Zethrox had not said a word since Akihra had pulled him from the Occasus. In fact, the femme was starting to wonder if he was still sane, or if he just needed to be left to die; sure, she loved her family, but suffering through such things could be worse than death, could they not? As the femme approached the dens, she spied her daughter nestled in a crevice in the rocks. The miniature Ryker bounced toward her, and Akihra smiled and stooped to lick her daughter's head in greeting. It had been devastating to lose Aneysa, but at least Sariya remained. At least all of her family had not disappeared.
Turning to Zethrox, Akihra started yelling. "You senile old brute? You are a fool; what the hell were you thinking?" She was furious. In what mindset could he possibly have been when he considered traipsing all over the continent and pissing on other people's territory? "You could have gotten all of us killed! Because of your greed, you put my family in danger. And I am not just referring to Sariya, you, and I. I mean the pack in general!" Her words were laced with venom. "Such a reckless decision for an alpha. Do you even feel that you are worthy of that title anymore? You are past your prime, Zethrox. It is time you face the facts and hand over your position. You are no longer in charge, Zeth. I am." With that announcement, she strode to the entrance of the dens, raising her crown to the sky as she bellowed her claim for all to hear.
"I, Akihra, do claim Kamari and the Haishin Pack. I am the Alpha thenceforth, and it will be to me that you shall answer."
Turning a dark eye on her grandfather, Akihra dared him to challenge her. See what will happen when you turn on your kin, old man. See what sort of hell will break lose, and you will lose the only one of your family that you have left. She had placed him in a dangerous situation. She had not yet decided whether to allow the brute to stay. If he was, indeed, messed up in the head, then he could be a threat to their pack, even as the Omega. But at the same time, he was a blood relative, and blood ran thicker than water. There were a lot of decisions to make, and the first few were about to surface.
"What do you have to say, Grandfather? What is it that is going on in that mind of your's?" Akihra had calmed herself sufficient, but she was still intrigued. Was there any reasoning at all behind his actions? If she had not stepped in, she had no doubt those three wolves would have watched him die in the sun. He was not far from death when she had arrived, and none of them had made a move to help him. However, Akihra could not blame them. He was a fool, and he was decreasing in usefulness with years. The only reason Akihra would be willing to let him stick around would be to be sure the remainder of the pack would follow under her leadership.
She was not sure just how much loyalty the others held to their former alpha.
Not only had he nearly lost his life in the Occasus, but he had lost his pack to his granddaughter. It was not as if that was not already in the works, but the sheer thought that he had been ousted from his rank was a bit overwhelming. Half of him wanted to put her in her place, to tell her that the pack was his and that she had no right telling him otherwise, but the other part of him knew it would be wasted breath. Akihra had saved his life in theory, and he owed his life to her now. If the pack was what she desired, then the pack was what she would get.
So instead of focusing on the negative, the brute instead turned his attention to his great-granddaughter, who had now situated herself between her mother's front paws as Akihra sat on the den floor. "My dear, you will grow up to be a beautiful femme," he complimented Sariya, completely ignoring the confrontational behavior that his granddaughter was exhibiting. He was bold enough to realize that he was past his prime, and it would not do him any good from here on out to fight the advances of others. At least this way, the pack was in the paws of someone he trusted could do the job. Akihra had already shown some promising signs of leadership; it would simply be honing those skills that would be a task. And even that, Zethrox knew, in time would come.
"My dear Akihra, you underestimate my foresight," he announced bluntly. "While my decisions were not wise, I did know that you would eventually take my position from me. That comes as no surprise to me." He even brought himself to smile a little as he spoke.
With a short laugh, he continued. "In fact, I am fully aware of how dangerous my actions were. That does not mean I would take them back. Sure, I found myself in an uncomfortable situation. But that would not be the first time, and it certainly won't be the last. Mark my words, Akihra. I am no fool."
Sariya watched her mother with curious, big, silver eyes. As she appeared in the dens with her great-grandfather in tow, her first impulse was to seek shelter under her mother's sure protection. She could feel the anxiety rolling off her mother in waves, and it caused the pup to scratch at her ears and fidget. There was so much that she did not understand, except that momma was yelling and that gray-grandpa was the reason why.
"Momma, why are you yelling at gray-grandpuh?" she inquired in her cute, soft voice. She was scared by their conversation, and each word forced her to press further and further into her mother's dark coat. She knew she looked nothing like her momma. She had been told that she looked a lot like her daddy. I wish I had a daddy. That would be nice, she thought with a quiet whimper that she tried to cover up with a little fake sneeze. "Schooz me," she mumbled miserably.
She did not like when momma was fighting. Why did she have to yell? "Momma, please stop yelling. Gray-grandpuh is super nice. We play huntin' all the time, 'member?" she reminded her mother with a soft giggle. She looked up at her great-grandfather from the sanctity of her mother. "We should play, Gray-grandpuh. Then momma won't be so mad, right?"
Sariya cocked her head to one side, hoping that she had found the answer to the problem. Like the pup she was, the little femme had tuned out almost every word the two had exchanged. In her mind, all that mattered was that her great-grandfather loved her, her mother loved her, and they were both there to love her and play with her. Sure, she missed her sister, who she had affectionately called "Neesa" because she couldn't say her name. She was lonely, and her great-grandfather was attempting to compensate by being her playmate. She did not realize it at the time, but he was the main reason she was growing up in a normal setting.
Sariya would probably never realize just how much of an influence he had on her life.
