Post by Talion on Jul 21, 2010 13:45:05 GMT -5
Talion sat back in the bean bag and watched the boy at the other end of the seating area sleep. He smiled as Brynt groaned and fussed in slumber, oblivious to the world around him in as much as his own survival went. He wondered how long till he should talk to him about where he lived, allow him to sleep upstairs in the pile of bodies currently lost to their dreams that was the Pack. His gaze moved past the boy and looked out through the open door of the bar where the moon, with but a sliver left to be the one that called to them all, sat hanging low in the horizon over the park, just about to be swallowed by the high rises on the other side of the city. His thoughts turned to review the decision he made two months ago when he challenged Jared for control of the Pack.
He had lost everything, from the time he was 16 when he'd lost his humanity to a werewolf that was attacking and killing people in his town, he wondered why he had been one of the attacks to survive. His parents turned on him, cast him out. No training, no skill, just the hunger, the need, he hid; lived in the woods for many years alone. Trying desperately not to kill or hurt others, not to be seen or hunted. He traveled eventually, moving through other cities, unaware of Were politics or customs. He nearly lost his life several times learning about those customs. Through being captured by a Pack and used for their vicious games, eventually moving up the ranks when he started learning how to harness his power and fighting back, to taking the lives of others for his Ulfric, as Skoll. He'd learned how to be a wolf the hard way through blood and torture, death and deceit. He rubbed his eyes trying to drown out the fire that finished off his last Pack when bounty hunters had infiltrated through an informant and slaughtered them all save a couple in one night. It left him somewhat of an insomniac, times when he would seek out the woods and shift during the early morning hours to sleep in the shade under the forest brush so that he could sit awake while the others slept, watch over them. He was greatful and dismayed that Quyten had found him. Fed him some of his blood and helped him warm enough to shift and heal. Watched over him as he slept the comatose sleep of healing all those days he was out. But that was over; he just relived the screams and sounds of slaughter over and over in his head until the scar under his eye throbbed with the memory of the silver dart that barely missed more vital organs in his head. He wore it proudly; to him it was a reminder to ever be vigilant and always wary.
Now, he had a responsibility to more than just himself and an Ulfric. He was the Ulfric, not something he'd every really aspired to but when he came here and found the former Ulfric awash in self loathing and despair and the Pack was down to nearly nothing, he couldn't sit back and just watch. And in an act of trying to force Jared to step up, he ended up challenging him for the position. And here he was. He looked around Sanctuary and wondered if the bar was a good idea or not. It marked them, gave bounty hunters a place to weave their deceit into the fabric of the family and hunt them, but they needed an income, and while the bike shop brought in a little bit, so many of them were not skilled to work there and the bar gave them at least a sense of having a part in the Pack if they could serve the guests that had the balls to walk into a biker bar on the edge of the seedy side of town.
He mentally went through the Pack and his thoughts on their progress a frown of concern as to why so many came to this place in so short a time. Someone had said once that the Packs kept tabs on each other, so he'd sent Jared out to find out what was going on around New York when he'd asked to go and find Dimitri. Who, he'd found alright, but Dimitri was in a dangerous state of mind. Jared was convinced it was vampires who had wiped Dimitri's mind, and they were seeking Ayd's help in trying to figure out how to reverse it or what happened.
Tel was quiet, a calm and stabilizing man who loved the bike shop and his bikes, who day after day worked on the customer's vehicles and never asked for anything. The two of them shared a quiet bond of age and being wiser than most would give either of them credit for. Felt good having a man like that at his side as Geri. And it helped to know that Sil and he found solace in each other, gave her a place to belong which she hadn't had for a long time and help her learn how to socialize again, although he hadn't seen her lately and made a note to himself to ask Tel if she was just grabbing some alone time or if something had happened he didn't know about.
Lanier, his Freki, was such through power, she'd bested the strongest and deserved the place but he did not feel a connection with her and was still wary which was not really a good thing with your second, but right now he had no choice on the matter. She was usually busy elsewhere on tours for her skateboarding tournaments and such so he tended to rely more on Tel for the things the two of them were to do for the Pack. She was finally beginning to fight through some of her emotional damage from the Ulfric before Jared. He evidently had done a lot to damage the Pack as well. So sad really when the Pack should be the Sanctuary that they all turned to in times of need. But she was coming around; she tolerated touch now better than she did when he came to Wood Bourne. He made a point of brushing her hair out for her at times to help her with it.
