Never you mind, Death professor. Love is life, my love is better...

The scent that had clung to Naira the year before had been irresistible, as well as wholly avoidable. This year was a wholly different story. Though the skies had cleared, Spring was only borne on the sun's rays; the snow continued to remain on the ground and the frost, in its seemingly never-ending cycle of melting in the morning and forming on every piece of foliage each evening, still lingered. In preparation for the day, the aging Leader had found a decent, sun-bathed clearing just beyond the tree line of the Ghastly Woods, and only when he felt he had warmed just enough did he finally move back into his kingdom of dead, twisted vines and knotted trees.

With the yearling @Gent out of mind and @Chulyin left on his own to patrol and secure the edges of the pack grounds, Mapplethorpe diverted his attention away from their paths when he had reached the pack den. @Karpos, he barely had time for anymore, when Mercy had seemingly gone missing. Regardless of whether or not he was a bastard, a child who had been left to the crows, Mercy was Naira's ward and should have been accounted for. Frankly, he might not have even noticed that the boy had gone missing if it wasn't for Nova when she had found him in the Orchard to the north. Like Datura and Adonis, the boy had his smarts to rely on and, though, the grizzled man longed to search for him to ease @Sagacity's worries (if she had any to begin with and, Mapplethorpe was somewhat sure she might), he had other duties to attend to... like ensuring that his beloved Queen was looked after... that Gent kept to himself and that Sagacity and Evann kept their distance. Anyone who dared to act upon their innermost desires and instincts would be dealt with as soon as he, himself, had secured his own future.

A twitchy black nose, accompanied by quivering gray whiskers, eventually led him towards the Secluded Spring. There, behind a tree, he got a better whiff of the pheromones that had ushered him well away from the Keep. It stirred within him the beast that had dutifully laid low with his nose to the ground while Rhysis romped around without anyone's acknowledgement. Though, this time both the Consul and Consort were going to be put to rest. For good.

Mapplethorpe, in the face of the odds that were stacked against him since the day of his birth, was not a lowly creature as his sisters and parents had commonly predicted. In fact, he was not even some subordinate who had been adopted by a needy pack. By Naira's side, he had ascended, not just in rank, but also by reputation. Through her, he had become a verified superior, a high-ranking official whose pack could only succeed...

A sudden snort discharged itself from his nostrils while he attempted to regain his bearings, to focus upon where his equal was located if he was to find her before anyone else could. This was going to be his moment and his alone.

Slow, heavy footsteps had him striding out into the open, to face the frozen surface of the isolated Spring and hold his head high and level. If he was going to impress Naira, he was going to do it right. Surely, she had not promoted him for nothing... not even convenience... and he was going to prove to her that he could be more than just the man who claimed to lead a pack at her side.