Paradise Falls the approaching curve

mature for swearing/certain themes.

The pieces were easy enough to place together. @Adelard Gerau, once leader of a pack and father to a plethora of children, had come to the Falls alone excepting for one thing; he now clung to their agemate @Isla like he owned her. Her pregnancy hormones were unavoidable throughout the territory. Chan was enraged. It had been bad enough that @Finley apparently allowed her to undergo such a reckless venture, but then to also give her to a wolf that could have been her grandfather? Did no one else care what was happening to the young woman they could have called a kid less than a month prior?

Maybe it was his fault still. Finley didn't know Isla's history, how utterly vulnerable she truly was, and he doubted very much that Adelard broadcasted all that he clearly no longer had. But then, she never asked him, did she? For his opinion, for his help, for his presence. No one was asking him to take to their defense. Isla was now an adult, free to make all the ill-conceived choices she wanted. Yet, how could he just look the other way? What would her father think and feel? He knew what he would be feeling, if it was Addison. She was officially less than a year away now.

No, this was the place he was raising his children, and whether anyone asked it of him or not, he held rank in this pack. He was far from perfect, but at the least he knew right from wrong. Chan was not holding his tongue over this. When he found Adelard, it was with raised hackles and a sharply-arced tail. His voice tore from his throat.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2024, 03:41 AM by Chan.)

Adelard had been following Isla’s trail when he heard the footfalls of another grow closer. Apart from the dark-furred woman, he kept to his own business. He did as he once had within Fools Gold Chasm. He managed caches, patrolled the borders, and kept a lookout for any rival predators in the area. For the most part, though, he was smothered by the young lady with affection. He didn’t mind it, in all truth, but when they were apart it left him vulnerable to a moment like this.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Adelard, caught off-guard, met Chan’s display with a sight of bared teeth and raised hackles. It was all in self-defense, for when it he recognized his superior, he backed off. At first he merely held his ground, muzzle wrinkled though he clamped his mouth shut. His nails dug into the ground and his tail fell slack at his heels. He merely growled in response, head tucking as he looked away. Whatever Chan wanted, he could have it… he had done nothing wrong as far as he knew.

heat stroke, bring the fire
ADELARD GERAU
black smoke, I take it higher

Chan didn't have expectations. He didn't know Adelard past appearances, and confrontation was not typical for him. What he ended up getting felt like a whole lot of nothing, though. There wasn't even recognition. Just a tempered deference and some wordless grumble. His nostrils flared as a long, seething breath was let loose.

"Where are your children, Adelard? Isla's age, aren't they?"

Perhaps they should start there. How long had he been separated from them? Chan recalled the several times they'd all visited, including the trip they would have met and played with Isla on, and all he could really remember was Woya's perpetually tired but chipper face constantly surrounded by far too many children. Maybe he'd never been a real part of their lives to begin with. Maybe that was why it was so easy for him to dismiss Isla's own proximity to childhood.

(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2024, 04:25 AM by Chan.)

The interrogation continued, two simple questions of his children’s whereabouts and ages. Adelard’s own nostrils burned as his ears lowered. He should have felt guilt, but the grief from Woya’s death had rendered him indifferent. This was supposed to be a clean break, a new start.

He spied the domineering made from the corner of his vision. ”They are grown,” he droned. “Able to fend for themselves.” It was the truth, both litters had no need for their father anymore. Unbeknownst to him the first litter and the adopted two were making their mark on the Lore. Brielle, the only pup in his and Woya’s second and final litter was venturing the wilderness beyond. If any of them had wanted to lead their family or a pack, they knew without a doubt that their father would have supported and protected them the same way. That was… until their mother unexpectedly passed. Now they were all scattered to the wind.

“What do you want?” he tried not to let his fuming get the best of him. Questioning his parenting or role as a father was not up for discussion. He had things he wanted to do and he loathed being away from Isla for long. She was his lifeline.

heat stroke, bring the fire
ADELARD GERAU
black smoke, I take it higher

Chan audibly scoffed at that description. Was Adelard raised to think one reached maturity at a year? He'd come across those who had before, but his own rearing and experience meant that for him, it was clear that support was needed throughout that second year and plenty of times even longer. Adelard should know better too, at this age. If he'd seen them to that secondary mark, he wouldn't be here now, and so to the Eastfall he had very much not completed his job as he seemed to think. That certainly didn't bode well for any of his future litters, now did it?

"Ideally, I want you to leave."

The words were out of his mouth without a second's hesitation.

"There's plenty I could say about what I think of you right now. What matters, is that I don't trust you around our most vulnerable. Clearly, you can't help but take advantage."

He bristled as his words went on, each one more heated than the last.

"Isla isn't your goddamned toy she's someone's daughter and she deserves more than this."

Of course, it wasn't his choice now, was it? As much as he wished Adelard would feel shame and turn tail, Isla had made her decisions, and he couldn't shield her from consequence nor choose her family for her. The Gerau had the in Chan assumed he'd wanted from the beginning, and for him to try and oust him completely now would only make himself a villain. Still he paused here, just to see the reaction. If any kind of conscience surfaced.

(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2024, 05:06 AM by Chan.)

"Ideally, I want you to leave."

Chan did not pause to think or consider what he wanted to say. There it was, out in the open. Adelard reared his head and looked the man square in the face. His eyes smoldered and his lip flinched.

"There's plenty I could say about what I think of you right now," Chan continued. Adelard swallowed, his molars grinding against one another more and more as the man went on. Trust issues. Assumptions. Every single syllable meant to stab and bite...

