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Criss knew they were coming. He couldn't smell them, but he had gotten used to picking up small shits in noises. His hand grasped for his bow. He didn't knock an arrow. He simply waited, backup up towards where he came. He knew they were going to try and kill him, he just had to back himself out before they could.

At the first sight of the woman, Criss seemed to relax, but only for a moment. Her hands were out palm open. Criss' grip on his bow tightened. "Lost is one word for it, but you know well this is general property. It's just marked. Now take your friend out of here, and I'll just see myself off the premise." Criss said. He didn't even know if the wolf had come alone, but they usually didn't. The pack mentality was always to travel in pairs, even though they were all commanded by the alpha. A lone wolf was a dead wolf, which is why Criss standing in front of one was such a bad idea.

Nova, on the other hand, was about halfway across the territory. She could hear howls in the distance. She just hoped this would lead to something safe, rather than a war. Nova needed to have a chat with Erik anyway, alpha to alpha. As much as she didn't want to start a war they were in charge of these people and they had to keep them in check. Besides, a friend would warn a friend when danger was closing in. Whether or not he chose to listen was up to him.
 
Calla was honestly surprised by the human's response, blinking a couple times at first. It was not that he knew about the land being marked that surprised her, but his tone of command. He seemed pretty confident for someone who knew that they were trespassing on another's land. If he was a regular human, that would be one thing, but since he clearly knew what was going down, he was part of a tame pack. There was only one tame pack in the vicinity and their trespassing knowingly was practically a declaration of war. She pressed her lips together softly in displeasure, though not anger. The human was being reckless. More like stupid. If she had been any of the other wolves, that challenging tone might have earned him teeth around his throat. "That was not wise to say." She said softly, "Considering you are the one breaking our laws. If you are willing to leave, however, I have no desire to stop you. Tame territory is that way." She gracefully stepped out of his way and stretched one palm out in the right direction.

Unfortunately for him, wolves did not travel alone. Calla may have forgiven the trespasser, but there were two other wolves a little less pleasantly tempered. Elena's lip had curled back unpleasantly, but she deferred to young Calla so as not to undermine Erik's best friend and unofficial right hand wolf. Not today. Politics in the clan were sensitive, and Elena may not love tame wolves, but she was smart and cared that her clan did well. Marx though...

"What is she doing?" He snarled under his breath. "She's letting him go." He gave Elena a look of disgust, and then he sprang forward with a snarl. Calla grabbed the human by the shirt with both hands, yanking him to one side as her blue eyes turned to gold. Still, Marx might have gotten his wish if at that exact moment the large black wolf that was Erik had not come crashing forth to slam into him. The two wolves tussled on the ground violently before Erik slammed Marx's hot head into the ground one more time and let forth a growl that demanded submission. The older wolf whimpered and complied, backing away head bowed. He turned his head back towards where Calla, the human, and Elena were all standing. Elena had drawn up next to them even as Calla held on to Criss's shirt in an "you're not going anywhere, but I'm getting ready to yank you out of harm's way" fashion.
 
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Criss looked at the woman and nodded, slowly starting to back himself away from the border. He knew his tone was dangerous around other wolves, but he had to establish his place. As a human they saw him as weak. He wasn't about to step down and be as weak as they thought he was. Bow in hand, he evened his breath, backing up and away. It took less than a second of peace for it to be jarred by the woman grabbing his shirt and yanking him out of the way.

Criss would have loved to fire a shot at his attacker but another large wolf slammed into the one who had attacked him. Growling and snarling filled the air. And then it fell quiet. Criss locked eyes with the dominating wolf, and felt his heart leap into his chest. It was the same look Nova gave when she was very pissed off. He had a sense that this might be there alpha. Thank the gods he was reasonable.

From behind Criss came another dominating growl, this time from Nova. Keeping her ears drawn back, Nova's growl grew quiet as the fight ended. She gazed at Calla for a second, glaring at her before returning her gaze to Erik. She stared him down. "Loud as usual Erik." Nova quipped harshly, her tail flicking as she circled around the other alpha calmly.
 
