The familiar beckoning that echoed across the sky came as a surprise to him. Zia was right to consider him fretting – his eyes swept over his trio with worry. He would not take them to the borders.. not yet. Yet, he also did not find comfort at leaving them with another pack member.. aside from @Deneb, he barely trusted anyone. With a heavy heart, the regal ushered all three inside the den walls – Takis, @Evy and @Celandine. With strict but hushed orders to stay inside until he returned, the male swept off, knowing full well it was likely his orders would go unanswered.

His pace was quick, and within twenty minutes, he reached her. She sat – composed, regal in her own way, and while Phineas had once looked upon Zia with comfort, it was disappointment that radiated from him now. He drew himself up, feeling the sharp sting of her abandonment as he closed the distance between them. His lips pulled back to expose teeth, assuring her of his stance that was between them now. She was on his borders now, ones she had chosen to leave. With his muzzle jutting upward and his tail flagging out, he was silent for a moment, his eyes demanding her submission with a fierceness that was only spurned by the bitterness of the pack’s current downfall.

What do you want, Zia? The tone was harsh – never had he spoken to her that way before, and had his wounds of betrayal not been so fresh, he likely would have at least cringed inwardly. Instead, he reveled in it. An outlet, at last.

His eyes flashed dangerously as she stood, unbending to the male who reigned alone in these lands. She had left them, and now, as she stood at the borders she once called home, she was refusing to even submit. His snarl intensified as he took a step closer, his muzzle jutting up higher as his hackles bristled. He would make her if she didn't see reason soon.

But she did -- albeit, with a hint of a grudge. Who the fuck did she think she was? She spoke then, her eyes falling upon his paws, stirring hi slips to pull back in a sneer at her words. She wanted to come home. No, he spoke then, his tone bitter and harsh as his growling subsided. You don't get to fuck off and then waltz back in here with an attitude like that. There was a pause. Magnolia Glen does not take its deserters back.

He did not ask for her excuses -- he did not care to hear them. In the time he needed her, when the pups needed her, she had left. And then, she had expected to simply walk in here with her tail held high. Now leave. I have pups to care for. he reminded her harshly, his eyes flashing once more as they regarded her, belly upon the ground. Aside from his mate, she had been the only other one he had trusted -- and now here they stood. Her, challenging him and demanding acceptance in to the pack she had abandoned.. and him, left to pick up the pieces his mate had left behind.

She seemed to try to appease him – his anger bubbled still, and yet she gave word to her reasoning, stirring him to inhale sharply as his eyes fluttered shut, if only for a moment. He felt the tenseness in his body slacken – his teeth stopped gritting, and his shoulders sagged noticeably as grief took way to the position he stood now. His mouth opened just after he swallowed thickly, his gaze now darting over her as he attempted to formulate an apology – but she cut the air with a sudden vigor that stirred his eyes to narrow then.

To welcome home his old friend died upon his lips, and his ears slid back as his teeth unraveled. Leaving without word and expecting no repercussion is ridiculous, he hissed out at her as she turned from him, his tail flicking agitatedly through the air.

He watched her go – his ivory figure lifted high as he maintained his composure of the entire conversation – abrupt, and yet ever insightful to the true colors of the female who had served as a Beta for so long in the Glen lands. He did not call her back – clearly, given her initial plan to simply depart without word and then grace her presence among him once more and fully expecting him to be a mind reader was not something he was looking for in his next co-lead – which is exactly where she likely would have ended up.

Magnolia Glen had dodged a bullet.

Once she was from his sight, the fiery regal shifted then, his paws thrumming the ground as he quickly made his way back to his children.