<3 you, hun! 673 words.
####Nothing that he could tell himself could allow him to justify what had happened two days prior. Logically, Vigilante knew that it was his fault that Pello had grown more violent in the days and months after his mother’s death. He had never truly believed that he could stop his nephew’s horrific acts by killing his sister, but he had done it anyway because that was what he had been told to do. Now, all he could wonder was why he allowed himself to be brainwashed like that in the first place. It was not that he did not believe in what he had done in the past. In fact, he believed in it now more than ever, the desire to rid the world of wrongdoers even stronger than it had been before. Vigilante simply could not understand why he had allowed himself to be convinced so thoroughly that his sister needed to die. It was not fair that someone so good be removed from the world so young, and he had grown to hate himself for it enough by now that it was nothing new to him. Only two things had changed since his niece had attacked him: he planned to continue his work from before, and he was going to be completely honest with Ayita. The rest of his pack members did not need to know, but she deserved the raw truth. Vigilante would give it to her, in turn opening himself up for rejection. It was the price he had to pay.
####Out of pain, he had not yet shifted back into his preferred regular canine form. The fur on his cheek was matted with dried blood, not yet washed from the inflictions of Lolita’s claws. Around both wrists were claw and bite marks, as well as a matching bite mark on his collar bone. Standing from the couch in his own house, Vigilante groaned, gritting his teeth together in protest. The physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment, however, and he began the trek through the snow to the house that Ayita and her pups still lived in with Leroy. The significance of this day to the humans of the past was not known by him. A day that the humans had once celebrated was simply another day for him, but it was going to become significantly harder. To keep himself strong in his resolve to tell her everything, Vigilante reminded himself that she had been completely honest and open with him, and he would hate for her to find out later. What if she ran into Lolita somehow and she mentioned him by name? It would be a disastrous event and he wanted so desperately to prevent it from happening. Ayita needed to hear the truth from him, and he also needed to warn her about his niece. Lolita had so willingly attacked him, and she certainly was not right in the head. She was, simply put, very dangerous.
####As Vigilante drew nearer to the house of four luperci, he knew that the scent of his blood would appear first, and he wished he could prevent that. Ayita did not need to worry about him, but surely such a good hearted and kind woman would be concerned. As there was no way to prevent it, as far as he knew, however, Vigilante simply moved quickly until she came into his line of vision, dancing in the snow. She looked so happy that he almost turned around and left, simply so that he did not make her good mood go away by what he was planning to tell her. That would be the coward’s way out, however, and he simply could not subject either of them to that. “Ayita, hello,” he said softly, approaching her hurriedly. “I need to tell you something—everything. Please listen to everything first,” he added, not wanting her to interrupt while he told her. It would be hard enough to tell her everything as it was, without her words or visible reactions.