Chel... Chel held his interest? No, she held his heart, his lupa. He did not know how he would survive all the chaos of holding a Pack together without her and her help. Her desire to nurture the damaged souls of the family and help bring them all together into a more cohesive unit in a way that he could not. And, she did that for him too. Technically she was the only woman he trusted in any way at all. He'd had a few bad relationships with women in his past and the last one was seriously bad, even now the woman would occasionally find him and send him a letter that wove her treachery into her usual honeyed words and illusions of peace only to become the raging lunatic that coated their time together if he ever tried to talk to her, even to ask about her wellbeing. He smiled, knowing Chel was not like that, she wore her heart and soul on her sleeve for all to see. Her Native American upbringing suited her, her smile lit up his night like no other. He worked hard with her when they could get away to build her power, to help her control, he could feel her potential, but had no idea how it would manifest. She like him had been turned without guidance, killing her boyfriend on a full moon and running ever since unaware of what was wrong with her until she fell in a hole in the woods and he and Lanier found her. He smiled remembering that and how she and Rave fought like cats and dogs in the hole and out of it, when they'd brought them back, but had eventually come to terms and were good friends now. And his heart leapt when he remembered her tears when she told him that she wasn't pregnant, it was a false pregnancy, a wish from her heart that made her body reply in kind and fulfilled what her misguided sense of duty to being lupa meant. He had to explain to her that being lupa did not mean being a baby factory or the biggest bad ass in the pack, it meant being his partner and heart and holding a nurturing and protective regard for the Pack, and that she surely was, more than any other.
Rave, brash, young, idiot, pup who reminded him of himself at that age. No sense just instinct. Another American Indian who had come from a remote reservation to find himself attacked in the woods outside of Wood Bourne. Tal had been out there that day and fought the werewolf off and brought him home to heal him. He needed a firm hand, a guiding hand, an occasionally punch, and a family; but he was sure hell bent on driving as many as he could away from him. Tal was just not sure if it was because he didn't feel like he deserved to belong as a part of anything or if he really didn't know better. Time would tell if he didn't create enemies of the whole pack first. Already he slept separate from most of them only Tal, Chel and Trey would sleep near him.
Trey was the next attack within the city woods. The rogue Were that had attacked Rave was not gone like it was thought, and claimed another victim and had quickly been hunted down by the more powerful members of the pack and killed. Rave found Trey and brought him in, frantic and concerned like he had never been with anyone else, a brother, due to shared situations. Trey was quiet, unassuming, kept to himself and adored Chel and Rave. Rave treated him like shit in public but it was Rave's way of loving, if Trey really had a problem with it all he had to do was come and stand behind Tal in a request for protection. Tal kept an eye on them, like he did everyone in the pack, but most domination rankings he left for them to work out on their own unless it was his bodyguards, his protected, his officers, or his lupa. The others worked out their own pecking order and he only stepped in when it interfered with the over all Pack or it burst out in front of customers or those who did not need to be involved in what they were. But because Trey was so submissive he did in fact keep a watchful eye over him and would not allow anyone to really hurt him, even Rave.
Serenity made him him feel like he did around his ex; like the surface was all cheery and accommodating but underneath was something far more evil. He couldn't keep her out of the pack since she'd been a part of the remnants of it before and she was wolf and she had done nothing to warrant any rejection. He could not willing let any wolf be a rogue, he'd been one too long himself. But she made the hair on his hackles rise in ways he couldn't explain and because of that he was very alert and cautious around her. He explained all his concerns for the Pack when she asked to come in and her answers were all to her benefit and flippant, but he couldn't find fault in them, until Gage came later, looking for her and had admitted that he did not know she'd left the Pride. When confronted by him she admitted she'd told her sister who seemed to be awol for the time being. He figured she wasn't honest to stand up and address Gage and be completely forthcoming, made him think that she was sneaky. He did not know how Prides were run and to him Gage seemed like a nice guy, a weak leader, however leader nonetheless and he respected that; and thought the women who were under him were completely disrespectful to him at least in public which was the only place he'd seen them and how they treated the man. But it was not his business, nor of any real interest to him since he preferred to simply not deal with them. He had never been in a Pack that fully worked with other shifter groups, hadn't even heard that there was some movement out in St. Louis that was trying to promote such things. Like Lanier and Jared, Serenity's knowledge of the history of Wood Bourne and it's shifter population was a valuable asset as well as her strength to help with the younger members of the Pack. In time perhaps Serenity would truly be a member of the family. At least he hoped it would be so.
