Jyriah trembled beneath the weight of the dragon disguised as a wolf. His two amethyst eyes were terrifying to behold as they burned into his very soul.
"Why are you fighting your own side? What sense have you lost?" Vincet asked with a growl.
"No sense at all. You would do the same if someone was trying to steal your mate," Jyriah answered with respect as though in some kind of trance.
"Uhg. Mates again....and this made you feel like fighting your bretheren was the best course of action? Truly?" Vincent asked, clearly unimpressed with the response he was given.
"You're both fools. I am not entirely ignorant of what mates can do to some creatures, but this is beyond what would be necessary. Your group of rebels aren't even many in number- and you want to make it worse? You're being selfish. Both of you. Your Alpha - your King needs you, and the best you two can offer is fighting over a mate?"
"You don't get it -- he wants /my/ mate. MY Joss." Jyriah argued and looked over to Veltar with spite that could spike his eyeballs out.
"What? No I don't" Veltar argued in a hoarse voice as his throat throbbed with pain and burned with lacerations.
"The fuck was all that about Joss telling me some sort of secret or whatever - and you two always wanting to run off together?" Jyriah spat.
"....Wow..." Veltar said plainly. "This would be easier solved with Joss and Jessie here. May I go and get them?" he asked and gestured towards Vincent.
"Go quickly. My patience is quite thin right now." Prince Vincent said with a low, agitated voice while keeping his eyes set on Jyriah like fire on a torch.
Veltar bowed and left the Dragon's presence with a sigh of relief. He didn't have to sit in the same area as Jyriah, and part of him felt guilty - but he was still so pissed off from their previous interaction that he also didn't care, either.
He wasn't even sure where they were, but he guessed if they were anywhere it was in the 'hollow'. Thanks to Vincent's abilities in shapeshifting, they had been able to dig so many more tunnels and rooms to the point where they had new compartments for those who had wandered in from destroyed homes that Silas had gifted them in his pursuit to find Cassandra.
What would he say when he meets her here?
Veltar shook the thought from his mind and proceeded to follow Jessie's scent trail to her room where she and Joss were having an argument.
"Love; Joss, I need you to come with me. There has been a bit of a problem upside..." Veltar said sheepishly to both twins.
"Goddess, what happened to you?" Jessie's eyes widened with worry as she trotted towards him to attempt to lick his wounds, but he pulled away.
"Don't. Not until you know why... Come with me, please," Veltar replied and turned around without much more of a fanfare.
The siblings exchanged worried, confused expressions as their matching eyes met, and their feelings aligned. Joss bolted behind Veltar before Jessie did, and together they emerged from their hollow and immediately they could see a giant black wolf sitting on top of the wolf of smoldering coal.
At first glance, anyone would think it was Metas - but as they came closer, they could smell the familiar waft of sulfur and ash, and they knew it was Vincent in an instant.
"What in the actual..." Joss trailed off and decided to approach the scene rather than ask anymore questions.
"You should talk." Vincent instructed and got off of Jyriah's back, who took in a large breath of air.
He was really starting to hate being held down, and closed spaces, and all the like.
The Prince looked between the four of them, shook his head in disbelief once more, and turned around and walked away back towards the river where he lapped at the water gracefully. Vincent knew Metas would have done the same if he had to be at his wife's side - well...Kalinda's side. No one else would be worth the time or the expense.
Considering Myranda was Metas' Kalinda, he could make room for empathy for that circumstance. Everyone else seemed childish to him. 'What an odd custom....binding mates... why?' he thought bitterly.
"Jyriah, what the hell is going on here?" Joss asked with darted eyes.
"What do you mean? You've been trying to hang out with Veltar all this time, and you're keeping secrets. I'm angry. I'm so in love with you, and thinking of someone else being with you - especially him-" he paused to point his nose towards Veltar, and then turned back to his mate.
"You are my everything, and you want to leave me? Have you changed your mind? I thought..." Jyriah couldn't continue as he started to whine and whimper at the mere thought of Joss leaving him.
Jessie just darted her eyes at her sibling with a knowing 'I told you so' look. 'Asshole' she sent through her icy glare at the brother who brushed her advice aside, and landed them here.
"Jyriah... I don't want Veltar. I don't want to be with him in the slightest. You are who I want forever and always. I'm sorry you thought that. It's my fault. I should have just told you the real truth from the start. I just... didn't know how you would react," Joss replied as he came up to his mate and rested his cool head on the top of Jyriah's hot one.
"I was keeping the fact that Veltar and Jessie were moonlight mates.... I thought you'd be angry at my sister as though she were trying to take...well.... you know. The thing Myranda yelled at me about. He confessed shamefully and sighed out with defeat.
"Why would you think I'd be mad about that? Do you think I'm that hot-headed?" Jyriah asked with shock, which he immediately lost when he read everyone's flat 'are you kidding me' expressions.
"Okay... maybe I can see why..." he admitted immediately.
"That's why I said what I did -- about you not taking it well and whatnot. I'm sorry, I was fighting you for the right to be with Jessie," Veltar added softly and sat still as his mate liked his wounds with a soft affection.
Jessie wasn't one to waste time. It was too precious, and the only resource one could not replenish, and so she always spent hers carefully. Being secret lovers with Veltar was done, and she didn't care if Jyriah hated her or not (which she figured already he was fine based on his words).
"I-I'm so sorry, Veltar... I thought.. well, I was going to kill you..." Jyriah admitted and looked away.
"Yeah. I've never seen anyone so mad before. I wasn't going that far yet. I can see why you were so angry, now. I would have been to. Anyone would have," the wounded brown wolf replied with relief both from his pain being taken care of, and for the elephant in the room to be slain.
"Can we move on from this, ooooor?" Jyriah started.
"We're good. This was a complete misunderstanding. We weren't even fighting about the same issue, and we should have come clean to you like two weeks ago..." Veltar answered with a not.
"Yeah, about that. Don't do that ever again. Just let me get mad and talk me down. I can be talked down most of the time..." Jyriah said towards Joss, who came towards him and nuzzled his face against the red and black wolf he loved so much.
"Never. I promise. I'm sorry. I'll never ever keep a secret from you again. I shouldn't have in the first place," he vowed as his silver fur ran against Jyriah's.
What a great end to a terrible start to the day. Peace, freedom, truth, and overall - apologies and understandings instead of anger and regret.
Life could be so kind sometimes, and when it was - it was to be cherished and appreciated.