Nikolai blinked. Honestly, that was all he could do as he could only step back and watch the series of events unfold. For once, he was actually speechless.
He didn't understand.
He couldn't.
The young scout - seemingly young, unimportant, full of knowledge that he'd never need to use - could only watch from the sidelines as it played out.
Nikolai wasn't skilled in maneuvering. Whatever he thought simply came out of his mouth more times than not - which made him a rubbish courtier and therefore better confined to solitary roles like scouting. It wasn't like he was complaining - he enjoyed his role, after all - but things like this? Slight maneuvering and prodding as they slowly reached an agreement?
He couldn't undestand it. It didn't make sense. He could only step back and watch, knowing that others from his pack were innocuously looking on as well, as it happened.
---
Deverick and the party from Grey Hills moved at a renewed pace. They were getting close, they knew it - this was truly someone else's territory. All of them could tell. This was truly an unknown pack's territory, and those were ruly unfamiliar scents they were now catching.
But they were getting stronger. Everyone in thir party could tell - this was it. The scent of the other pursuers led here. Straight into the heart of this pack.
Eagerness overtook him slightly, and he nosed slightly to the front of the party, eager to finally get to the end of this. They were here - he could tell. No way the trail kept going.
Only to be stopped by a warning bite at his throat as Alpha Cooper clamped down lightly.
"Dev." Pure alpha command laced his words as Dev and the rest of the party absolutely froze in place. "We've gone over this, no? Stay behind me. This is an unfamiliar territory," he said, aware that all their pack members could hear it, "and we're here to claim what's rightfully ours. Follow, but don't speak. Let me assess the situation. Then we'll act." Alpha Cooper dropped Dev, who folded in like a stone. "You heard that?" he barked at the rest of the party. Not bothering to see if they responded, Alpha Cooper took off, the rest of the party following - and Dev now firmly towards the back.
That was until he picked up a faint trace of his sister. Faint, yes - but newer. Fresher than the scents that they had been following for days. Fresher than - gosh, it was faint and far enough that only he'd be able to differentiate from all the other scents, having had it imprinted from the moment he was born, but new enough that Dev knew - she was here.
Daylight poured through the trees in front, and Dev - as their party murmured quietly that they were finally here, Dev spotted her through the cracks in the trees, illuminated by the sunlight.
"Sis!" Ignoring Alpha Cooper's prior warning, dodging his snarl as he shot off straight into the clearing -
- where well over twenty wolves shifted and laid their eyes on him as he suddenly ground to a halt.
---
Lidiya smelled the unfamiliar wolf at the same time as Kodak did. However, unlike Kodak, she couldn't recognize it.
"What-" Lidiya glanced at Kodak's face, and instantly knew the answer to her question that had been left unsaid.
Judging by his expression... he knew it. Who that scent belonged to.
It wasn't any of the Plumrose River Pack. But Kodak knew it - and that really only meant one thing, that
his pack
had come for him. And they had finally run out of time - they had finally caught up with them.
Great.
"Should we..." ...run? Even before Lidiya voiced it, she knew that it was an impossibility. The last time they'd run, they'd had darkness, night, and a pouring rainstorm to cover them. Right now, they had sunlight, late morning and a lot of leaf litter - maybe even some snow if they kept going.
Lidiya was warring inwardly with feelings as Kodak seemed to be doing. For the urge to run was almost unbearable.
But they were here. They had a new pack. They couln't possibly be running from protection.
"Alpha Kodu will make sure they don't take us." It came out quietly, a slight quaver in the sound - as if she wasn't even certain that at the first test, their new Alpha would hold up to their promise. "He has to."
He has to.
He has to.
There was no other alternative that Lidiya could envision. There was only one way this could possibly turn out.
She looked up at Kodak, uncertainty rippling in her eyes. Uncertainty - and hope. Hope that this would turn out well, that Alpha Kodu could hold up to his promise. Hope that she'd have what Kodak promised her earlier. Hope that there was no way his could go badly.
Hope that they could obtain their happily ever afters. With each other.
"No point waiting. Best to get it over and done with, I guess." A pathetic attempt to insert some levity into the moment, but - Kodak had been affected far more than she had over the new scent. Who it was, Lidiya didn't need nor really want to ask. So she simply swished her tail and took the lead, knowing that Kodak would follow, bringing them closer and closer, and silently praying that it would all go fine. For she'd be strong for Kodak if he couldn't be against whoever this was.
Kodak was hers, and nothing could rip him away from her without the stars and moon imploding. Just as she was his.
Emerging out into the clearing that they'd come to call "home" in the recent days was about as bad as she had expected it to be - there was Alpha Kodu. Some of the pack was there. Nikolai was there, staring at them as if he couldn't believe they were still here.
And there were the Eastern Mountain wolves. Which of them in particular, Lidiya couldn't tell. But there they were - shifting to look at them. Lidiya's breath caught slightly in fear as all of them - Plumrose River and Eastern Mountain alike - turned to look at them.
The two newcomers.
The ultimate goal of this meeting, too, apparently.
Lidiya kept her head high. Refusing to be cowed by Kodak's old pack. He wasn't owned by them in any way. To take him, they'd have to go through at least her.
She was about to speak, when -
"Sis!"
Lidiya froze at that familiar bark, having heard it hundreds of times over the years. Thousands. She couldn't think, didn't know what she was supposed to say, as
Deverick
and
her
old
pack
emerged
from
the
other
side
of
the
clearing.
Spring Month: 1 
Night 
Clear Moon: 