Tristan, kept to himself too much. He was a part of the Pack but not a part of it. He was a weak link and a dangerous one. Yet Tal had appointed him as his bodyguard even though he was never around to actually do the job. It was more his way of trying to get the man to be a part of the Pack than to actually rely on someone who was never there. Had Tristan actually been around more he might have learned to rely on him more and include him more. But Tristan had made it apparent by living away from the Pack, exposing himself and taking non-Were mates, that he was an extreme loner and soon would need to be replaced as bodyguard simply because of proximity. He didn't seem to take his position or his family seriously, probably didn't even take himself seriously. That was fine, but he was not an asset to the Pack and if he insisted on being apart from it, then Tal would watch him and be cautious, it was a man like him who had turned on the Pack before. Weak beyond belief that he would accept money to turn his family in and let them all be slaughtered and Tal had in fact, sought his revenge on that one. Tal guessed there was one in every Pack, but when you're trying to bring the Pack together in a cohesive healthy unit these were the things that caused rips and tears in the fabric of it.
Luna was a young Were who still had to get some control on her beast and had medical knowledge. He was working with her to get a job in the WB Hospital in the paranormal unit or in records, anything to help her keep up her knowledge so that she could be the private nurse for the Pack. He did not know how to heal short of lying in with someone who was healing and trying to keep their beast calm and he needed her skills. She was young though, obviously so, more concerned with boys than with being sensible but it would pass in time either by finding someone to help her ground or by maturing. He was sure she would grow to be a valuable member of the Pack.
Kane and Nine were both very new. His beast liked them, seemed to have little reservations about them so he did too short of just getting to know who you really are wariness. He felt their strength when they let each others beasts meet and was grateful for a few more experienced members for the Pack and hoped that they had the maturity to find out about the Pack before they started to try to interfere in it. Help with the new wolves was always needed and perhaps they would move up in ranks to stand at his side and help the Pack grow into a healthy unit as well. He did not entertain the idea of one of the stronger members taking over, it was inevitable, once you reached the top, the only place to go was down. He preferred to think of all of them as wanting what was best for each other and the Pack as a whole. A home, a family, sanctuary.
Those were the wolves of the Pack but there were others who were also a part of the family and as a result part of the Pack in their own way. The foxes were granted protection; Tar and Ari were both as much a part of the family as the others although like Tristan they were weak links in that neither of them lived with the Pack. And both had close connections outside the shifter community. He wasn't exactly sure what Tar's latest squeeze was but she was not wolf for sure. And Ari had a Master, a tie and living situation that Tal knew not to get in the middle of. So he offered them a place to belong on the fringe since that is where they seemed to want to be. However, in his mind it also meant that they needed extra watching for any kind of traitorous behavior. Call it a weakness if you will, but he rarely trusted any one and currently there were only two in that small circle of allowance, all others were varying degrees of when would they become a liability to the Pack until they proved otherwise. Of course, it didn't mean that he had to treat them that way, just be ever watchful. He guessed he didn't stay awake when most of them slept to watch for what came in but probably also for what went out.
