Two brows, once clenched in anger now cut a less severe shape in the wolf’s forehead. He was puzzled to say the least. He’d been expecting a harsher reply as he was not the only one here with a rather developed sense of pride. Flustered, he dropped his guard and gaped at her in bewilderment. His lower jaw twitched feebly for a couple moments, but no sound came out. He didn’t know what to say and sat there looking quite the fool. It wasn’t until she threatened him that he snapped his jaw shut. He quickly bristled and stood again, desperately trying to compensate for his former lapse of composure.
“Who’s stopping you? It couldn’t be me. I wouldn’t lay a claw on you. I wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty long fur of yours.” His words were both sincere and sincerely sharp- meant to sting if only a little. He would never actually harm her, he hoped she knew that. For not one reason, but many in fact. Firstly she was female, secondly he could not deny that she was indeed ranked above him, and thirdly she was a friend- whatever that entailed. Perhaps, one day he’d learn to value that friendship a little more. For now he was content to squabble with her, still desperately clinging to the belief that his distrust in her self-proclaimed ‘toy’ was well founded. If she had the need to participate in such combat he would happily teach her the proper way, but the chance of her asking at this point seemed little to none and Augustus chose not to speak his offer, not now.
He held his gaze on the ground below him, neither wishing to challenge her again, or let her see the gleam of anger that still lingered. The whining edge of her voice perked his interest and he lifted his head slightly to gaze at her out of the corners of his eyes. She was nearly exhausted with him he could see. When word of her query reached him he snorted. Was it not obvious. "Ugh." He sighed heavily, exasperated. Was there no way to get through to her? Was he seriously that hard to understand? “You are aware that my brother is dead?” He said slowly, attempting to keep his tone even, and overthrow the sound of the underlying growl that laced his chords. "The Luperci clan close to our borders were blamed for it…do you want to know why?” He gave no sign of pausing, the question blatantly rhetorical. “What do you think they found next to his dead body?” His eyes strayed toward the steel beside her making the answer quite plain.
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