It is comforting to know that they lived in a pack with an alpha who cared very much about them. Maybe not Zaphkiel, per say, but he was relatively new but it was enough to know that Coza seemed to really like Astrid. He knew his mate had a grumpy sort of temper so the male must be of a decent sort to get such a good reaction from her. That alone is enough to make him want for his meeting with the male to go smooth. It wouldn't do to drag her away from the place that they had decided to make their home yet even as he speaks so does his new alpha and his form relaxes as he grins. "Thank you, Coza." The words are genuine, his tail wagging and likely smacking his mate in the face before all hell breaks loose and she is away from the den in her prickly fashion with everyone looking on in wonder.

When it clicks here is a momentary haze of fury in Zaphkiel. It is both jealousy and anger, a bitter disappointment in this moment that the fates had turned upon him. Cruel it was! Unjust! His mind spins in all the same storytelling fashions that he often laced his words with even as his lips twitch back. How dare his... COUSIN come in an usurp his place within Astrid? How dare he! And on top of gaining her affections - which Zaphkiel had done the hard way, not by some cheating method! - he had to do it on the day that she gave birth to his kids. Not one, not two, but FOUR of them! In these moments Zaphkiel thinks four as a proud number, forgetting his own trepidation of a moment ago in lieu of the more extreme circumstances before him.

Coza is hollering at her in an attempt to calm her down but Zaphkiel, well, his brash nature is showing. It is likely from his father's side that he stands there with his own fur on end which almost doubles his size and his teeth flashing and that low growl emanating from his throat. The way that the male rises up over his Astrid, the way that he reveals his own threat to Zaphkiel as if he would harm his own mate, it has him shooting forward for two steps before he freezes, a snarl rippling from him. His very nature is that of protection and jealousy - he had been jealous even of his father in Astrid's presence, as ashamed as he is to say it. Now here was one who had a reason to be considered a threat and who had just snarled at HIM like HE shouldn't be near HIS mate. The idea is preposterous and he doesn't even have time to think about how he had fought the bond with Gaia before. How Solaris might not even know what is going on.

Does his cousin think that he would not hurt him? Zaphkiel was not small either and he would fight for his right as Astrid's mate if need be. Fighting was his thing, after all, and the adrenaline of the moment warms his entire body. Yet it is not an adrenaline born of good nature. Rather fury and hurt. Hurt that this has happened when it wasn't any ones fault, really. Coza moves before them all, blocking them from sight and the sound of Solaris's sigh is met with the ceasing of his own growls, his breath heavy with panting.

"Yes," he says in a gruff voice the moment that Astrid begs him not to and his ears prick then fall back, eye wide and filled with a sort of pain as he takes a step back, his good eye latching onto her own troubled ones in this moment as she glances back at him. He wants to tell her to send Solaris away, to come back into the den with him only and tend the pups but she is so confused. So lost and to turn his back on her would be a terrible slight that Zaphkiel could never do, so he steps forward and presses his maw into her side with a heavy sigh that seemed to match his cousins across the way. "He is your imprint. Your soul's half." Those words are a bitter pill to swallow and they come out as such, not accusing, just disappointed in the nature of events. "That is why you don't want him to go." The last words were added as an after effect to both try and assure her and himself that of course that was the reason alone.