He turned around and offered her a smile, which surprised her in a sense. She’d expected something of a more sheepish response from someone who’d just taken her father’s position. But, she reminded herself that it was just pack business. He’d said he hadn’t meant anything personal by it, and she believed him in a way. But, he’d still referenced changes. Changes apparently only he could make. Changes he couldn’t just go to Elias or her mother with. The thought made her tail twitch.

“You talked about wanting to make changes yesterday when you challenged Papa. I want to know what those changes are,” she said, her tone brisk and formal. She had a right to know, and she wouldn’t accept any beat-around-the-bush answers.

Thankfully, he seemed to understand that she meant business. It was true that for a little girl she was quite serious, and quite intelligent. After all, she was being groomed for a future leading position. At least, that’s how things seemed to be. Which was why she felt the sharp pins of anger when he referenced wanting to challenge for co-lead. Any reason might have made her angry, but specifically because he didn’t trust her made the blonde Hervok’s eyes narrow sharply. How dare he, she fumed internally. Her mother had given him a home. Had protected him, and defended him against their rival pack. She had stood toe to toe with the Surge’s leader, even when being spit in the face about the things that Aytigin had done, and still stood by his side. Yet, he didn’t trust her?

The moving of the pack made her rigid, her nostrils flaring. So he wanted to just run because he was scared? She knew he had been in the Surge before. Was he running to protect the pack like he said, or running to protect himself? “Let me ask you this, then. What has my mother done to make you not trust her? Was it the giving you a home despite knowing you’d betrayed the laws of your previous pack? Was it by defending you to the very pack you’d betrayed? Was it by giving you her trust in the first place? Tell me,” she challenged. ”I’m not angry that you challenged Papa. It’s how packs work. If it had been because you thought you could protect my mother better, or you thought you could give her guided advice from a higher position, I might have thought better. After all, she has a left-hand and a right-hand for that purpose, she ground out.

What he was doing, in her mind, was the same as betrayal. Did she expect him to have rolled over onto his back for everything her mother said? Of course not. It was impossible to agree with someone on everything. But, how they went about it stood to judge their character.

Without warning, Aytigin’s maw was clamped down on hers sealing her mouth shut. Her eyes went wide, and instinctively her tail tucked. She’d never been muzzle grabbed before. It just...hadn’t happened. Yet, here was this man doing just that. Sealing her mouth shut, stomping out her words because he had to know they were true. When he released her she straightened, her hackles bristling with indignation.

He spouted words to her. Words that meant nonsense, though there was some truth to the first part. Everything was black and white to the girl. There was good, and there was bad. Right, and wrong. They were the two things that kept everything in balance, the good outweighing the bad. There were rules to follow, a certain decorum to be upheld. And this? This wasn’t cutting it. And if he thought he could silence her with a muzzle grab, he had another thing coming.

“You’re right, I am young. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know right from wrong. I would tell my mother if I had a problem with what she was doing. I would tell my father if I had a problem. And I have. I don’t care who anyone is,” she shot out. Ellery was the law, and the law would be upheld.

”Have you even talked to my mother about any of this? You knew what this was from the minute we settled here. If you had a problem with it, why didn’t you say anything then? Obviously you didn’t, but now you do. And what do you mean you’re so worried about her having too much power? Don’t you realize how many wolves are in this pack? If you all didn’t like how my mother was running things, you could easily just run her out. If anything, having a single leader takes away that wolf’s power, because they don’t have someone to lean on. Everyone agreed to let her lead alone because they looked up to her, respected her. Where is the respect by going behind her back. Especially when she’s sick,” she said, her chin lifting. She would not be cowed.

Everything he was saying sounded like panic to her. Like someone who had had a bad experience, then projected that situation onto everything else. But, she knew that not everyone or everything was the same. Her mother was not those wolves that had abused their power. She was fair, she was just, and she deserved more than what he was saying. “I think I’m seeing it right now,” she replied with a steely tone, in reference to his comment about seeing a good wolf go bad. Fear did a lot of things to a wolf. He might have the best intentions in his mind, but any decisions made in fear would come back to bite someone in the butt.

He insisted that her mother knew about what he was doing, but then went to contradict himself saying that she’d never asked him about his exact plans. How did that correlate? She could agree that being sick didn’t make the world stop turning, but for something as important as this shouldn’t he be trying to challenge the actual leader instead of their stand in? “Yeah, she might know that you want to be higher up in the ranks, but does she knew that you want to co-lead with her? Why do you have to wait until she asks to confront her about it? That is cowardly and seems a lot like trying to hide it to me. And no, just because she’s sick I don’t expect you to stop. But I have to ask you again, why just now? Why could you have not done it before? Or, better yet, waited until after. Neha is a stand in. My mother is the rightful leader. Challenging Neha would give you no rightful power. In fact, I’m pretty sure the pack will only think worse of you. That is, assuming that you’re aiming to settle this here very soon since you simply can’t wait,” she retorted with an acidic tongue.

His smirk after his final remark nearly made her walk forward and give him a sharp nip on the nose to wipe it away. He thought he was so much better, that he knew everything. “You’re right. I am offended, but I’m not offended for my mother. I’m offended that you think this is the right way to do this. I’m offended that someone so terrified of their past could think that they have a right to lead this pack,” she snipped. Her chin lifted once again, hackles standing on end. “Even if you do become leader, it won’t last forever. Once I become old enough, I’ll come for you. My mother will come for you as well, even before I will. Hervoks do not back down so easily. Cherish every moment you have there, because it will only be a brief taste. I can promise you that,” she replied. She wasn’t making a threat on his life, for there was no reason to. No, she was making a promise that she would not indulge his ridiculous beliefs. She was being upfront with her intentions in the way that he had not been with her mother.