Feeling Lonely

"New meat's always doomed."

He snorted when the bone landed in front of him. "What were you aiming for there?" He pulled another bone from the deer and tossed it at Zeke again, aiming for his forehead.

"It'd be Aodh or Lean trying to tear your throat out for trying to pick on me." When he was in a good mood, he didn't care what people said about him. His sons took offence for him, though.

Zeke tilted his head up and caught the bone in his mouth, looking back at Alek with a grin.

"Was afraid if I hit ya that you might get pissed off."
He replied with a chuckle, dropping the bone into his hand and fidgeting with it for a moment.

"I'm just glad no to be the newbie, one less problem off of my back."

He watched them silently, confused as to whether to feel worried or amused, a faltering grin wavering on his face.

"This bodes well for me, then." he grumbled, but not really meaning it.

He snorted a laugh. "Yeah, like you hitting me could do anything, pup."

He threw another bone at the man, aiming for his chest this time.

"Yeah, newbies get all the shit. Not even Sprout was exempt from that. You should have heard her tantrums when the rest of the pack picked on her."

His granddaughter had a set of lungs on her.

He laughed and tossed a bone at Rico. "Buck up, pup. You get to pick on them back when you get close enough to them."

Zeke caught the bone in his hand and threw it back at the alpha aiming for his nose.

"Oh trust me I can imagine it."
He chuckled softly, Moe was very argumentative and would not stop until she won. He sighed and shook his head.

"I don't think I have won a single argument I have had with her.
She may have spent her life around elves by my god she had a lycan spirit."

Rico cocked his head in confusion, frowning. "Sprout?"

But he was a bit worried that he wouldn't catch up to them. Not physically, anyway. He wasn't going to do any more growing height-wise, so he would never be as big as the rest of them. Though he might get stronger if he got more muscular, he supposed.

"Good aim," he complimented as his hand shot up to catch the bone before it hit him. He grinned as the bone shot out of his hand towards Zeke's forehead again. "But you need to work on your speed."

Aleksandr had the unfair advantage of more advanced senses and a lot of practise speed-wise.

He snorted a laugh. "Good luck ever trying to win one. The only argument I've ever won with her has been bed time."

His grin mellowed out. "You can take the wolf out of the pack, Zeke, but you'll never take the pack out of the wolf. Being a Wolf is part of her; she'll never lose that spirit. Not even an entire clan of abusive Elves could do it."

He laid out, staring up at the sky. "She's stronger than me, y'know? A clan of abusive Elves broke my spirit; it didn't break hers. It took meeting Giacinto to bring my spirit back." He snorted. "I remember bartering with Cato for her hand and her waltzing in and telling me in no uncertain terms to throw myself off the side of her ship." His eyes slid shut. "I had to have her then."

"But you don't want to hear about my ex-mate." He stretched, back arching.

"Sprout's my granddaughter, pup. Moe. Have you met her?"

Zeke once again tilted his head upward and caught the bone between his teeth, grinning slightly he looked back at Aleksandr.

"It hasn't taken me long to realize that once she gets an idea in her head that I am better off just going with it and hoping everything turns out alright than fighting against it.
I blame her stubbornness on your sons."

He said with a chuckle.

"Being brought up with your family I am not surprised in the least at how resilient she is."

Zeke gazed up at sky, he could not help but feel compassion for the alpha, he knew what it was like to be enslaved also, it was soul crushing.
He cleared his throat, trying to move away from the touchy subject.

"Full moon isn't too far off."

Moe?! Tantrums?! He thought back to the quiet, mild-mannered young girl that he had met a few days ago. Well, either she was very different from when he first met her, or she had the worst case of split personality disorder that he had ever encountered.

"We are talking about the same Moe here, aren't we?" he asked, disbelievingly.

He laughed. "You're a smart man, Zeke. As long as you remember that, you should get on well with her."

Another laugh. "Blame Aodh specifically on that one. He's the one that raised the girl into a strong fighter."

His silver eyes flickered to Rico. "Not even five foot, the more orange hair you've ever seen, emerald green eyes, nicest girl you'll ever meet?" He grinned a little. "That's my Sprout."

Alek hummed in agreement. "Few days off yet. You're running with us, right?" His eyes flickered to Rico. "You too."

Zeke chuckled.

"Moe made it very clear that I was not allowed to spend the night confined in my room, as I usually do."

He replied, running his hand through the longer part of his hair as he reclined back against a tree.

"Should be an interesting night, I have never spent a full moon with someone else around."

He was happy that he was being asked to run with them when he had only just joined the pack. To be honest, he hadn't expected it. In his old pack, it would take a few weeks or even months before a new wolf was fully accepted.

But he just gave a gruff, "Sure. Thanks.", unable to really show his gratitude.

"After you're done fighting Moe, find out Coilean and fight him." He knew his granddaughter would have claimed the man's first fight.

It was something she used to do when she was younger. She'd pick her favourite person of the month to fight with first.

Zeke was obviously her favourite person person of the month.

He grinned and tossed a bone at Rico. "Are you going to be fighting or are you gonna sit in a corner and give everyone the tough act?"

Zeke chuckled softly at the idea.

"The one person I have been avoiding a fight with.
Might be a good idea, let us work off some of the built up tension."

Though he still didn't like the idea of fighting against Moe but it was bound to happen sooner or later, mainly because Moe wanted it to happen.

He growled playfully. "Of course I'll fight."

Yes, it was most likely very stupid to go off fighting with wolves so much bigger than him, but he was too proud to sit in the corner and refuse. He might be small, but he was by no means a coward. And at any rate, he had managed to survive thus far, so it shouldn't be completely fatal to him.

Hopefully.