There were two others who lived with the Pack and were protected by them, and by him specifically. Collared and owned by him by their request and against his personal vow, when he was in that lifestyle and being used by others under the pretense of collars and bonds, that he would never do. Broke his own word to himself, he did. But Shar and Brynt needed to feel not just a part of a bigger whole, but like they were a part of a stronger tie. Shar was the Pack's dog, Talion's boy and guarded the shop and bar like any registered German Shepherd would. He was in fact registered with the city and legally the only one in the Pack who could remain in Were form openly. Most humans had no clue that the quiet unassuming boy with blue tipped hair was also the growling guard dog that watched the shop and that the bikers who frequented the place loved like any pet. His constant companion was Brynt, a poor shy human youth who had found his way to Wood Bourne with the help of a pushy friend and had been adopted by Shar and as a result adopted by Tal and the rest of the Pack. Brynt was the one who would watch the bar and shop with Mark, the bartender on full moon nights. He was the one who worked diligently trying to earn a place in the Pack when just by being able to help cover the retail establishments one night a month was a help beyond price. Soon though he had to confide in Brynt, tell him who he worked for but he wanted the trust to build up, the fear to subside, the sense of family to set in with him before telling him that he really worked for a pack of blood thirsty wolves. He knew what Shar was, but he had yet to know what the rest of them were, unless he assumed that we were all like Shar. Tal chuckled to himself thinking about that.
He got up and shut the door to the bar and locked it after Mark left till the next night when he'd come in to work. He really owed it to that man for his diligence and loyalty to the Pack and the bar. He knew what they were and he didn't care, he had a job he was grateful for, and occasional reason to use the double barrel shot gun under the bar, and a stake in the business itself. He was happy about their arrangement.
Sitting back down in the bean bag, sprawling his large frame out over it hanging off the edges he watched Brynt ball up into a small fetal position in his own bean and start to snore softly. He grinned and let his mind wander to Quyten, not necessarily a Pack member but a constant presence around the place, always looking for him. They seemed to feel like a whole when they were together and only a half when apart. Strange to be so attached to a vampire one who he willingly acted as pomme de’sang for, although he never let Q feed from his neck, his strong sense of wolf would not allow him to bite him there. But their bond was one that went far deeper than any bite or loss of blood it went even pass the depths of their souls, figuratively of course, since Q sort of lacked one most the time. They'd picked each other up when they'd fallen and were the only ones that either could show any real weakness to without recrimination or attack. He was going to miss him while he was gone in Europe, but with the Pack's needs currently it was probably a good time for him to focus completely on it's health and helping those in it work past their emotional traumas and their short comings to become stronger, healthier. And this was his goal for the Pack, strength and health, emotionally, physically... they all had issues and trauma in their pasts but the future did not have to hold that. At least not so far as they themselves would allow it.
He wanted to go work on the new bike because it calmed him to do so, but it would make too much noise in the quiet stillness, so he picked up the book he'd dropped in the floor earlier and continued to read to pass the time until the others woke and he could go get some sleep in the woods before another afternoon and evening that required his full attention.
He had lost everything, from the time he was 16 when he'd lost his humanity to a werewolf that was attacking and killing people in his town, he wondered why he had been one of the attacks to survive. His parents turned on him, cast him out. No training, no skill, just the hunger, the need, he hid; lived in the woods for many years alone. Trying desperately not to kill or hurt others, not to be seen or hunted. He traveled eventually, moving through other cities, unaware of Were politics or customs. He nearly lost his life several times learning about those customs. Through being captured by a Pack and used for their vicious games, eventually moving up the ranks when he started learning how to harness his power and fighting back, to taking the lives of others for his Ulfric, as Skoll. He'd learned how to be a wolf the hard way through blood and torture, death and deceit. He rubbed his eyes trying to drown out the fire that finished off his last Pack when bounty hunters had infiltrated through an informant and slaughtered them all save a couple in one night. It left him somewhat of an insomniac, times when he would seek out the woods and shift during the early morning hours to sleep in the shade under the forest brush so that he could sit awake while the others slept, watch over them. He was greatful and dismayed that Quyten had found him. Fed him some of his blood and helped him warm enough to shift and heal. Watched over him as he slept the comatose sleep of healing all those days he was out. But that was over; he just relived the screams and sounds of slaughter over and over in his head until the scar under his eye throbbed with the memory of the silver dart that barely missed more vital organs in his head. He wore it proudly; to him it was a reminder to ever be vigilant and always wary.
