He said it. He said the thing.

For a moment, Lidiya revelled in the feeling that coursed through her at his words. She wasn't that shocked - somewhere, inwardly, she'd somewhat known. It was more... comfort. Longing.

Love. Was that what she'd been feeling whenever she looked at Kodak? It was different to what she'd felt to her family, and her younger brother. This was... more tentative, but deeper. This was the exact feeling that she'd been supressing for days, only this time... she didn't really supress it anymore. She let it flow freely.

She knew she loved Kodak. That was how it stood. She loved Kodak, unconditionally. She only had to say it.

"I-" Too used to hiding her true feelings - first once her mother died, then once Cooper began going against her, Lidiya struggled to actually say what she thought for once. Looking down, unwilling to meet Kodak's eyes just yet, she tried again. "I... Kodak, I love you too." Likely the most gooey sentence she'd ever spoken in her entire life. Her tail twitched slightly, still entwined with Kodak's as she finally glanced up at Kodak's golden eyes. "And yes." Her voice had softened to the point that it was barely audible over the waterfall in front of them. "I will be your mate. Just as you will be mine."

Heart beating rapidly, she nuzzled the underside of his jaw. It was soft, warm, and she... somehow felt comfortable. Simply being here with Kodak, and no-one else.

That being said, they were now mates. They were both here, alone. Together. Her body yearned for one more thing, one that she'd been ignoring ever since her heat began. I just need more time, she'd told Kodak. I'm not ready yet.

Instinctively, she knew she was now. She felt... complete. Whole. She trusted Kodak fully - enough that she'd vented onto his shoulder mere moments ago, and now they were mates, to even...

[I checked with Desti, they said that this post was fine]

---

Nikolai's thoughts on where the two of them were were definitely quite far off from the reality, and so much for his grand plan of dragging his feet!

Briefly, he considered being petulant. After all, this guy did have all day. And want it or not, he needed Nikolai to lead him to Alpha Kodu. But then the other side of him also told him that antagonizing the guy... was probably not the way to go.

"I'm not taking my own sweet time, thank you very much," he grumbled quietly. "Am I not allowed to walk normally?" Even as he said that, he upped the pace slightly.

Sliightly. Just enough for there to be a noticeable difference, but not enough to be his normal scout speed. Maybe this guy - Hoku - would be happy with this speed. If he'd be happy wih anything Nikolai did, which right now was sitting at a big fat no.

So he walked "normally". Also considered as a bit of a slow trot for himself, but hey, they didn't need to know that either. In fact, Hoku didn't need to know a lot of things, starting with this.

Nikolai was... still fuming, if he was being honest. What he was hoping for was a few things;

- Kodak and Lidiya weren't at camp.
- Kodu could respectfully tell these idiots to go away.
- They'd leave and stop pestering Nikolai like he was his hostage.

Because like it or not, he was their hostage. He leaned more on the "not liking that" side, though, because he didn't like being a hostage.

But he had faith in Kodu to defuse the situation, to get him out of under their thumb. Maybe a little too much faith. Still, he had faith and loyalty in his Alpha.

They broke out into the clearing, and Nikolai repressed a slight smile as he made his way to where he assumed Alpha Kodu would be. He even unconsciously started trotting faster now, looking forward to this.

There was no way they could keep him hostage in a camp full of his own pack. There was no way.

"Alpha Kodu!" Nikolai bowed briefly as he approached. And for once, he was able to strangle his deluge of words as he actually managed to summarize and speak cleanly.

"These wolves... they're looking for Kodak and Lidiya." He hesitated, then continued in a lower tone as the wolves in particular approached. "They... forced me to bring them here." Against my will. "They threaten war." Nikolai still had complete faith in Kodu nonetheless.

That really was all that needed to be said, right?

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.

Deverick froze, rooted to the spot. Only now did he ruly understand why Alpha Cooper had wanted him to not rush out - this was the result.

Riiiiiiight.

Lidiya looked at him and it was only the eyes of so many unfamiliar wolves that kept him rooted to the spot, wanting to lick his sister's cheek but unwilling, unable to do so.

And - that look. She looked at him with - shock. Suprize. Even that slight hint of protectiveness that he'd always taken for granted. But when it shifted to the rest of his pack - devastation.

He couldn't understand it. They'd come for her - they'd get her and they could finally go home together-

Deverick feltt his world shift under him as his brain failed to compute. What- why wasn't she happy to see him? He'd never truly known a time that thatt had never happened.

Vaguely, he could feel himself being shouldered to the side as Alpha Cooper passed him. He could even feel the threat in the way he got shouldered - we'll deal with this later, and violence definiely simmered in his posture before facing the other pack. All Deverick could do, though, was look at his older sister, with-

- with that wolf that he had last seen her with right next to her. It was only at that point that his world expanded past simply seeing his sister again.

There was that wolf. The one with the brown saddle, who leaned in and whispered something into his sister's ear. Intimate. Something he'd never seen anyone do with his sister.

He was still frozen to the spot as Lidiya nodded, confirming whatever that wolf had said, all witthout breaking eye contact with his older sister.

What- what-

"I'm Cooper. Head of the Grey Hills Pack." Alpha spoke up, and Deverick saw Lidiya's attention snap to Alpha Cooper, a heartbeat before hi own atention snapped to him and the rest of the wolves.

And golly, were there a lot. Deverick didn't look at the too much as Alpha Coope continued.

"And we're here to reclaim what appears to be stolen from us. A certain female that was stolen without consent from our pack by a rogue wolf in the dead of the night. One that was taken and brought all the way here, far from our pack lands."

Alpha Cooper nodded at Lidiya.

"She's right there, if you were wondering."

---

Lidiya's blood pounded in her heart, her ears, and it was only Kodak's steadying presence to her left that stopped her from bolting back, back where they had come and back to the waterfall where life had been perfect mere minutes ago.

If only she could escape reality like that.

Instead, here was her younger brother, who was looking at her with that look that awoke the fierce instinct to protect him as family, and here was Alpha Cooper feeding her new pack and Kodak's old pack poisoned lies, and she couldn't - she couldn't -

Only the sense of Kodak right next to her kept her from boiling over completely and ripping out all their throats. They had brought Dev into this -

And now here was Cooper speaking like he had the right over her. Like she was owned by him. I'm not your property! she wanted to burst out. I was perfectly happy here until you showed up!

But she held it in. All that would do would be inflame negotiaions. And Alpha Kodu already seemed to be overloaded with wolves from opposing packs to further have it degenerate by making it worse.

Alpha Kodu seemed to be preparing to say something, even as Lidya watched on. But then Cooper's gaze slid over from the point at her to Kodak, right next to her, and locked on and froze. Lidiya tensed at it, even as Cooper's eyes flashed something dangerous.

"You," he snarled at Kodak, fangs flashing.

---

And Nikolai wached on with well over half of the Plumose River Pack, silently watching with open eyes and whirring brains.