Lightning flashed as Tick Tock’s teeth connected with Jaidah’s face, yet instead of taking out the eye or damaging the eye enough to blind the white wolf as she had aimed, she had caused a few scrapes just below her left eye. As soon as her three dark paws landed in the thick mud a frustrated snarl escaped from her opened maw. The Monster had no idea why she kept missing. Tick Tock knew she was getting a bit older, but she was well aware that she was still capable of delivering accurate and deadly blows. Breathing heavily she could actually feel the leftover adrenaline start to evaporate away. Her final lunge, having used her right hind limb to propel her forward, had resulted in the limb beginning to swell at the site of the injury. That fracture above her right back paw was a clear nuisance, but she knew in time it would heal. The superficial cut on her face was nothing to be concerned about, but it did sting a bit when the cool stormy winds blew in her already scarred face. As she stood within the thick mud and the cold rain pounded onto her tired frame she could feel something unfamiliar, she could actually feel her body- and it ached. This fight had brought to her attention that she was getting older, but age would not be her downfall. She, Tick Tock was stronger than that. She was still standing defiantly. Reaver was a young wolf, that wasn’t difficult to tell, but she had beaten him. Jaidah was a younger wolf than her, and yet, she had defeated her too – of that she was certain, just as Tobias had. Tick Tock was no longer frustrated in herself. No, she was frustrated that the failed Queen had completely ruined the territory markers, and made a complete mess with her paw prints within the mud, but Jaidah's scent would be eradicated as soon as the storm was done. Then Tick Tock could replace her scent on this side of her lands.

Dark obsidian and grey peppered fur remained risen as her crown began to lift with pride, ignoring the pain from the bite in her thick ruff. Long banner lifted high in such a dominant manner clearly displaying herself with the confident assurance that she would indeed remain the Alpha of Asteraia. Dark sapphire eyes glared at the white wolf that had dared to try and take away her fields and family. Tick Tock was proud that she had held the pack together for an entire year, without any failures. The pack had flourished since they were under her reign, after she recused them from their weak and inattentive faux leaders. The members of her pack were thriving, each individual going along their own journey, with their dark and fearsome leaders always attentive. Within the long and tall grasses of the plains were some of Moladion’s most feared wolves, and without lifting a paw, pulling back her lips, or howling a threatening cry - all of Moladion was afraid of them. Whispers filled with anxiety and terror blew through all the pack lands during the previous summer, with a phrase that seemed so much like a nightmare come true, Tobias and his nameless imprint had a pack – and no one had a clue about what they would do with it. Just her presence alone, along with Tobias’s, made everyone actually give a damn about the wolves within the fields.

Originally when she recused the pack from Jaidah and Reaver, she didn’t know what she wanted to do with the wolves that remained within the fields, the fields she had won to provide a sanctuary for herself and imprint. Over time Tick Tock had developed a sense of responsibility to actually care about the wolves that had chosen to follow her. She was a nobody, no one knew much about her, no one knew what she had done during her time in Moladion and no one even knew her name. Yet they trusted her. They followed her. So, she immersed herself with them, and they had filled a missing piece she thought could never be filled within her soul. Ever since she was a young pup she always wanted to feel like she belonged and for the first time in her sixteen years of life – she found her home, no, she created her home. The only way she would be taken away from it was if Death himself came and collected her miserable soul. The wolves within Asteraia would never bow to a failed Queen again.

There was no need for the Monster to continue standing within the thunderstorm tonight. She had a long trek back to the cozy lair she had made with Tobias, Flare, and the rightful heirs to the fields. Tonight she would call out to her pack that all was well and she had kept her promise, that they would be safe, and that she would always protect them – always. She needed to rest tonight and then tomorrow she would get back into her role as Alpha, with a different routine. Black lips pulled back to reveal her sharp blood-stained teeth, dark sapphire eyes glowered as if daring the white woman to get in her way, because she was not going to deal with this matter anymore. What’s done is done and Jaidah could go back to wherever she came from, Tick Tock did not care. Keeping her dial upwards, proudly, even if her ruff stung, she would stride forward, ignoring Jaidah’s presence and her attempts at trying to keep her out, just as she ignored the sting of the cut on her face. Jaidah had no business keeping her dirty white paws within Asteraian mud. Limping past the white wolf, on her three good limbs, she didn’t even bother to give the white woman another look. Right now Jaidah was not at the forefront of her mind. The only thing the Monster could think about was being welcomed back within her home, seeing her beloved imprint, the children they had created, and the wolves that had given her life meaning.

Asteraia was her land. The wolves that called it home were hers. Jaidah was not welcomed here. Aged, tired and bloodied she may be- but she had won tonight and she was going home.