His eyes scanned the beginning of the expanse that Morganna had claimed for herself, an interesting if not wholly unappealing place. It suited her, he decided, and was thankful that she had not only given more than a day of travel between herself and the Ridge but also placed the lake in that path as a natural barrier. It made him feel more assured that she wouldn't be constantly slinking around their door and trampling their gardens, so to speak.

Was a nice journey to make for visits, too. A decent stretching of his legs without dragging on and taking up too much of his time. Still, he would need to leave by the afternoon; the pregnancy was still early, of course, but he did not want to leave @Leotie unattended all the same. Right now, she was his sun and @Ravenna his moon. The only reason he was taking this time at all was because, well... it was significant news, wasn't it? His first litter, his father's entry into grandfatherhood, and if Elettra was still with them, she would be made a great grandmother. It was a wholly new generation, and therefor worth announcing.

So Sven tipped his head back, and asked for one wolf alone: Skoll Archer.

Sven was not shy about greeting his father back, muzzle knocking into Skoll's in the same rough affection that he often showed Ravenna. It was the first he'd seen of him since leaving the Dell, before the decline that ushered the man and his children away from the coven. If he had known how swiftly downhill things would go, if the women hadn't stubbornly kept him from seeing the truth of the pack's methods, he would have stayed. As it was, he remained blissful in his ignorance, noting only that his father looked a little off (unknowing that this was an improvement) and attributing it to all the travel Morganna must have put him through.

"Well; back on top. Feels good to be where I belong," he answered conversationally.

"You holdin' up under Morganna's fat rump?"

This felt good, the way things were between them, and while he'd never say it aloud, he suppose he felt thankful to @Morganna in that moment. His father could never come home after all that had happened, not under Sven and @Ravenna's reign, but at least he was nearby, at least Sven could still go to him and talk with him. At least he had one parent that had never failed to show him the love he'd always so desperately craved.

He wasn't just a son talking to his father, however, a young child who was needy and tumultuous; he was an adult now, and the two stood as equals. A tickle of pride swept through his chest as he silently acknowledged how far they both had come to those earliest days on the outskirts of the Ridge.

"Yeah I've uh, got some big news actually. I'm having a litter with someone. You're going to be a grandfather."

Another smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Think you're ready for it?"

He couldn't be sure how at peace Skoll was with his own age.

Pride. That had always been their strongest connection, the best piece of himself that Skoll had imparted to his son. Pride in their lineage, in their home, in their deeds; it may not have worked out the way the older Archer had planned, but despite all the turmoil during his first two years, it had ended up giving Sven all he had wanted. Well, nearly all, but those parts that were absent were no longer missed. The scarred man had learned instead to live without them, to be happy despite their truancy, to fill the wholes they'd sought to leave with other things. Things that proven to be far more precious in the end.

Now that pride welled between them, as Skoll displayed nothing but delight in the news his son had shared with him. Sven's firm smirk fell loose into a toothy smile, genuine and stainless.

"Of course," he agreed as his father extended welcome to the unborn babes. Sven would want them to know their grandfather, to hopefully be some kind of close with him despite the distance between the two packs. He hoped too that Skoll would be here to stay, that he wouldn't off again or be dragged away by Morganna. Sven supposed he'd take what he could get, however.

"I uh. Yeah... I just, thought you might like to hear that. Guess I'm a bit nervous about it too."

As genuine as the words were, they were spoken tentatively; he couldn't remember the last time he'd shared anything close to a feeling with his father. Not since those earliest days, crying for his mother with only the darker heir to hear him. There were questions on his tongue, far more to it, but he paused for a moment, wondering if they were really worth asking. It'd been so long since he had looked back.

"How... how'd you feel, when you knew it was real? ... you ever been scared, dad?"