Now, he had a responsibility to more than just himself and an Ulfric. He was the Ulfric, not something he'd every really aspired to but when he came here and found the former Ulfric awash in self loathing and despair and the Pack was down to nearly nothing, he couldn't sit back and just watch. And in an act of trying to force Jared to step up, he ended up challenging him for the position. And here he was. He looked around Sanctuary and wondered if the bar was a good idea or not. It marked them, gave bounty hunters a place to weave their deceit into the fabric of the family and hunt them, but they needed an income, and while the bike shop brought in a little bit, so many of them were not skilled to work there and the bar gave them at least a sense of having a part in the Pack if they could serve the guests that had the balls to walk into a biker bar on the edge of the seedy side of town.
He mentally went through the Pack and his thoughts on their progress a frown of concern as to why so many came to this place in so short a time. Someone had said once that the Packs kept tabs on each other, so he'd sent Jared out to find out what was going on around New York when he'd asked to go and find Dimitri. Who, he'd found alright, but Dimitri was in a dangerous state of mind. Jared was convinced it was vampires who had wiped Dimitri's mind, and they were seeking Ayd's help in trying to figure out how to reverse it or what happened.
Tel was quiet, a calm and stabilizing man who loved the bike shop and his bikes, who day after day worked on the customer's vehicles and never asked for anything. The two of them shared a quiet bond of age and being wiser than most would give either of them credit for. Felt good having a man like that at his side as Geri. And it helped to know that Sil and he found solace in each other, gave her a place to belong which she hadn't had for a long time and help her learn how to socialize again, although he hadn't seen her lately and made a note to himself to ask Tel if she was just grabbing some alone time or if something had happened he didn't know about.
Lanier, his Freki, was such through power, she'd bested the strongest and deserved the place but he did not feel a connection with her and was still wary which was not really a good thing with your second, but right now he had no choice on the matter. She was usually busy elsewhere on tours for her skateboarding tournaments and such so he tended to rely more on Tel for the things the two of them were to do for the Pack. She was finally beginning to fight through some of her emotional damage from the Ulfric before Jared. He evidently had done a lot to damage the Pack as well. So sad really when the Pack should be the Sanctuary that they all turned to in times of need. But she was coming around; she tolerated touch now better than she did when he came to Wood Bourne. He made a point of brushing her hair out for her at times to help her with it.
Chel... Chel held his interest? No, she held his heart, his lupa. He did not know how he would survive all the chaos of holding a Pack together without her and her help. Her desire to nurture the damaged souls of the family and help bring them all together into a more cohesive unit in a way that he could not. And, she did that for him too. Technically she was the only woman he trusted in any way at all. He'd had a few bad relationships with women in his past and the last one was seriously bad, even now the woman would occasionally find him and send him a letter that wove her treachery into her usual honeyed words and illusions of peace only to become the raging lunatic that coated their time together if he ever tried to talk to her, even to ask about her wellbeing. He smiled, knowing Chel was not like that, she wore her heart and soul on her sleeve for all to see. Her Native American upbringing suited her, her smile lit up his night like no other. He worked hard with her when they could get away to build her power, to help her control, he could feel her potential, but had no idea how it would manifest. She like him had been turned without guidance, killing her boyfriend on a full moon and running ever since unaware of what was wrong with her until she fell in a hole in the woods and he and Lanier found her. He smiled remembering that and how she and Rave fought like cats and dogs in the hole and out of it, when they'd brought them back, but had eventually come to terms and were good friends now. And his heart leapt when he remembered her tears when she told him that she wasn't pregnant, it was a false pregnancy, a wish from her heart that made her body reply in kind and fulfilled what her misguided sense of duty to being lupa meant. He had to explain to her that being lupa did not mean being a baby factory or the biggest bad ass in the pack, it meant being his partner and heart and holding a nurturing and protective regard for the Pack, and that she surely was, more than any other.
Rave, brash, young, idiot, pup who reminded him of himself at that age. No sense just instinct. Another American Indian who had come from a remote reservation to find himself attacked in the woods outside of Wood Bourne. Tal had been out there that day and fought the werewolf off and brought him home to heal him. He needed a firm hand, a guiding hand, an occasionally punch, and a family; but he was sure hell bent on driving as many as he could away from him. Tal was just not sure if it was because he didn't feel like he deserved to belong as a part of anything or if he really didn't know better. Time would tell if he didn't create enemies of the whole pack first. Already he slept separate from most of them only Tal, Chel and Trey would sleep near him.