Erik did not want a war. Whatever Nova thought about him, he did not want a war, but he also did not have a death wish. Another alpha coming into their territory circling him as if he was prey in front of his own pack. Marx was subdued for now, but that did not make him blind or soothe his rage. When it was just the two of them she could make as much fun of him as she wanted, but they were not alone, and this was not neutral ground. He let her circle him, standing tall and proud, unafraid, and even as she did so more wolves came slinking from the woodwork. His pack had been drawn by his howl, and she was forcing him again to make a choice with no good options. A choice she didn't even understand. "You and your kind are not welcome here." He spoke as if he had never known her. She was just a rival pack's alpha. Nothing more, nothing less. He tilted his head towards Calla slightly, and she released the human as if he had spoken a command.

As she let him go, she whispered in Criss's ear barely loud enough for him to hear and hopefully not loud enough for Marx to hear, "Go home safely, and don't cause any more trouble for my clan." She didn't look at him, but there was something sad and tired about her expression. Elena even in wolf form noticed it. It was Erik's sadness and exhaustion, the things he was not allowed to express.

"You know your place." He said, voice devoid of any emotion, fond or otherwise. "On this land you are the trespasser, the criminal, the traitor of our laws and our kind." He was speaking for all his wolves to hear, and hers. "Your human wandered onto our lands and for the benefit of our two clans, one of our kind sought to let him go without facing retribution. Making a choice that we may prosper! But have you now come to challenge me, tame alpha?" It was something of a rhetorical question, but the wolves present from his side were tense, waiting for a wrong move. "Escort your packmates home without protest now, and I will negotiate with you at the border." He did not offer a second option. They both knew anything else would mean wolves would die today. Even those terms were soft. There would be a lot of shit to deal with once they returned to camp... mostly his loyal subjects wondering where his spine had gone.
 
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[BCOLOR=transparent]Nova was not pleased with this situation. As she slowly circled Erik she started to see more wolves creeping out. A growl rose to her throat, soft to the untrained ear, but just as strong when she stood muzzle to muzzle with a wild alpha. He was yelling at her like she had done no wrong.[/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent][/BCOLOR]
[BCOLOR=transparent]“I am well aware of the boundaries, but it seems I am not the only one who can’t keep their pups in a line.” She mentioned, glaring him down. “I do not tread on your soil without a purpose, and you should know that very well.” Nova warned, her lip pulling back. “You should do well to keep your elder’s muzzled before one ends up underneath my claws.” She said, her fur ruffling slightly for a moment before she settled down. She did not want to start a war with Erik, they needed to diffuse things.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Criss on the other hand was happy to be let go. Backing up, he stood behind Nova, joining the ranks of his own pack that had pulled behind Nova. She flicked her tail, signalling them back. “I appreciate the intelligence of your younger members, as they seem to know how to keep their claws inside their paws and growls shoved down into their bellies. This is a talk between alphas and not a pack.” She said, glaring back at her people. She snapped her jaws, and the line drew back into the trees, racing towards the border. Criss followed on foot.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Turning back to Erik, Nova nodded turning around and starting to walk towards the border. “Come, we have to talk.” she grumbled, treading forwards lightly towards the border[/BCOLOR][BCOLOR=transparent]. She had no fear, for if a single one of those wolves attacked her she would not hesitate to pin them to the ground.[/BCOLOR]
 
Erik did not follow Nova immediately, like some whipped pup. Instead, he waited until it did seem like her pack was retreating back to their lands before signalling for his own pack to return to their settlement. There were questions, doubts, flashes of anger in everyone's eyes, but his lips drew upwards in a silent snarl and they retreated. "Grimling." He called as they began slinking away. A hefty blonde wolf with slightly greying fur moved forward. "Make sure Marx doesn't stray." The larger wolf nodded solemnly but silently, and then he too was gone. All that remained was Calla, still in human form. "Calla." He warned her, but there was a look in her eyes that prevented him from saying more. She opened her mouth, and he began, "Calla I don't-"

But she held up one hand to stop him from interrupting. "I'm not going to say anything about what you should or shouldn't have done. I'm not going to give you any advice, so just listen. The wolves who just left don't trust you, but they have followed you. If you let her continue to shame us like that, to mock our elders and make a laughingstock of you - they will turn on you. Then they will turn on the tame wolves, and a lot of wolves are going to die. You don't get to love her anymore. You don't get to be soft on her. Grow a spine." She turned on her heels and began trudging back to camp, still not bothering to shift.

