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Winter in Malignant Felicity was rather magical, if you asked her guardian. Snow fell intermittently, what little could actually breach the canopy, but it did put the alpha in a rather celebratory mood. Keeping away from his females was hard, but he could not simply go about spilling his seed into all of them. No, the heirs of his kingdom would be carefully chosen, the female who would bear the son to rule over Malignant would be even more hard to find. She would have to be of royal lineage, with striking enough markings to match her king. Brindle would be the crown they wore, and he had to choose his mate carefully because of his lines. The Morningstar would not be extinguished due to careless choosing of brides. This was what kept him from doing as hormones demanded and ravish the women of his home. Instead, he moved along the borders of his forest home, scent marking and making sure there were no visitors or trespassers to deal with along the way.

He would be pleased to see any of his pack along the way, would welcome their tempting company as much as he would discovering a new face to add to his collection. He needs them, to go out and find others, to help him maintain the borders in their current state, and an assortment of other things he needed done. He could do all of this himself, but what good is a pack wolf if you can't give them work to make them better? Perhaps, Lucaya had taken his words to heart and went about her task already, but he needed one other to go about looking for fresh meat to add to this banquet. Four women and a male did not make a working pack, nor did five wolves and a puppy equal a kingdom. Bodies were needed to deck his halls, and he needed wolves to find them. Locals who knew the hangouts of the vagrant and the murderers. Perhaps, as with his victory over Carnival, luck and skill would be on his side this day.
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