Morii bared her teeth in a silent snarl. Stupid mutts. Stupid humans. She would like to just run out and...ah yes. A sneak attack. The grin she flashed Kalika was positively feral. Then she was silent, pondering. Thoughtful. A wise wolf plans the attack. That was the voice of the woman she had once called Mommy. At least, she thought it was. The few happy memories she had were namely hearing and scent. Sometimes she wondered what her parents looked like. All she had was the battered old wedding photo she kept in her wallet, and the picture was so worn and faded, well, it just didn't quite help.
"This is our home," she spoke up, blue eyes gazing around before locking on the alpha again; she didn't challenge him, didn't quite look in his eyes. Morii still remembered those rules. "Wolves don't abandon the den. If the rogues want a fight, I say we give it to them. If it keeps on like this, those bastards are going to expose us anyway. Why not come out as the saviors, instead of the cousins of those mongrels?"
As to where Morii had picked up the habit of calling rogues 'mutts' and 'mongrels' and the like, well, that was unknown. Maybe she'd started it herself, maybe she'd heard it somewhere. Either way, she made her distaste clear.
"This is our home," she spoke up, blue eyes gazing around before locking on the alpha again; she didn't challenge him, didn't quite look in his eyes. Morii still remembered those rules. "Wolves don't abandon the den. If the rogues want a fight, I say we give it to them. If it keeps on like this, those bastards are going to expose us anyway. Why not come out as the saviors, instead of the cousins of those mongrels?"
As to where Morii had picked up the habit of calling rogues 'mutts' and 'mongrels' and the like, well, that was unknown. Maybe she'd started it herself, maybe she'd heard it somewhere. Either way, she made her distaste clear.
The pack call interrupted Play Time. Evans paused mid-tussle with Ranger and Georgia, lifting his head to listen to the alpha's call. His wolf stirred, growling in anticipation. Since the first sign of rogues in their territory, his wolf had become restless. It cried out for blood, roaring for the safety of his pack. Of the pups both human and wolf had taken as their own. He yelped as Georgia bit the sensitive skin between his fingers, mock-growling at the prideful Ranger as he pushed the pup over. The pups yipped excitedly, enjoying their resumed play while Evans contemplated his options. He shouldn't bring the pups to a meet--they were pups. All they could do was get under people's feet.
But, well..he couldn't leave them home alone either. As his wolf snarled about intruders and silently postured within their shared heart, Evans ended play time by means of rolling both pups over onto their backs and blowing in their faces. He smiled at their yips, then got to his feet and headed for the door. Before he even got the chance to open it, Georgia and Ranger were fighting. Just play fighting of course; the two of them were learning very quickly that getting too rough was a big no-no. Normally he would have smiled and waited a few moments, but this time they had to hurry. They were already running late.
So with a reluctant sigh, he unlocked the door, then abandoned his clothes. His shift drew the pups' attention, as usual, and he used his teeth to get the door open. He yipped at them, jerking his head towards the outside world, then followed the eager pups out, using his teeth again to close the door back up. He padded after the pups briskly, ducking his head to pick Georgia up--she was the most well-behaved of the pair, and the smallest. With his sister incapacitated, Ranger fell into step with his adopted father, looking anxiously at Evans and Georgia. He whined now and then, eager to play, but when Evans pointedly ignored him and kept right on forging through the woods, Ranger had no choice but to just scamper along beside him.
He stopped a fair distance away from the meeting place, shifting to human while the pups looked on in their usual awe, then tucked into a pair of jeans. Evans would have liked to stay wolf--lately, he liked being wolf better--but that seemed rude somehow. So he scooped up Georgia again, laying her over his shoulder; he'd discovered she was fairly happy up there and stayed in play well enough, though he always tried to keep one hand on the back of her neck just in case. He still had no idea how she stayed there after all.
Evans whistled a single short note to get Ranger's attention, drawing the boy away from a fascinating grasshopper, and strolled off. He walked into the clearing, stepped forward, and knelt before his alpha, a man he considered his friend.
"I apologize for my lateness," he murmured. "I wasn't sure whether or not I should bring the kids--" because that was what they were to him; kids--"but I didn't want to leave them home alone." On one knee before Elijah, Evans looked like a knight swearing to his liege. And after all, wasn't that exactly what he was?
