There was a certain amount of peace to be found while organizing the herbs in his medical cache.  No longer was he able to do all the collecting himself; leadership was busy enough, even without three children to provide for and pay attention to.  Those rare gathering trips were treasured, but it was the thick of winter now.  Nothing grew save for the evergreens, and Veho had to content himself with organization and order. 

Truthfully, he found himself wanting to speak to his Ancestors again.  He only had a few mushrooms left, and--  Well, it wasn’t an emergency, it was simply a want.  It seemed greedy to use his limited supplies to consult the Ancestors when it was simply a whim, a comfort, and not a dedicated need.

At the sound of Oula’s voice, the alpha thumped his head on the top of the den, and grimaced.  I should be paying more attention, he thought wryly, backing his way out of the burrow carefully.  Shaking the dust from his coat, he turned to regard the mother of his children, his friend, and offered her a tired smile.  Her tone did not bode well for his peace of mind.  “Good morning, my dear,” he murmured softly, padding over to offer a small kiss.  Anything to feel normal.  “Of course we can.  What’s on your mind?”

A lot of things did not bode particularly well for the man.  Veho bit the inside of his cheek and resisted the urge to sigh, showing no other outwards signs of his concern.  Instead, he simply allowed himself to be the shoulder for the Whitebark woman, curling his head to press his nose to her crown.  For all the peace he might have found organizing his things, there was something else, something much more satisfying than anything even the most potent mushrooms could give him.

Unfortunately, that peace was not long-lived.

The information about their water was troubling all on its own, but what Oula said next, about Ophelia, about their Ophelia…  Pale eyes went wide as he lifted his head, staring intently at his partner as if waiting for something else to follow, something else to lessen the blow.  But that was it.  That was all Oula had to say, and for a moment, Veho struggled to find his words at all.

“I--  She did what?  Attacked Pip?!”

Poor Pip!  Ancestors, he did hope the others found her and convinced her to come back to the medical den.  He would fix her up in a quick stitch.  But that left the pair the other problem, didn’t it?  Their daughter.

“I cannot believe--  I suppose I could--  She is bossy with her siblings, sometimes, but I never thought she would be violent with anyone.” Veho sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping under the weight.  “I should have been more strict in their discipline.  I just never thought…”

“No.  No, I do not.  You did what you had to do – for yourself, for this family, and for this pack.”

Yes, some of Oula’s leave had been for personal reasons, but she’d also been seeking Rook, the children’s other parent.  It was times like these that the man sometimes struggled to forgive the other male – Oula had at least been present for part of their childhood, had made an effort to find him, even if—

No.  Getting angry or upset wasn’t going to help either of them, it wasn’t going to help Pip, and it certainly wasn’t going to help the triplets.  He sighed softly, shoulders falling further as he watched Oula pace restlessly in front of the den.  Perhaps if he had spent more time with the children – the children he’d asked for – this wouldn’t have happened.

Poor Pip.  The victim of his own inadequate parenting.

“I didn’t--  I didn’t either.  Earlier this winter, Felix managed to find a moose in rut and it was Pip, you know, who grabbed the moose by the face and allowed Felix and Ophelia to get away while the rest of us brought it down.  I don’t understand.  I don’t understand what brought this on but – but we cannot abide by it, Oula.  We have to punish her.”

It tasted sour on his tongue – what a bitter pill to swallow.

It…was perhaps not the best moment to inform Oula of his lapse in parental abilities, no, but the truth would have to come out sooner or later.  Pip would never be able to explain it herself – quite frankly, the alpha did not expect his adopted sister to do as much, even if she had the voice.  Pride was certainly not one of the omega’s faults.

The youngest Macieo, however…

Veho sighed heavily, wiping his forearm over his features in his best approximation of rubbing at his tired eyes.  If only there was an easy solution to this!  It wasn’t even that Ophelia was his daughter, but that she was still a child; were it Tomen or Nineva who’d done this at such an age, he would not have considered banishment for them, either.  It was a teaching opportunity; one the girl probably deserved, given the upbringing she’d since received, but it should not be gentle nor passive, either.

“I--  Yes.  You are correct.  She must apologize to Pip as soon as Pip has been seen to.”  And perhaps, given a chance to recover.  It would not do them any good to traumatize the omega further. “She should be assigned a watchful eye for at least a few weeks, one that can keep her out of trouble and – make sure she completes whatever chores we assign for her.  Fishing, perhaps, since she has put Pip out of commission.  Or hunting, to keep the caches full.”

Something, he imagined, his daughter was not going to be terrible fond of.  Alas, poor Ophelia!  She was a pack wolf, not a princess, and every single soul must earn her place.