Dead Empress Backwater wait, I have sons

Private for @Vanadis and @Asmund, Vana first?
Early morning/Late night a couple of hours before sunrise, Broken clouds, 32F/-1C

In just a few hours the sun would be up and another day would begin. Most members of the pack would begin bustling around and living their lives, but a few key members spent a lot of their time awake at night. Viorel understood that Asmund lived somewhere in the in-between times and so the leader had planned this for a time when he thought the younger man might be waking up but before the rest of the wolves got moving. It should be quiet, intimate.

The Valle man had warned Vanadis that Asmund was shy and might not speak much, and that she shouldn’t be offended if he took a while to warm up to her. And, he had also told her that this was important to him. He brushed his shoulder gently against her side, a familiar gesture from before. He was slowly starting to fall into old routines and was trying to adjust to why it felt like even though they were familiar they no longer felt like they fit. He knew they couldn’t just slide right back into how they used to be, but they had yet to have all the awkward sticky conversations they needed to have.

This felt like the first step, ”Asmund?” Viorel’s voice was low, not wanting to startle him in case he was asleep.

Viorel had briefed her for the meeting, had stressed the importance of it. It felt like a test, though Vanadis knew he hadn't meant for it to. She was nervous about a lot of things, about how this kid would react to her, about what that interaction might say to the man beside her, but she went because it was important to Vi, and if it was important to him then it was important to her.

Sparks flew from the point where his shoulder connected with her side, allowing some of the nerves to ebb. She could do this, surely. Vana had done and lived through far scarier things in her life than meeting yearlings.

Asmund had seen her here and there, always accidental, always immediately remedied by his fleeing. She terrified him, because of the violence her scarring spoke of. Is that what his mother would have looked like after, had she survived it? Had the same monster gotten Vanadis too, or were there simply more out there?

He heard Viorel's voice outside of his den, and could smell them both. He tensed, not entirely sure why this would be happening. As many reservations as he had, however, he did not entertain any thoughts of ignoring his adoptive father's summons. He wriggled his way to the opening, dark muzzle and green eyes peering out of the earth to regard the duo.

"... yes... ?"

It would have been impossible for Viorel to ignore the small flutter in his stomach when they had brushed shoulders, but he did his best not to let it show. This was not the time to dwell on the fact that their feelings were complicated but still burning brightly, whatever it was. Asmund answered quickly, though from this angle only the tip of his nose and the flash of his eyes were visible.

Laying down slightly off the side, as he would do whenever he came to visit the teen, he did his best to exude a relaxed demeanor. He had no idea if it was working or not, and answered probably too quickly for it to be considered casual, ”I want you to meet Vanadis, she’s my -” Shit. He glanced towards the woman before continuing, ”She’s my mate. “ That felt a little juvenile to be coming and announcing so he expanded, ”If you ever can’t find me, she’s a safe wolf to seek out instead.” He was rambling, so he fell silent, waiting for someone else to say something. Yellow eyes moved away from the woman beside him back to the eyes peering out of the dark, trying to gauge his reaction.