Trey was the next attack within the city woods. The rogue Were that had attacked Rave was not gone like it was thought, and claimed another victim and had quickly been hunted down by the more powerful members of the pack and killed. Rave found Trey and brought him in, frantic and concerned like he had never been with anyone else, a brother, due to shared situations. Trey was quiet, unassuming, kept to himself and adored Chel and Rave. Rave treated him like shit in public but it was Rave's way of loving, if Trey really had a problem with it all he had to do was come and stand behind Tal in a request for protection. Tal kept an eye on them, like he did everyone in the pack, but most domination rankings he left for them to work out on their own unless it was his bodyguards, his protected, his officers, or his lupa. The others worked out their own pecking order and he only stepped in when it interfered with the over all Pack or it burst out in front of customers or those who did not need to be involved in what they were. But because Trey was so submissive he did in fact keep a watchful eye over him and would not allow anyone to really hurt him, even Rave.
Serenity made him him feel like he did around his ex; like the surface was all cheery and accommodating but underneath was something far more evil. He couldn't keep her out of the pack since she'd been a part of the remnants of it before and she was wolf and she had done nothing to warrant any rejection. He could not willing let any wolf be a rogue, he'd been one too long himself. But she made the hair on his hackles rise in ways he couldn't explain and because of that he was very alert and cautious around her. He explained all his concerns for the Pack when she asked to come in and her answers were all to her benefit and flippant, but he couldn't find fault in them, until Gage came later, looking for her and had admitted that he did not know she'd left the Pride. When confronted by him she admitted she'd told her sister who seemed to be awol for the time being. He figured she wasn't honest to stand up and address Gage and be completely forthcoming, made him think that she was sneaky. He did not know how Prides were run and to him Gage seemed like a nice guy, a weak leader, however leader nonetheless and he respected that; and thought the women who were under him were completely disrespectful to him at least in public which was the only place he'd seen them and how they treated the man. But it was not his business, nor of any real interest to him since he preferred to simply not deal with them. He had never been in a Pack that fully worked with other shifter groups, hadn't even heard that there was some movement out in St. Louis that was trying to promote such things. Like Lanier and Jared, Serenity's knowledge of the history of Wood Bourne and it's shifter population was a valuable asset as well as her strength to help with the younger members of the Pack. In time perhaps Serenity would truly be a member of the family. At least he hoped it would be so.
Tristan, kept to himself too much. He was a part of the Pack but not a part of it. He was a weak link and a dangerous one. Yet Tal had appointed him as his bodyguard even though he was never around to actually do the job. It was more his way of trying to get the man to be a part of the Pack than to actually rely on someone who was never there. Had Tristan actually been around more he might have learned to rely on him more and include him more. But Tristan had made it apparent by living away from the Pack, exposing himself and taking non-Were mates, that he was an extreme loner and soon would need to be replaced as bodyguard simply because of proximity. He didn't seem to take his position or his family seriously, probably didn't even take himself seriously. That was fine, but he was not an asset to the Pack and if he insisted on being apart from it, then Tal would watch him and be cautious, it was a man like him who had turned on the Pack before. Weak beyond belief that he would accept money to turn his family in and let them all be slaughtered and Tal had in fact, sought his revenge on that one. Tal guessed there was one in every Pack, but when you're trying to bring the Pack together in a cohesive healthy unit these were the things that caused rips and tears in the fabric of it.
Luna was a young Were who still had to get some control on her beast and had medical knowledge. He was working with her to get a job in the WB Hospital in the paranormal unit or in records, anything to help her keep up her knowledge so that she could be the private nurse for the Pack. He did not know how to heal short of lying in with someone who was healing and trying to keep their beast calm and he needed her skills. She was young though, obviously so, more concerned with boys than with being sensible but it would pass in time either by finding someone to help her ground or by maturing. He was sure she would grow to be a valuable member of the Pack.
Kane and Nine were both very new. His beast liked them, seemed to have little reservations about them so he did too short of just getting to know who you really are wariness. He felt their strength when they let each others beasts meet and was grateful for a few more experienced members for the Pack and hoped that they had the maturity to find out about the Pack before they started to try to interfere in it. Help with the new wolves was always needed and perhaps they would move up in ranks to stand at his side and help the Pack grow into a healthy unit as well. He did not entertain the idea of one of the stronger members taking over, it was inevitable, once you reached the top, the only place to go was down. He preferred to think of all of them as wanting what was best for each other and the Pack as a whole. A home, a family, sanctuary.
