It was early morning, the sun had just begun to rise over the horizon, though that was not obvious within the cool stone walls of the pack's main den. All around gloom seemed to cling to the sleeping place, not in a bad way, almost as if the lands themselves, nature herself was allowing the wolves that resided within New Dawn just a few more moments sleep before the pale morning light began to seep into their bedchambers and disturb their slumber. The cold stone walls that made up the pack's home were oddly dry for once, usually there was a slight dampness at least in one place or another in them; a sign that perhaps a small stream had run down one of the walls in the past, but today it seemed to have been stilled, perhaps nature herself had realised that the pack were sleeping there now and would not want their beds filled with water. But perhaps the owner of this thought was merely being fanciful, the sable female that herself resided within these caves. The Beta had been a wake for a few minutes, if not more, she was often one to rise before dawn and to go to bed late in the evening, protecting the lands between those two times. The ebony pelted female had been awake for a few moments, her body curled around Deuce's, as often it was at this time of the day, snuggled against her lover's fur, as close as they could be. It was true that the coal pelted female was more than attached to her mate, in fact she loved her helplessly, hopelessly; but that also meant that she loved her mate's children in such a manner, she loved Noah as if he were her own, which had given her such heartache when he had been seen to be breaking the rules. She had tried her hardest to be harsh on him, to make sure that every letter of Zalen's orders were carried out to the letter; she respected Zalen, she saw him as her own son, but she also saw Noah that way, hence her current torn feelings. She knew that the silver furred male had done wrong, she was furious with him in truth, he could have brought war crashing upon their heads, he could have been killed, had he been a strange wolf trespassing onto these lands then he may well have been. But his intentions had meant no harm and she did love him, she found it difficult to see him suffer.
The truth was that Soran hated to see any wolf suffer, the idea of a wolf being forced to starve over one mistake was bad enough; but she knew Noah better than most and he would never have been intending harm, Ichika was his old pack after all, his old mate was there, he would not have been intending to hurt anyone within, still he had trespassed though. The sable Beta was upset at this, she was furious with him, and yet when she had seen him rolling in the mud, hiding his shame in the thick brown layers it had broken her heart, more so when she had seen the newcomer giving him food. She knew she had been wrong in pretending she was ignorant, pretending that the food was not a gift, but Noah had only three legs and seeing him starve because he was not able to hunt was shattering Soran's heart, as she knew it would shatter Deuce's if he died. And so she had played the mother, she often did to others in the pack, but Noah had not deserved it, that much she had known, but still she had been unable to help herself from helping him. She knew that she had offended Shandom though, the pale male had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, the time had come to right the wrong that she had done to him. The dark female gave a sigh and rose from her bed, licking at her pale female's maw gently, knowing that even if she did not wake that she would catch the scent and know that her mate had showered her with kisses before she left. She smiled to herself before padding across the cave, the feathers that she now kept in her fur were evident, just as Zalen and Titania's were, except her's were peacock feathers, given as a gift by her daughters, traded or found somehow. The dark Beta moved swiftly between her own sleeping place and the place that she knew Shandom slept in, she moved towards it and called out as quietly as she could,Shandom? Shandom are you awake? I feel that we need to talk, I need to explain some things to you. The lady then stood and waited, peering into the darkness quietly, hoping that the pale male would want to hear what she said.
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