It was over in seconds, at least for the only two the interaction really should have involved. The moment Adelard looked away and ducked his head, Chan's tail relaxed and he all but dismissed the other wolf from his mind. He wouldn't wait for nor expect further submission, for that had not been his goal in the matter.
Yet Finley was now guarding the den from him with a growl and had instructed another packmate to do the same as well. Riven left altogether, a vacancy that took a few more moments for Chan to register.
He hadn't expected anyone else to understand his stepping in. After all, it wasn't as though anyone had ever tried to talk to him about it, was it? Even when this friction had been out in the open since Adelard had first joined them, on the benefits of climbing atop someone who hadn't even fully reached two years of age. Still, that anyone who had been thought of as a friend for years now saw him as a threat at all was exceptionally telling about how little they truly knew him.
Chan supposed that shouldn't have been a surprise, though. His gaze didn't soften when it caught Finley's confusion, finding it hard to believe she really wanted any kind of answers from him. When had she ever, even in the situations that had most involved him? Over the years, she had only ever really come to him when she had been in crisis, and even then it was by chance. Their meeting, even his rank - he was only leader now because he'd been her only choice after she'd gone as long as she could withstanding asking at all.
And why should he
have to explain this? She had opened several doors by her own volition to this moment, could have done
much more than stand over a hole in the ground to protect Isla. Why couldn't she put the pieces together herself, what Isla's various situations and taciturn disposition meant, that she should have wanted for the girl what she'd want for her own children, that a day and a surge of hormones did nothing to mentally transition a child into an adult, how unnatural it was for a stranger of advanced age to latch onto someone at that delicate precipice of development... So many red flags, and yet she looked at him like
that?
It didn't really matter, he supposed. While the distance was felt keenly in moments like this, it was ignorable enough in general. They didn't need him to have a personality or a history or opinions or even feelings and morals.
They needed a working body.
Chan would speak flatly, and only as needed; between Finley and Nadine, whichever was willing and accepted by Isla, she could be delivered any and all medicinal flora needed as well information about the why and what of it. He would be available for hours longer,
ensuring that the window for things to go wrong was firmly closed before daring to slip away.
(This post was last modified: Jun 07, 2024, 10:34 PM by Chan.)