Erik sighed and padded after Nova, until he caught up. He wanted to be angry at her, to tell her everything she had just done wrong, but Nova had never exactly been a very receptive listener, and he got the feeling that it would just make her angrier than he was. He was too tired for this shit, so instead he kept it simple. "Say your piece, Nova." He snarled.
 
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Nova held her people back. They weren't exactly excited to let these wolves go, but they all knew that Criss has stepped out of line. She would have to run him through the pack borders again, and put a wolf on him at all times. The last thing they needed was a war, and that is exactly what she would have to talk to Erik about. She knew that they were going to start clearing the forest in his territory soon. They needed to clear to be safe or they were going to get in a lot of trouble with the human population. She may not like his ways but she didn't want him to die either. A part of Nova still liked Erik, something she had been trying desperately to control over the last while. It was hard to be so far away from the person you loved, but they lived on separate sides there was no stopping that.

Hearing Erik pad in behind her, Nova turned around, her gaze softening a bit from it's alpha edge. "You know you don't have to be all aggressive without your pack. You know I wouldn't be butting my head in if it wasn't necessary." She said calmly, sitting down on the ground. She kept her demeanor calm and cool, tail wrapped around her legs as she sat. "You need to move your pack Erik. I don't have a problem with our borders now but soon we will. The humans are moving in to the north, in your territory. They are going to get closer than any wolf would like and there is nowhere left to run. My pack still holds it's grounds on the land I was born into, and we will keep it that way if we have to. I don't want our packs to fight, but there may be no choice. You are running out of room Erik, and I am starting to run out of peaceful options." She said sadly, glancing across at him.
 
"I am not acting aggressive because of my pack, Nova." He said, as he sat down next to her. "I am angry. You humiliated me in front of my pack after I defended one of yours. One of yours who had been the one at fault to begin with. My pack is back at the camp right now no doubt wondering why I haven't let the battle start with such an open declaration of war. You think I do not know we can't stay here much longer? You think I'm so blind? But you always did believe me to be a fool." He spoke the last words bitterly, but then a tougher edge steeled his words a little. "I do not need you to tell me how to run my pack, Nova. You have no need to expand your grounds. Stay on your side of the border. I don't know how much longer we can keep the humans from encroaching, but when we do our death as a pack, or our moving.... It doesn't concern you. Stop pretending it does." He stood again, barely having settled, and turned to leave. There would be trouble awaiting him and the last thing he needed was for more of Nova's words to be filling his head as he faced off his entire pack with no one on his side but Calla.
 
Nova glared at Erik slightly. He was angry, that much had been true. She had a lot to apologize for, she had left them after all. She had left the pack that had accepted her, but she couldn't accept their ways. It wasn't her lifestyle. She couldn't have continued to stay there, but Erik's words still broke her heart little by little. She couldn't accept that he would just get up and leave after that.

"It does matter to me, Erik. Your pack may not like me but once I was their friend, I still care for them. Yes my packmate was out of line, something I should have heeded before I came in. I shouldn't have made such a threatening pose either. But you pushing back the humans risks exposing us, all of us to the world. There is almost nowhere left to run around here. Even if you do make it there is hardly a suitable space left. I don't intend to expand my borders ever, I take no more land than I need, and you may do whatever you wish, but I continue to think of all of us when I make my decisions. Your pack and mine. If you expose our secret to the world there will be nowhere left to run. You will have doomed me, your own pack, Calla, your sister, everyone." She said, pausing. She had stood up to talk to him, but her heart still sank. "You may have tossed me aside but I still care about you, and your pack. We may not agree on ways to live but I still care what happens to the people who helped me when I was my weakest. That's something I won't give up on."
 
"I understand all of this, Nova. You think I don't know any of this?" He drew closer to her until they were nose to nose and spoke very very softly. "You don't get to claim I was the one who threw you aside. And you don't have the right to say you still care. You are a pack leader who doesn't have to make any of the hard choices. You stay where you are with your cushy life in the human settlement and tell me that it's time for us to leave? I know that already. I know what you are. I know where we stand. But the humans will push us back and push us back generation after generation until there is no more land to run to. We cannot just continue to run. We have to learn to adapt. And if we cannot do that, then we die. And it is none. Of. Your. Business. Just because we die doesn't mean we will destroy your pack while we're at it." He drew back and away from her. "We aren't looking for mutual destruction, or at least I'm not. Stop making it difficult for me to keep the peace. As long as we can keep our packs separate, the humans hunting us down or encroaching on our land won't affect you."

