Sex: MaleSelf threading with Ayti and Risaela - I'd like it private, please <3
Whatever shit was going on between himself and Cottongrass would have to be pushed aside. Ayti had gotten back to Hearthwood River eight days ago, five days prior to Kisla's death. He hadn't been present for the actual death of the Hearthwood matriarch - had only seen her body - but he felt her absence in the actions of everyone else around him. In Inna, who had lost her mother and sister (Lekalta had yet to be found). In Lachesis, who had lost a longtime friend and co-leader of the pack. In Oksana, who missed her grandmother. In the rest of the pack, who was shaken to its very core.
But especially in Matheo and Risaela.
He hadn't had the chance to see them since their mother's death, but he couldn't stop thinking about them. The poor little ones - they, too, had lost their mother. It was different than with Inna, who was a grown woman and had become distanced from her mother through the natural process of aging. Theo and Ris were only about three months old - it had ripped their whole lives apart. They were far too young to have lost her. Aytigin had been far too busy for the last few days to meet up with either child - he'd been upping the patrols and trying to find sign of Lekalta or the cougar that had killed Kisla, but had come up with nothing.
The dark wolf made his way through the pack's territory, scouting out for Risaela first. He wasn't as comfortable with Theo, and he wasn't worried about the boy wandering off and doing something that might get himself hurt. But Ris was different - with all the wandering she'd done already, he could already guess that it would be magnified by the loss of her only parent.
"Kitty?" he called, tilting his head to the side and scanning the undergrowth with concern. Who knew where the pale pup could be. "Kitty-cat? You around here somewhere?"
