Youth still clung to the pair. It was not as if Blackthorne or Matianak were aged adults, but neither were they flailing youths in search of that elusive adulthood. Their experiences had begun to shape and hone them. Just as she had changed, so had he. In his pup years he had been furious. Driven by a rage for some hidden thing. The mantle hood of Darkbringer had soothed away his rough edges, honed his mind into a weapon, and while he could rely on those base furies, he wielded them rather than was wielded by them. It was not as if he couldn't always reach deep within him for that burning. The same burning that had sent him into this world screaming. He would obliterate the lines that these wolves had drawn in the sand and they would know the chaos that swirled within him.

In the beginning, Thorne had been suspicious of Matianak. Still was but less so. Their machinations were of the same ilk at times with varied intentions but Mat was cunning and he admired such a trait. She did not worship the ground Underidge walked on anymore which was an added bonus. Even if it was not true, Thorne took to that knowledge as if he was the one to instill it in her, to turn her away from their sire's path.

"If it is not noble, they don't see it at all," he adds with another baring of his teeth. The pair had a certain understanding of one another. Matianak wanted to be the one to end Underidge and so Thorne acquiesced to such a thing and in return, she would not get in the way of his own plans. At least, not directly, though Thorne had not had any issues coming from her neck of the woods thus far. "Ah, but it would be a nice blow to crush that very head," he muses with a certain bloodthirstiness.

He did not miss the nuance in her words. She was hiding something - no, not hiding, hinting. Matianak loved to hoard information same as him. The words of hers make his fur stand on edge as he listens intently. He had... sensed there was a reason Arturio had visited Glorall in the spring. It had been what drove Thorne to Glorall, though he used his means there to inquire after other wolves instead. Imprint. A nasty grin starts on his maw as she continues, a line of thinking churning and weaving. "Does this... supposed imprint have a mate or another male that the pups could be confused for?" Blackthorne would not run into issues without first pressing all his advantages and knowing his disadvantages too.

The knowledge is powerful enough to make him stand and he begins to pace forward, then back, turning and repeating in a slinking manner. "To kill a pup of his would be folly and a waste. There are many more things that could be done to hurt him and to help me." After all, hadn't he been doing that this whole time on another family? He loved experiments and this would be a rather satisfactory one if all went well. "I have news for you too, sister."

image by Sanctuare/html by Ally courtesy of Riley