From the moment his lips parted, the words he spoke seemed to mock me. Despite the casual note to his tones, and the altogether stature that spoke of his utter disregard for my place among the royalty of Moladion as a whole, something about his introduction felt insincere. Perhaps there was some prejudice there, a predisposition that could not be entirely undone. The guard hairs over my ruff prickled slightly; they did not rise defensively, simply spoke of my aversion. But my face remained stoic, beautiful and full of prowess. Dark mahogany eyes searched his flat green orbs, but there seemed to be a total lack of any level of caring. Momentarily my eyes turned to the girl, listening to her own take on my style of introductions. I merely blinked, and before I was given the opportunity to respond to either of them, Iophiel’s eyes turned away from my own, drawn to something behind me. I was unlikely to turn my back on strangers, and so a single audit flicked back to catch the sounds of another approach. Those paw steps were unforgettable to me, known to walk beside me since my earliest days. Taliesin.

My ears and eyes returned to Fenrir as he spoke to pardon himself, and my attention was his again. He made no mention of Taliesin, instead speaking of Natu. So it was her perfume delicately mingling with his own, faintly, but there none the less. It had been in the same meeting that my spider had divulged the information about the brotherhood of wolves that Fenrir belonged to that she had revealed to me as well her Moladion story. Of how she had been attacked by Lillith, saved by Ailith, kidnapped Sven. There was a strength to her that could not be matched by many, trials placed before her in her life that she had overcome. Hard mahogany’s stared into those flat, pale green eyes as I replied.

“In your fondness I am sure you have come to know Natu as a wolf capable of taking care of herself. If there is ever a known threat that arises against a member of my pack, it is my Castellan I will call upon to assist in their defense or aid.” My voice was just as focused on this business he brought to me as his own was. I paused for naught but a moment. I was prideful, but I was not a fool. “Nevertheless, if Natu should ever be in a situation in which she is unable to call upon you herself, and desires it to be done, it shall.” I would not be seen as one so unwise as to turn away help offered from a wolf who, by all accounts, may be very well connected among the population of Moladion. My brother’s history had put a foul taste in my mouth for Fenrir, but I would not deny him entirely.

As Taliesin had come to be in our presence, I had become painfully aware of the intense stare he held with the one named Iophiel. A tension of completely different circumstances seemed to envelop my brother and the alabaster girl swathed in onyx. Something felt innately private about it, and so my eyes remained steadfast upon he who I spoke with. But it was the words she barely breathed, a belated answer to a question I had asked myself that finally pried my eyes away from Fenrir and to Iophiel. ‘For him.’ And then my eyes shifted from her to my brother, and my brows lifted in an expression of something between disbelief and intrigue.