My nose touched softly to the rose quartz, a silent greeting to my mother and father. As I lifted my crown once more, I stepped back to allow Swallowbane room to do as he would. My eyes lifted to the heavens, praying to my mother to give her son strength in this moment. Always I had known that where my relationship was strongest with my father, mother’s relationship was strongest with this son. She had loved all her children, but Swallowbane had clung to her in a way the rest of us hadn’t. In a way I’d never been given the opportunity to. For so long I had resented him on that knowledge alone, but now we were one in the same. Orphans.

Deep mahogany pools lowered from the cloudless sky to look once more upon my brother. He lowered his head, pressing his skull against the rock as his body all but collapsed to the ground. I observed the way his claws raked into the soil, the quaking of his body. I knew that rage, I knew it all too well. And then his head was thrust skyward and a unnerving howl shook the sky. It was a poignant sound, an elegy of his pain. A chill ran down my spine and the hair along my ruff prickled for a moment. But as the howl faded, my fur settled once more. Swallowbane lowered his head once more and swore an oath to our lost parents. To our mother, of course. Perhaps the unabated love between my father and me made up for the lack of love from his son. I doubted it, but sometimes I hoped that Alcide felt some solace in knowing that his son and daughter now stood side by side. I knew he watched over me always.

The vow he swore gave rise to my sleeping demon once more, and the rage boiled like a hot spring in my chest. I lowered my head slightly, ears tilting backwards in a show of displeasure. “I do not intend to allow Purge to continue her life in Moladion.” I growled quietly, more to myself than anything, but loud and clear enough for Swallowbane to understand my meaning. Deep mahogany eyes were alight with the fury the mere speaking of her name could ignite within me. But then an unusually cold draft of air came up, swooping around the tomb and ruffling my fur, exposing the stark black undercoat beneath the shining silver. It quelled the hatred within me, a reminder that more blood was not what Spirane needed.

My ears pulled forward once more and I lifted my head, lips falling to cover my canines. I looked away from my brother for a moment, out across the lands before me. As my gaze returned to him, the fire was subdued, at least for the time being. “If you mean to stay - or if you do not – you are welcome here, Swallowbane. You can take yourself off of the mountain, but you cannot take the mountain out of your spirit.” My words were laced with a meaningful tone, a quiet strength. He was family, and this was home, no matter what.