When Ezekiel delivered his response, Hybrid understood: he was in fact just stupid. He decided to iterate this point.
"So you are just deft then," he replied crossly. "Don't you think of anyone that I'd be able to fucking understand that the best?" he demanded fiercely. He understood even in his nephew's words that he somehow was looking down on him for being surprised and annoyed. Of course he was! Hybrid did not enjoy being unceremoniously attacked, without provocation, by fellow coyotes whether or not they were fucking related. That wasn't even the point. That didn't matter. But there was more to it than that. Ezekiel wanted to learn and of course Hybrid would encourage that, but this wasn't the way of going about it and this was not the way to try an exert one's dominance.
"Don't you fucking think for a second I wouldn't understand. I do. But you should always fight to kill, always know how to. Even if we're fucking sparring, always think how to kill otherwise you're useless. But don't just fucking show up out of fucking nowhere and attack someone. I didn't even fucking know who you were — or that you were here. Fuck." He paused and then grinned wildly. "I could have killed you. I've done worse for less." He hadn't known it was Ezekiel. The boy was lucky that he had eventually figured it out. But if they hadn't had that pause, Hybrid was certain he would have continued driving the boy forward until one was dead. He wondered if the boy understood that yet or if he was just still young and stupid.