May’s head begins to droop like a wilted flower, though not from sadness but from sheer elation that she is home and can relax. No more running. No more leading a pack that she has no business leading and that the numbers surge and shrink like the moon’s sides. Relief crosses her brow and rolls off her shoulders like it had a smell all it’s own, mingling with the lavender and equine scents that rise off her.
Her head is low enough for her lips to feel the sleek pelt of Flint as he plants himself between her front legs. His own tongue lolls out in relaxation as his eyes roll up at her in adoration. Part of May flinches at that because it is not natural, not wholly so anyway and she can’t undo the compulsion she has over him or his mate. She’s tried, but the pair just kept dogging her heels. In that moment though, as much as it pains her to have bound them to her somehow, she is grateful too.
Her mouth rests on the top of his dark head, lips grasping at the fur as she almost grooms him like she would a herdmate. He is that, in a sense to her - pack and herd all jumbled up together, the threads inseparable and tangled. She plants a sigh and a kiss, one after the other, on the top of his head as his mate nestles in from the side and gives a small panting whine. “What is it Girl?” she asks quietly before her eyes follow and find what the female wolf was looking at —
It’s male and equine and reminiscent of her sister. She assumes it must be a relative because how could it not be? May should not make such assumptions given that she has been far from home for such a long time, chasing ghosts of her own or running from them, that seems more appropriate as her mouth pinches into a frown at the thought. Truth is hard to face in one’s self and it curdles on her tongue like bad grass as she smoothes her features back into careful and cautious neutrality.
Both the wolves’ hackles begin to raise and growls come from their mouths until she bids them to hush with a touch of her nose to their heads. They have no choice but to listen even though she denies them their pack right to defend and warn off the intruder that she stares at openly, knowing he must somehow be related to her. His grin was infectious and May found herself smiling too, which took years and hardship off a face still lovely and young enough as her amber eyes found his eyes enthusiastic and unable to decide if she should be the focus or the wolves should.
May trilled a bright and bubbling laugh from her throat; “Yes, and I like that you assume they are friends and not just pets or possessions.” Her encounters with the many who did left her equally soured on their species and her instinctive need for herd, so she settled for the pack that she could not escape despite her qualms with their eerie acceptance of her, a horse, as their alpha. She is distracted though from asking him about how they look similar and must have blood in common by the low growl rising from Girl’s throat.
The she-wolf has slunk from her side to face a direction with the posture of an alpha, commanding and imperious and lips drawn back from her teeth in a snarl. Flint is about to follow when she taps him with her nose to still him. May doesn’t want the wolves causing a ruckus and getting her thrown out of the only home she’s ever known. “Be still,” she hisses at them and the growls cease as if by some silent command. It is the magic that May still doesn’t understand as her eyes scan the landscape and come to rest on an adolescent wolf crouched in the grass.
“Is he one of your friends?” she asks, assuming that the male understood her implication. His wording had made it obvious he was familiar with this kind of magic. “Come closer, we won’t hurt you.” May directs her gaze and words to the growing pup, unable to disguise the compulsion in them but hoping he can resist it. Even though she still would like to see him better and see if he’s just another wild wolf caught in the trap or something more. Because in Beqanna, it is always more.
@[Tamlin] @[Cyneric] @[Nolin] Nicole is going to jump on this thread too, so she’ll post next! ❤️❤️❤️