‘A-aindreas, I'm sorry for what situation has caused you so much anger and, and unhappiness.’

The king grit his jaws together tightly - he had not meant to turn his anger upon one of his pack mates, especially not her, especially not Mai. And due to his heightened state of the Tempest, his glowing electrics burning brightly, he could see everything she was feeling. Her aura was swirling with uncertainty, a dash of fear... not that he needed any special skill to see that. Her pinnae were flattened against his cranium, her position crouched and leaning away from it. Once upon a time, he would’ve let loose a whimper, gone to his pack mate to comfort her with a nuzzle awkwardly. But he simply could not do that… Not right now. Not when he was so close to breaking down himself from all of the hurt in his heart since he was feeling. His teeth grated against one another and his brows raised and furrowed together with concern, all the while biting the inside of his cheek to hold back the floodgates. Not of tears, but of the tsunami of destruction.

“Mai, I did not mean to… I have no anger against you, nor are you any cause of unhappiness for me. I am sorry if I frightened you, it was not my intention, it is just that I am rather... on edge given certain recent happenings. I do not carry any tides of joy upon my tongue. My daughter, one of my only two remaining children, was slain by vampires. I do not know how much you remember what I have told you, or how much you believe, but me and my kin are Tempests, wolves affected by magic that runs in our blood from generation to generation. We have two goals as a species - the first is to protect the Arcus Irae, which is a set of wolves colored as beautifully as a rainbow, and the other is to fend off the vampires. I know how it sounds, Mai, really I do. It sounds crazy, out of a myth, a legend...”

Aindreas bit his lips at the thought of what he had seen, and he shook his head, one of his front paws reaching out and scratching at the earth in front of him in anger - anger that he had not gotten to his daughter in time. Anger that she had been taken from him. But mostly, she was angry at himself for not being a better father when you have a chance.

“But I saw the vampire Queen running away, and when I got to my daughter, she was dead, torn apart. Though it may not all be my fault, I feel that it is. I should have taught her how to fight, we should have had a game plan to never be alone in case of this. We should have decimated their forces while there were still only few… But part of me did not believe that they were a true thing. Despite my own magical changes, I did not wholeheartedly believe in vampires or their evil lives. But gone is my doubt, and in its place is a fury, the fire that I have been pushing down, that I’ve kept hidden. Oh… For anger there is a plenty within me, within my veins, within the blood that I inherited from my father, and I suspect from his father before him. Vladimir, my half brother who you have yet to meet, carries it also, perhaps even more so…”

He turned away from her, ashamed of how he had frightened her.

“A war is coming, Mai, and if you do not want to be anywhere near me when that happens, I will understand. When you came here to join my pack, war was not anything that you signed on for. This war is not yours if you do not want it to be - it is between me and mine and the evil vampires inhabiting Caidir. But I cannot... I cannot promise your safety if you do stay.”

Aindreas was still facing away from her, trying to swallow his guilt and pride, trying to force it down so that she could not see it. A small part of him, part of his heart that felt drawn to Mai, was trying to push down the anger, but he knew he couldn’t. His sense of repulsion and hate overwhelmed his desire to still appear righteous to Mai. But he still held the dear wish to keep her safe - that is why he had offered her the exit. He did not wish to force her into anything, and in truth, he also did not want her in harm’s way, not in the situation. If she were to die, he knew that all sense of his morality would be forever destroyed. She was connected to his soul now, completed it, held it, and it was her life force that gave him a renewed sense of hope. Half of him wanted to shout at her to run, if only to save her from ever having to come in contact with the vampires. But the other half of him was selfish, wishing her not to stray from his side or from his pack. It was the classical yin and yang of life, two things a complete opposition to each other yet fit together perfectly to make sense. Apprehensively, he waited, waited for her answer. And once he received her response, he would slowly turn back to her, his gaze averted so that the fiery depths of his soul would not lay their fiery flames upon her, lest the licking heat scald her.

“So… I suppose I should ask how your adventures went? Which pack did you choose to go to again? I cannot remember. But I must say that given the current circumstances and events, I am glad that you are home safe, within these boundaries. Vampires cannot enter here… Not while a tempest belongs to the land, bonded to the earth.”