Those were the wolves of the Pack but there were others who were also a part of the family and as a result part of the Pack in their own way. The foxes were granted protection; Tar and Ari were both as much a part of the family as the others although like Tristan they were weak links in that neither of them lived with the Pack. And both had close connections outside the shifter community. He wasn't exactly sure what Tar's latest squeeze was but she was not wolf for sure. And Ari had a Master, a tie and living situation that Tal knew not to get in the middle of. So he offered them a place to belong on the fringe since that is where they seemed to want to be. However, in his mind it also meant that they needed extra watching for any kind of traitorous behavior. Call it a weakness if you will, but he rarely trusted any one and currently there were only two in that small circle of allowance, all others were varying degrees of when would they become a liability to the Pack until they proved otherwise. Of course, it didn't mean that he had to treat them that way, just be ever watchful. He guessed he didn't stay awake when most of them slept to watch for what came in but probably also for what went out.
There were two others who lived with the Pack and were protected by them, and by him specifically. Collared and owned by him by their request and against his personal vow, when he was in that lifestyle and being used by others under the pretense of collars and bonds, that he would never do. Broke his own word to himself, he did. But Shar and Brynt needed to feel not just a part of a bigger whole, but like they were a part of a stronger tie. Shar was the Pack's dog, Talion's boy and guarded the shop and bar like any registered German Shepherd would. He was in fact registered with the city and legally the only one in the Pack who could remain in Were form openly. Most humans had no clue that the quiet unassuming boy with blue tipped hair was also the growling guard dog that watched the shop and that the bikers who frequented the place loved like any pet. His constant companion was Brynt, a poor shy human youth who had found his way to Wood Bourne with the help of a pushy friend and had been adopted by Shar and as a result adopted by Tal and the rest of the Pack. Brynt was the one who would watch the bar and shop with Mark, the bartender on full moon nights. He was the one who worked diligently trying to earn a place in the Pack when just by being able to help cover the retail establishments one night a month was a help beyond price. Soon though he had to confide in Brynt, tell him who he worked for but he wanted the trust to build up, the fear to subside, the sense of family to set in with him before telling him that he really worked for a pack of blood thirsty wolves. He knew what Shar was, but he had yet to know what the rest of them were, unless he assumed that we were all like Shar. Tal chuckled to himself thinking about that.
He got up and shut the door to the bar and locked it after Mark left till the next night when he'd come in to work. He really owed it to that man for his diligence and loyalty to the Pack and the bar. He knew what they were and he didn't care, he had a job he was grateful for, and occasional reason to use the double barrel shot gun under the bar, and a stake in the business itself. He was happy about their arrangement.
Sitting back down in the bean bag, sprawling his large frame out over it hanging off the edges he watched Brynt ball up into a small fetal position in his own bean and start to snore softly. He grinned and let his mind wander to Quyten, not necessarily a Pack member but a constant presence around the place, always looking for him. They seemed to feel like a whole when they were together and only a half when apart. Strange to be so attached to a vampire one who he willingly acted as pomme de’sang for, although he never let Q feed from his neck, his strong sense of wolf would not allow him to bite him there. But their bond was one that went far deeper than any bite or loss of blood it went even pass the depths of their souls, figuratively of course, since Q sort of lacked one most the time. They'd picked each other up when they'd fallen and were the only ones that either could show any real weakness to without recrimination or attack. He was going to miss him while he was gone in Europe, but with the Pack's needs currently it was probably a good time for him to focus completely on it's health and helping those in it work past their emotional traumas and their short comings to become stronger, healthier. And this was his goal for the Pack, strength and health, emotionally, physically... they all had issues and trauma in their pasts but the future did not have to hold that. At least not so far as they themselves would allow it.
He wanted to go work on the new bike because it calmed him to do so, but it would make too much noise in the quiet stillness, so he picked up the book he'd dropped in the floor earlier and continued to read to pass the time until the others woke and he could go get some sleep in the woods before another afternoon and evening that required his full attention.