He had always stuck mostly to himself growing up. First there was only him and his brother River living in a den with a dead mother and a father who stopped coming back with food the moment he knew his imprint was lost to him. The pups who were just a few months old were left to fend for themselves in a pack that had turned on the wolf who attacked another in his anger over the loss of his imprint, a wolf turned savage by the breaking of that sacred bond. They exiled his father and so they never saw him again. When River started wandering, Exodus was left to "babysit" his mother Natalya. He still talked to her and soothed her, even as she lay stiff and cold to the touch. He chased the birds away from her rotting corpse and at night, he would cry himself to sleep curled against her, wishing she would nuzzle him and tell him how she loved him just one more time.

When the realization finally hit him that she wasn't going to wake up, he walked away from the den without looking back, but the loneliness he felt back in that den never completely left him. He wasn't ready for the social world and so he kept to himself and rarely spoke to others. Most times he would go out of his way to avoid contact altogether. River was the outgoing one. His brother never feared anything. Exodus just didn't know how to connect with anyone and he feared that if he did, they would end up like his mother or father. The pack was nice enough and the wolves within it meant him no harm. He was brought food by strangers and he devoured it like he was starving but he never spoke a word of thanks. Finally as a teenager, he tried to branch out and make a friend. He met a wolf named Stella and though she was older, she was full of wisdom and fire and he was entranced by it. When she brought home puppies, he was ecstatic, feeling more connection to the little puff balls than he had to any adult wolves. That is, until they looked at him. It was just in their genes to be the way they were but he would never forget the look in their eyes as they measured him up.

He was inferior to them, beneath them. They wanted to make him an outcast and the butt of all their jokes from day one. Only a few weeks into this world and it was already theirs for the taking and he was a speck of dust under their paws. It hit Exodus back down and he had to crawl his way back out of that abyss yet again. Who would have ever thought that he'd end up falling for one of those same pups? Bellatrix was her mother's daughter in every way but she was also something wholely different and exotic. She was daring and yet playful, a dreamer and yet a realist. She changed his world and then she changed his life by saving it...from her own mother. It seemed Stella had gone off the deep end and she wanted blood, his blood. He would never know that she was seeing him as his father instead of the son, that she had vengeance to reap on the one who had left him so many years ago and in her warped mind, it was Devil May Cry she was looking on that day. She would never get to tell him for Bella ripped out her throat in defense of his life.

And yet she never got over taking her own mother's life. She left him just as his father had done. And so he had gone wandering, leaving everything behind that he'd ever known. He took up the life of a loner and to that, he would probably stay. But now he had someone to share it with. The day he stumbled across Malleah would be a day he would never forget. All these thoughts and more played across the sleepy mind of a midnight figure stretched out on a rock beneath the warmth of the spring sun. He never would have guessed someone would be watching him and deciding whether to approach or run. Despite his large size, he'd never really been the intimidating sort, not until the assassins drove it into him. Even then, he found that he could flip it like a switch and so most of the time, he was the docile giant with gentle eyes and a caring touch. He lay dormant for what seemed like forever before his senses kicked in. Something just didn't feel right. And so one lazy eye opened and blinked in the glaring sunlight, finding a figure of pure snow standing not too far away. At first, he thought it just a mirage, a figment of his sleepy state and the brightness of the sun but as he blinked, it didn't fizzle or fade or disappear. It was just...there.

And so with a soft sigh, he blinked both eyes open and focused on the female who had stayed silently watching him.

"If you can promise not to bite, then I can guarantee the same. Care to come closer or would you feel comfortable on the other side of the trees? It might be harder to hold a conversation but we might get better at yodeling in the meantime."
Exodus_male_10 years_41in_195#_loved by Malleah_unable to imprint_no children_loner