He took a few more steps back and away from her, but looked her seriously in the eyes, a hollow gentleness in his gaze. "No matter what happens to us, I won't let it affect you and yours." Erik turned on his heels and ran back to the pack. There would be trouble waiting for him. He had to deal with it now, though the last thing he wanted to do was face a pack on the verge of rebellion.
 
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Nova stood face to face with Erik, trying to hold back her biting words. The longer they argued, the more things were going to go in a circle. But she did care, she knew she did care. And Erik new it too, yet he stood there nose to nose and yelled at her. It almost broke her heart to see them like that. She had done all of this in the first place. She should have stayed, but she knew she couldn't. And now she had a pack that needed her, Erik knew that. He just didn't understand how much she was already giving up trying to repair things with him. She let him run back. She let him go. She didn't say anything in return to his harsh words. Instead, she turned on her heels and ran, slowly transforming into a wolf as she went. She wouldn't let herself cry, nor grieve over this. She had been expecting such for a very long time. And now she had a pack to get back to. An angry one.

Leaping back onto the porch of the house Nova walked inside, letting her paws turn back into feet as the door shut behind her. Her pack was gathered in the living room, Chris looking the most sheepish as he sat in the lone chair in the far corner. Nova took a moment to look at her people before sitting down in her large cushioned chair with a blanket thrown over it. It was hers and hers only. It smelled a lot like home.

"Nova...." Cress started softly, looking at her in the eye. The petite woman was the only other around. She helped keep Nova sane from time to time. Nova sighed heavily, and ran her hands over her eyes.

"Cress, I am going to need you to teach Chris the boundaries again. And keep an eye out. There shouldn't be any trouble." She said, standing up. "None the less, we must be vigilant. Wild wolves think of us as weak, and pathetic. They don't like the way we work and they are running out of room. The last thing we need is a fight." Nova said firmly.

"Yeah, certainly did a royal job of that Nova." Adam mumbled from his corner of the couch where he had sunken into the cushions. The entire house was basically a sausage fest. Adam was the most rebellious of them all. He was kept in line, barely sometimes.

"ADAM." Nova snapped sharply, looking at him. The male nearly jumped out of his skin. "Do you have a problem with the way I handled things?"

"Well maybe if you hadn't been trying to court their leader,"

"That's enough Adam. Please." Cress pleaded. She had a soft spot for the male. Everyone knew but him. As the days went by the whole pack started to question how dense he was. After a year they gave up an decided dense enough to hit a rock and survive.

"Well I'm not wrong am I?" Adam demanded, causing a wave of silence to pass over the room. "She's been going to easy on him for another pack leader. We should be out there standing our ground, heck even reclaiming it."

"Adam, need I remind you we are a peaceful group. We aren't going to start this war by invading their space. We all know that our species is dying. A needless war between us would only bring attention to our packs. Then we'd all be doomed. And I don't think you want us all to uproot ourselves and move to England now do we." Nova barked, before sitting down.

Diego, being decidedly terrible with conflict, walked away from the conversation, knowing it was over. He went back to the kitchen. It didn't take long for the smell of pancakes and steak to waft into the air. He knew home cooked food was the easiest way to soothe the alpha temper. Adrien on the other hand walked over to Nova with no fear a few minutes later. He sat diligently by her side.

"You ok?" He asked softly, placing a hand on her own. She sighed, letting his thumb run over her much smaller hand.

"Fine. Everything's, fine." She said softly, a look of disappointment reaching her gaze as she sat, letting time pass.
 
The pack was a train wreck. As soon as he barreled into their current establishment, Erik transformed. He didn't need to call them to gather, they already had. Some were in wolf form, some were in human form. Grimling, the blonde wolf from earlier, hadn't morphed back into human form yet and his teeth were bared at Marx in an imperceptible warning. Calla was still in human form with a few of the others, including Ellen, and her arms were crossed across her chest. All eyes were expectantly on Erik. What he really wanted to do was let out a sigh, run a hand through his hair, and slink into his tent to fall abed in exhaustion. But one could not show weakness in a wolf pack. He stood in front of them, eyes still in wolf-red. For a long moment he was silent, the tension thick in the air and utterly unforgiving. It was a punishing silence for all of them.

