The realization that someone was watching broke Merse's concentration. After all, she was still in wolfen territory, what if someone found out she was actually a human? It would not end well, that was for certain. Lessening her mental pressure on Kayl, Merse settled down to watch and wait.
**********
Kayl recognized the speaker. It was Fens Nightwalk, a black-furred loner who had always been at odds with Kayl. While the pack treated it as mere rivalry, Kayl knew the truth: Fens had always wanted to mate with Alra, but Alra had chosen Kayl. Kayl, strong and well-respected, had risen in status in the pack, while Fens, never having taken a mate or established a family of his own, became the subject of sideways glances and whispered gossip despite his sharp mind and fighting capability. Fens had always respected Alra's choice, but that did not mean he had ever stopped loving her. Kayl had always had the feeling that Fens was simply waiting for Kayl to make a mistake or prove himself unworthy, thus providing Fens with another chance.
"Who else would I be?" Kayl snapped back, a little tersely. Fens circled around him, giving him a penetrating look, but remaining silent. As though realizing that his presence was a precarious one, Kayl sighed, then walked over to a suspicious Fens. "I need to ask a favor of you." Fens raised an eyebrow, his golden irises glittering, even more wary.
"What could the future Alpha want with me?" Fens spat out irritatedly, noting the sudden lack of hostility in Kayl's body language. However, what happened next stunned him.
"If I don't return...if something happens to me, will you protect Alra and Raka?" Kayl knew that Fens would look after Alra without being asked, and by extension Raka, but something in him wanted to hear it from Fen's own lips. He retured Fens' intense gaze with one of his own. Stupefied, Fens was speechless. Essentially, Kayl had asked Fens to offer to take Alra as his mate and Raka as his own pup.
"If you are so careless as to lose that which is most precious to you, how can you not expect someone else to pick it up?" Fens snarled, looking away. Kayl smiled, knowing his family would be safe with Fens. Turning away, Kayl walked back towards the encampment in the fading light.
Fens watched him leave, his eyes narrowed to slits as he cursed to himself. He didn't know what galled him more, that the wolfen he hated had actually asked for his help, or that he was actually worried about him.
While the rest of the evening seemed to pass uneventfully for Alra and Raka, Kayl spent the night watching his family in peaceful slumber, his mind's eye trained on the female rogue. She had nearly taken over back in the woods, and he realized full well from what he had seen in Dregsbale that somehow the body he was inhabiting was actually hers. Although he truly did not wish to relinquish the body, he felt that his hold was a shaky one, and eventually he would have to surrender. Nevertheless, he firmly resolved to possess every single moment he could.
"We must come to a decision! Do we leave the pack hunting grounds, as this creature inhabiting the river has decimated all prey, or do we stay and fight?" The elder indicated to Kayl. "Kayl Steelfur, mate of Alra Swiftpaw, you have traveled far. What have you seen?"
Standing before the elders and the Alpha, Kayl related all that had occurred to him since leaving the pack, carefully glossing over the events in Dregsbale. After saying his piece, Kayl sat back as the elders and Alpha discussed the situation, appearing to lean towards leaving the pack hunting grounds. While before Dregsbale, Kayl might have openly advocated that the pack fight, he instead absented himself from the discussion to a degree which did not go entirely unnoticed.
"Steelfur, a word?" the pack shaman beckoned as the meeting broke up. Leading Kayl to her den, the elderly shaman lowered herself onto some hides placed before the fire, then pierced a curious Kayl with her knowing gaze. "Now then, why don't you tell me what really happened to you, Steelfur? That body doesn't sit well on you."