WC:530<3
The behemoth sat atop a cliff overlooking the Ichikan landscape. He sat rather pleasantly looking inward and instead of outward for threats. The animals that had escaped where a reminder that threats where foreign and domestic at times and he was growing increasingly worried about his mate. Such a sudden thrust into the leader of the pack would undoubtedly mean some weren’t happy about it, but nothing so far had tipped him off to any such social unrest, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep a close eye either. Saluce really didn’t have much evidence to suggest any ill will, just that he knew in cases such as this when a new leaders dominance was still being tested that he would be there if any such act would arise.
X’y had returned from the festival while he had held down the fort at home, and his presence had been gone from the den sight for a couple of days. So he hadn’t seen her yet after her return. He didn’t really have an explanation good enough to give her as to why he hadn’t been around, he’d worked in his shop, kept up a rigorous border patrol, and had begun walking the grounds of Ichika making sure everything was where it should be. None of them where good enough to explain why he hadn’t went to go see her upon her arrival, but rather he had simply misplaced the day it was, having forgot when she would have arrived. The thought of Nayru and now the gone Razakiel had at first upset and even depressed him to some degree but now he was just looking at it as a natural thing. His mind had already made the steps necessary but he still couldn’t fathom groveling at his mate’s feet, because of her now exalted status in the pack.
How could a lowly mid rank wolf ever think he was worthy enough of being the mate to the leader? It scared him honestly, especially noticing the visitor’s scents at the borders. He may not have been there or seen what had transpired but he had known his mate had met someone there. And with that doubt he began to doubt his own claim on her. If she was the leader she needed someone equally ranked as she was and he wasn’t it. Saluce had never fit in well with the packs in Nova Scotia, his own ideals kept him constantly at odds but it had never bothered him so much. Now he felt he was a hindrance instead of a help, and the male sat atop the cliff brooding over it all. Undoubtedly he knew X’y would come looking for him, and the urge to slip off into the shadows and return to the wilderness had already hit his form. The thought was entertained, and his feet had almost made the first step but he remained fixed, knowing his heart wouldn’t let him leave. However he couldn’t make himself begin to move down the cliff either, because fear had worked its way in him, fear that he would be discarded now and be left to wonder if it would have been better if she had never been promoted.
Image courtesy of Frau Böb@Flickr; table by the Mentors!
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