Finally, he broke it very simply, voice calm but brooking no argument. He was looking straight at Marx but his words were directed to everyone. "The human encroaching on our property would not be forgiven by our laws. But he is not of our pack and to claim he must follow our laws would be comparable to claiming that WE ARE ONE WITH THE TAME PACK." Snarls rippled around the gathering at the very thought. Calla did not snarl. She knew what he was doing. Playing on their pride to justify his actions without having to say out loud that he didn't want a war. He began to pace in front of them, the way a general might in front of his soldiers. "We have always demanded our territory, our sovereignty be respected by the tame wolves, and besides the foolish action of one who can be considered no more than a child they have done so." There were some dissenting murmurs, but he spoke again. "We came very close, today, to losing one of our own. Marnie. Step forward." He didn't mean to call her out or punish her, but he wanted to remind his pack of what mattered. She walked forward, head bowed in shame and he softened slightly and placed a hand on her head. "It is to the pack that I owe my allegiance." He told them harshly, looking up at all of them. "It is to Marnie, and yes to Adam. To Grimling and Marx and all of you whom I would call my brothers and sisters. My pack. My people. I know why you do not yet trust me. We are in difficult times. I am young and the pack needs a strong hand to guide it, to lead it. How much more must I prove myself to you?" He demanded of them, voice strong, unflinching. "We stood against the tame pack today and forgave not as a sign of weakness, but for our own peace and prosperity. They push us and we merely prove ourselves stronger. Wiser. And if any of you hotheads think that I am not fit to lead this pack, that my action showed weakness, then by the law of our clan step forward and challenge me."

The loaded silence was, again, punishing beyond measure. No one stepped forward. The silence stretched and stretched, until Erik finally said, "Go back to your tents and rest. It has been a long day." And he turned away from them.

~~~~~~

"I'm telling you, Tina, werewolves EXIST. They HAVE to. There've been rumors about them here for YEARS. And I'm going to be the one to find them."

"Sure sis, don't hurt yourself." Cecilly could swear her twin sister had just rolled her eyes on the other line, irritated with her obsession, and just like that she was hung up on. Annoying. She'd teach her. She'd SEEN them. They had to exist. They just HAD to. And she would prove it. Tucking her phone into her pocket, she walked over to where her partner was shoving things into their car. They were preparing to make a trek into the woods, where she just knew her destiny awaited. Her first real lead. She had been chasing them too long for this not to be worth it.
 
Cress and Chris had wandered back out into the woods on the orders of their alpha. Chris still had his head hung in shame and an arrow between his finger tips. He rolled the cylinder between his fingers, trying to imagine what it would be like if he could smell as well as the rest of them. Cress gently nudged Chris' hip.

"Cheer up Chris. Everything will pass soon." The short woman said, her long hair flowing in a braid behind her. She had been walking with him in human form for now. Cress was never one to like transforming. It still hurt her skeleton to constantly shift states. She could still smell the border as they walked slowly along it's line.

"Hard too when you almost caused an entire war. I shouldn't have been wandering out alone." Chris chastised himself, kicking up dirt as they walked. He kept himself on the inside of the line, his gaze trying to capture the view of everything around him. The boundary was important.

"Everyone makes mistakes Chris. Nova doesn't blame you. You can't sense our boundaries. Don't worry, you will see them soon though." Cress said softly, patting him on the back.

-------------------------
"And that my friend, is why we are out in the middle of the woods." Mason said triumphantly, his foot placed on top of a rock as he looked around.

"You're nuts." His friend Ash said, the glare carrying over to the brunette standing on a rock.

"I'm not nuts. I'm enlightened. And going on a hunt. You in?" Mason asked, shuffling an identical looking backpack to his own towards his friend on the ground. Ash glared up at Mason before taking the bag. "Only so you aren't dead in the morning. And because maybe I like you too much." the man mumbled, starting their adventure as the sun went down.
 
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