Suomi was about to learn a lot of things about herself and others, whether she particularly wanted to or not.

The soft voice of Solaris, a voice she only barely knew belonging to Taviora’s Tranquil, clocked an ebon ear backward, her jaw only tightening at his advice not to look so tense. Really? That was the advice of the great peacekeeper of Taviora? How... “astute”. With her back still to him, the girl couldn’t help but roll her eyes, though she managed to force a quasi-neutral smile to her face as he took his place beside her.

Too close, might she add.

The glance she cast sideways at the white and russet boy was certainly toned in discomfort but she made no move to create space just yet. Solaris... was sort of like Coza, she supposed. It was the DIveen thing, all that over-affectionate stuff. To him, as it was to her adopted father, this was normal. She knew it. She didn’t particularly like it, but she knew it. As he verbally extended his help for the evening, as he had for the hunt in general, she supposed she was slightly indebted. If that meant shrinking her personal space, she might be able to stomach it.

Nope.

A couple inches between them was one thing, but as Solaris inched closer and pressed his body lightly into hers, she couldn’t help but exaggerate the discomfort in her expression as her head tilted more toward her pack mate. Almost as soon as he had resettled himself, she crossed one forepaw over the other and grape-vined a good five inches away with one step, settling her haunches a bit deliberately back to the ground so as to make a clear statement.

But her intentions weren’t rude... just, ah, how do you say... for their mutual benefit. If it had been one of the babies, she might have flung them to the side with a flick of her hips, but Solaris was no pup. In fact, he was just about twice her size. Not that size really mattered, but... Point was, she still wanted to thank him for his offer despite her apparent refusal of his closeness and she was just opening her muzzle to say this when a small movement in the slowly falling twilight caught her full attention.

The girl which approached them was dark, crimson flares lining her cheeks, and she was absolutely minuscule. There was no way this girl from - judging by the lemon yellow eyes and stark marking, not to mention a lingering, slightly pungent scent - Iromar was three year old. But, hey, Iromar offering any kind of participation was sort of a long shot, so she would take whatever she got. Besides, back to that whole “size doesn’t matter” thing - Suomi had no preconception facing the skills of a “small” wolf. It wasn’t like she was exactly toting a trophy in the size department herself. So, unless Iromar came to collect the little girl before the hunt, Suomi saw no reason to bar her participation.

The voice which addresses them from the small creature send’s Suomi’s ears backward for the briefest of a moment, the pitch much higher than she had even expected. But the words were spoken with an uncertainty and Suomi couldn’t help but notice the strange way the girl eyed Solaris, as if she didn’t know what to make of the large male.

Oh, right. That Demon and Angel crap...

It was easy for her to forget about that idiotic rivalry, especially as she’d only ever heard of it from those former members of Diveen which now resided in Taviora. Yeah, no. Suomi had no time for that crap, nor would she be permitting it tonight or on their hunt. If some bigoted outsider wanted to bring their drama into Taviora, they could get the fuck out. She’d make them if she had to. But the look on the girl’s face was far from hostile, speaking more of concern, and Suomi found herself answering an unvoiced question.

”Don’t worry, Siren. We’re all just wolves tonight.” Her tone was, perhaps, a little gruff to be aimed toward a child, but that was Sue. She didn’t walk on eggshells or put on heirs. Besides, the sentiment was nice enough, right?

A reluctantly familiar scent took Suomi’s attention away from Siren then and her wine-red eyes are lifted to witness the leisurely entrance she had been dreading all afternoon. The girl’s eyes were narrowed despite her greatest attempts at keeping an open and inviting expression and she half expected him to walk straight up to her to tower like he did so well, say some sarcastic crap about her size or whatever or inquire about the lumps she’d had last time Fate had forced them together. But... nope. He deliberately walked right past her!

Suomi’s jaw clenched for a second time that evening as her behemoth stalker made straight for Solaris and touched his muzzle to that of her pack mate’s. Her head shifted back a fraction and a brow raised as she witnessed the... caress. Gaaaaaay. That was so... ugh, those Diveen wolves were so... “touchy-feely”. It took everything in her power not to shudder or cringe, but she managed, because as much as it wouldn’t bother her to insult her sometimes shadow, she had no intentions of causing waves between herself and Solaris.

Behaving sucked.

And then he spoke, which Suomi could quite as well done without. His tone was dripping with sarcasm as he turned his inverted gaze straight onto her but speaks in response to Siren. ”You’re even squeakier than pip-squeak over there.” When her ears flattened back this time, they made no attempt to loosen from her skull and maintain her “welcoming” demeanor. Nope. Not happening. She would be nice to Solaris, she would be nice to the little girl, but she was not pretending to extend any friendship toward this jackass.

The look she gave him as he so smoothly asked for her name, like they hadn’t done this dance several times before, was so saturated with rejection it was bound to repel most others. Suomi pointedly turned her attention toward Solaris, her ears peeling away from her skull to a more pleasant position. ”It’s looking as if you’re our brawn for tomorrow, Solaris,” she said matter-of-factly, completely ignoring their DIveen participant which smirked down at her so smugly.

Suomi noticed, with her gaze redirected, the approach of yet another a small distance off the other side of her white and russet pack mate. She took in the sight of a larger female, her lean frame speaking of youth and her navy blue eyes reflecting the fading light in the facets of her dark face. She was quiet as she walked a little closer and planted herself a short way’s off, glancing Suomi’s way but offering no greeting. Honestly, Suomi could deal with that. Maybe her stalker could take a hint from their newest arrival and just shut his yap.

Doubtful.

But a girl could dream, couldn’t she?

She might have issued a wishful sigh on that thought, but a series of loud crashes had her springing from her seated position and spinning to face back toward the forest. Her golden flecked gaze squinted into the shadows of the towering trees, tail raising slightly at whatever excitement was coming their way. Her alert posture, however, sank in clear embarrassment as a russet and cream boy shot out of the underbrush and “gracefully” planting him in a disadvantageous position in the dirt before the group.

Oh, god, no.

Suomi squinted her eyes in a moment of misery as the one Taviora youth she had purposely left out of the loop sprang up in a wagging, energetic mess of motion. ”Suzy!” Her ears flattened to either side of her head as Roamin managed to thwart her short-lived secret she had managed to keep from her brutish stalker the moment he parted those loose lips of his. And, really, he couldn’t even use her full name? Ugh!

The black and silver girl planted her rear back to the leaf-strewn ground, a look of sheer contempt falling on the lanky boy who had just crashed their little party. ”Shut up, Roamin,” the command came out in a dry disgruntlement. ”You’re going to scare away the visitors.”