"Isla isn't your goddamned toy she's someone's daughter and she deserves more than this."

"This?" he questioned back. "What do you think this is?"

Truthfully, he expected this from a younger man, one that was Isla's agemate. Not his. "Have you no respect? Of course, she isn't a toy." Who was Chan to meddle in the Valle's affairs anyway? Unless... "Are you her keeper?" Perhaps he was being challenged. Not for rank, but for some unofficial, unspoken role. "Where I come from, the matriarchy overpowers all. She asked, so I obliged."

He flashed his teeth, the hair along his spine rising as he fought to keep himself anchored to the ground. Chan was welcome to think what he liked, but Adelard wanted to be certain he would come out of this bout unscathed. "Presume what you want. I couldn't care less what you think of me."

heat stroke, bring the fire
ADELARD GERAU
black smoke, I take it higher

Have you no respect?

Chan's eyes widened with outrage at the audacity of Adelard's attempt to turn this around on him. As though he were the one who found a teenager alone in the woods and crawled on top of her the second he was given the green light. For if the aging wolf had known Isla before, when she was an actual adolescent, it would be even worse. That would be enough for Chan to attack another on the spot.

Still, he listened to the other hiss and gripe, trying to justify and brush off. It sealed it in the Eastfall's mind. He was dealing with a snake.

"She isn't the matriarchy," he wanted to cuss and bite, but it was exasperation above all else that came through in his voice. Unbelieving at how ridiculous the other's reasoning was. Obliged. Like he'd done her a service, when he was the only one about to actually gain anything. Isla had no idea what she'd gotten herself into, another sign of her immaturity. It disgusted him that Adelard did not care. How quickly had he forced all of his children to grow up? What damage had he done to them to achieve it? So he could, what? Pull these stunts to make more kids he clearly didn't actually want to raise?

"And you don't know a god damn thing about her. About anyone here, you're a stranger that literally just now humped his way in. So since your lack of character and base tastes are so stunningly clear, you will be watched. You don't have reason to interact with @Nadine or Miriam. You definitely will not be caught around the children. And the moment you do anything to hurt Isla, or make her want you gone, you will be."

It would likely enrage the young woman once she heard of this, but his mind had been made up before spring ever came. Like it or not, Chan was doing his damnedest to look out for her, and that didn't mean being a yes-man, especially at his age. He'd had kids of his own long enough to know that.

(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2024, 08:10 AM by Chan.)

"She isn't the matriarchy," Chan retorted with an edge. "And you don't know a god damn thing about her. About anyone here, you're a stranger that literally just now humped his way in." Adelard stood up now and rounded on the man, his ears forward and head level with his pack mate's as he yammered on. His tail rose but lifted no higher than the base of his spine.

Chan had it all wrong.

"And the moment you do anything to hurt Isla, or make her want you gone, you will be."

Adelard stepped close enough to the brute to stand nearly nose-to-nose. "You listen and you listen good," he stared hard, gold to green and silver. A younger version of himself would have snapped by now. Fight first, talk later, after all the adrenaline had run its course. He growled in his superior's face, "I did not touch her."

He fought to keep calm now, though his breaths were growing ragged and heated. "So do what you want," he taunted, "but I've done nothing but look after Isla." Someone had to, given her current state. "And, I will not abandon this pack just because you think I've robbed the den."

heat stroke, bring the fire
ADELARD GERAU
black smoke, I take it higher

Chan's fur bristled and his muscles tensed, ready for that proximity to devolve into violence at any moment's notice. Didn't touch her? He met that gaze of Adelard's as the assertion came, searching for any hint of deception. Why would he think she needed him following her home when she had an entire pack providing for and protecting her if he didn't have anything to do with her apparent pregnancy? It was a hell of a coincidence timing wise, but no, Chan was not arrogant enough to think it impossible. Just unlikely, especially with how affectionate she was with him. She had been with the Falls for some time now, and had never taken to someone like this.

"It's not abandonment if I'm forcing you, now is it?"

Another technicality, since Adelard seemed to enjoy them so.

"You are not a necessity here, especially if you are not the father of her children. If you're so desperate to stay, you'll toe the line, won't you?"

He still had not shied from the other's nearness. Instead he maintained it, as though he were a shield. His gaze burned with determination. There would be no changing his mind all at once. If Adelard really was who and what he claimed, just a lost knight seeking a castle to garrison, time would show it. Chan would rather eat crow then than turn a blind eye now.

"It's not abandonment if I'm forcing you, now is it?"

Adelard made a face but still held the other man's gaze. Being told he was not a necessity had his tail lash out behind him.

"If you're so desperate to stay, you'll toe the line, won't you?"

It seemed that all Chan wanted was some clarification. Without the means or even need to challenge him, Adelard folded. He took a step back. His tail lowered and his ears relaxed. The wrinkles along his muzzle smoothed and his lips sealed. A deep growl of displeasure bubbled from him and he looked away with a huff, deferring. Maybe he should have set his eyes on someone like Finley instead... or even Chan himself (frankly, Adelard's mind fancied the idea that he was acting out of jealousy). There was a split-second where he actually considered such a thing.

He glimpsed at the tawny male, a small smile daring to play on his lips. There was a slight wag to his tail before it grew still. Just a little tease. The two of them could afford to lighten up a little. "Or maybe I'll just latch onto someone else... if it'd make you feel better."

heat stroke, bring the fire
ADELARD GERAU
black smoke, I take it higher