Morning, Just after sunrise, overcast, 39F/4C
It had been little over a month since Sephrina had had her accident, a little over a month since Isla had disappeared. None of the Cove wolves had ever brought the latter back and Viorel had truly spiraled. He had become almost catatonic, going about the motions of what his responsibilities are in a daze and only speaking one or two words when absolutely necessary. Other than that he had been silently laying on one of the lifted broken logs near the center of the territory.
He wasn’t even thinking anything really. The wolf didn’t know what disassociation was, but if he did he would have been able to put words to what was occurring. It was like the days were going by before him but he couldn’t reach out and participate. The scent of pregnancy had begun to permeate the air in the last few days, and for a while the father didn’t even notice. It wasn’t unexpected, it was spring time, of course there was pregnancy in the air. After all, Clover had every right, Sharlee had been told she could, and Viorel had bigger problems.
It wasn’t until during one of his zombie like border patrols that the world came rushing sickeningly back into focus. It was the smell of pregnancy alright, but who was pregnant finally clicked. Nostrils flared as he took it all in, yellow eyes blinking hard against the dehydration of not being blinked often enough.
Kateri.
And if it was Kateri, it wasn’t hard to connect the dots on who else was involved in this. He had told Archer, he had told him as soon as the other yearling had come back. Viorel had been explicitly clear. A howl reached the air before he could even think it through, ripping his unused throat almost raw with the force behind it. He needed them both, he needed them now. There was no room for questions or disobedience in the beckoning. They were being summoned to pay for what they had done.