as her son leaned over her rather than anything else the silvery canine might have expected. For everything she loved about Gabriel, his affection was rare, almost fleeting—something to be sought after and savored like an exotic delicacy. There had always been walls between them, protective defenses and disagreements alike, but the hybrid felt them crumble in that moment, his embrace both an intense comfort and a promise. The words he spoke next gave more weight to that promise, reinforcing it in the silver-furred coyote's mind. Who else but Samael would fight as hard as Gabriel would for her? Some of her children were lovers, peaceful canines who did not so much reject their Lykoi nature and teachings as they played against it. Others were far more useful for fighting, and Samael was very, very good for that. It surprised her that Gabriel would seek to find Samael, but one fought fire with fire, and in order to deliver a monster such as Haku to the dirt below, Gabriel needed a monster. "I would expect he's still patrolling the borders as I told him to," the coyote said slowly, remembering how she'd told him to keep outsiders out, a preemptive strike before this accidental revelation. The Centurion wondered if he'd even stopped to eat since she'd given that duty to him.
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