At the border of the Valley, the wolves waited.
Zarek marched there holding the wicker basket in one hand like it was a severed head. A disgruntled expression marred his face.
He was humiliated. He was furious. He was the apex predator of this world, and he was delivering potatoes to his prey?
It wasn't a scout this time. It was the Beta of the Alpha.
He was huge for a wolf, taller than a human, with shaggy grey fur draping his shoulders and a scar running over one milky white eye. He stood in his human form, fur wrapped around his loins, behind him, four massive wolves in their best forms growled.
The Beta, whose name was Vorn, watched as Zarek approached but expected someone else to follow me.
He could still smell the foreign air, to know that indeed the Dragons were hoarding a fetitle female in their care and she was not a Dragon.
He didn't flinch as the Dragon King approached, though the rage radiating off him was enough to make him take a step back, his fingers trembling in his grip.
"Dragon," Vorn barked, his voice rough and gravelly. "I seek the scout, Jorin. He carried the token of the Moon and did not return. Where is he?"
Zarek stopped ten feet away.
He loomed over the wolf, his shadow swallowing the smaller group. Every Instinct in his body screamed to incinerate them.
Yet her words echoed in his head.
No cuddles, he reminded himself. Think of the bed.
He had no choice but to think about the mornings when he woke up with him buried inside her, and he gritted his teeth.
Zarek thrust the basket forward with force, nearly hitting Vorn in the chest.
"Here," Zarek snarled.
Vorn blinked, taken aback, looking down at the woven basket filled with smoked meat and tubers, he was flabbergasted. "What is this?"
"A return gift," Zarek stated through gritted teeth. "For the... visit."
Vorn sniffed the basket. His eyes widened slightly at the scent of the cooked meat–the spices, the smoke. It was unlike anything they had ever smelled before.
Even the wolves whined and whimped with hunger over what Vorn was holding.
Vorn was moved, but he snapped back to why he was here.
"And Jorin?" Vorn asked, his eyes narrowing. "Where is the scout?"
"He... left," Zarek lied, badly. "He left his body. It was an accident."
Of course, he never told Roxy he was going to give them a straight apology, while Roxy was humming in the cave, thinking her Dragon was doing exactly what she told him to do, being like a good boy.
He was doing the opposite.
Vorn stiffened after hearing that. The dire wolves behind him growled in anger. "You killed him?"
"You should have never sent them either way to sniff into my territory!" Zarek roared, slowly losing his temper. "Take the meat and go, dog, before I decide to add your bones to the pile!"
"Zarek!" Roxy's voice echoed in his head, though she wasn't there. Peace!
Zarek took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing his anger to recede. "Take the basket," he said, his voice strained. "It is payment for the wolf."
Vorn looked at the Dragon King, the basket, and then the strange restraint in a creature known for mindless violence. It was confusing.
He reached into the basket and pulled out one of the rubies. He looked at the Dragon King with a calculating gaze.
"This is so unlike you, Dragon." He spat out, causing Zarek to narrow his eyes at this wolf, who didn't see the chance to flee and still delayed, calling for their death.
Vorn lifted his nose to the air. Tasting the scent of a female quite unique from the other females in the dragon tribe, and narrowed his eyes.
His eyes snapped to Zarek, who was glaring daggers at him.
"The rumors are true," Vorn whispered, "You have a female."
Zarek stiffened, his pupils contracting.
"Not just a female," Vorn continued, stepping closer. "She is breeding."
And that was the thing that amazed them the most: how could a nameless creature in this world be capable of breeding a child? When they have tried with their mates and it never worked out?
While he was caught in his own mind, Vorn didn't see the impending doom.
"Silence!" Zarek hissed, already shifting into his dragon form.
"The Alpha is dying," Vorn said, his voice taking on a desperate edge. "The pack has had no pups in ten winters. If you have a fertile female... a female who can bear young..."
Vonn dropped the basket, falling to his knees.
"Share her," Vorn demanded. "The Wolf King will pay any price. Hides. Fur. Territory. We will hunt for you. Just let us–"
An ear-splitting roar travelled through the planes.
The suggestion of sharing broke Zarek's brain.
A tail thick as a tree trunk whipped around, smashing the rocks where Vorn stood. Vorn threw himself backward, shifting into his wolf form mid-air, barely dodging the blow that would have turned him into paste.
Zarek, now fully in his Dragon form, loomed over the retreating wolves like a god of death. He opened his maw, fire beaming in his throat.
"MINE!" Zarek bellowed, the sound shaking the trees for miles. "SHE IS MINE! GO TELL YOUR KING! IF HE COMES FOR HER, I WILL BURN THE WORLD TO ASH!"
Von didn't argue. He turned tail and ran, his dire wolves crambling after him, whining, disappearing into the dark treeline as the ground scorched behind them.
Zarek stood there, chest heaving as he watched them go.
The audacity of these dogs was what he snarled in his mind. His heart was pounding in a frantic rhythm of terror.
The wolves were on his mate's tail.
He had to do something about that.
He turned back to the valley, transforming back into his human form. He scooped up the scattered potatoes, putting them back in the basket with shaking hands.
Will she be angry at me because they didn't take it with them?
As he walked back to the cave, he was immensely angry at the wolves for not taking the gift basket his female had prepared for them.