Tithe

Tithe’s pleasure was still evident in the steady sway of his tail. His face had once more adopted his calm and mildly guarded expression. Iron eyes glittered with happiness, however, as Pandora entered the cave and investigated the walls. Her curiosity brought him a deep joy he still could not put a name or a definition to. All he knew was he revelled in the feeling as it warmed his soul, comforted his bones, and soothed his spirit. He was humbled by his bond with his Imprint, slowly coming to be able to understand the bond even as it left him speechless in its apparent growing strength.

He nodded his great head at her words. Very common. Usually they are smaller, for one wolf instead of two. It stays warmer then. She moved passed and around him and he shifted to accommodate her movements without taking himself completely out of her touching presence. In everything he did he was careful to give her the choice of being near him or not. Their contact and their life was in her paws. It was always be in her paws. He was her’s fully and completely. The fact was one of the only things that gave him footing while the world crashed down around him.

The wolf sighed through his nose and looked at the walls with mild disappointment. It will melt, but slower than the rest of the ice around it. By the time is gone, theoretically, another den can be found. Or the air is warm enough it is unneeded. It was a simple enough explanation. The types of wolves that would have created such dens would have been well suited to colder weather and lands where formal, natural, shelters were scarce. It had been a change for him when he had been in the mountains to discover shelters already made that he then dug out to his desires. He had found the temperature interesting as well. Both a comfort and confusion as the soft snow had ‘ploofed’ under his paws. As strange as it was, the crunch of the ice and the sting of the sleet beckoned his thoughts back to a comforting home. Some things were still the same, while others were so vastly different.

Lost in thought for a moment, it was only her gaze locked on him that brought him back to the present. We may have to seek elsewhere when the ice thaws. His demeanor drooped ever slightly. Guilt touched his heart at the thought of needing to subject her to such a life of a nomad. The thought of being with a pack still called to him, but the betrayal still ran deep. Chances of a pack turning on him was too great and few packs would accept someone so rumored to be a traitor and a madman.