I Knew This Was Coming

Lake My'vatn on December the 24th. Corvus is taking a much needed respite from the Corvus Family Christmas celebrations. It is near dusk as the sun sets blood red over the western edge of the Lake.

Corvus was tired. He was tired of the looks his extended family shot him. He was tired of being forced to look after the younger members of the family. He was tired of his grandmother's constant jibes at him being a wolf. Yes she was trying to shrug it off and pretend like everything was just a joke, but if he got asked one more time if he preferred salmon still alive...well he wouldn't be able to do anything. Not really.

He growled as he made his way to the water's edge. It wasn't an angry growl, just frustrated. This should be his home. This was the home of any Corax wanting it to be, but then again he wasn't a Corax. No, Corvus was a Greyback and it was just a little paperwork the kept that from getting out.

"What is the big deal?" He asked himself out loud as he slumped down against a rock to listen to the gentle lapping of the cold lake water. It was a question he had asked many times. He had asked his father that the moment he had found out who he really was. The day after his first full moon in which he shifted. Corvus liked being a wolf. He liked being a Greyback. Corvus' father was one of the strongest wizards in the ministry, an unspeakable, and yet he constantly hid from who he really was. So what if Fenrir was a monster? Neither Corvus, nor his father, were monsters. This was crazy!

"I am Corvus Corvinus Greyback!" Corvus shouted to the silent water. Yet, even as he said it Corvus shuddered. What would his classmates think? Some of them had deduced that he was a werewolf, but a werewolf of Fenrir's line. That might be too much, and Corvus knew he didn't have that much courage. Well, not yet. Maybe in sixth year he would tell them. Still, that was a thought he had every year. Maybe next year, maybe next year. Corvus sneered at his own cowardice.

"And I'm a coward to face the man I am." Corvus admitted grumpily as he tossed a stone into the water. The Lake rippled and Corvus would have continued to grumble if it wasn't for one tiny sound. He would have ignored it, but it was too conspicuous. The crackling of a leaf. Not a continuous crackling of leaves, just one. As if someone was trying to sneak up on him, still unsure of how to approach the depressed Corvus.

Then the wind shifted and a scent reached him. The scent of an Alpha werewolf. Corvus' rage bubbled and frothed at this. This was his part of the woods. This is where he was baptized, this is where he had killed his first deer, and this was his place. Yet, here this Alpha was, as plain as day and he didn't have the damned manners to announce his presence like a human being!

"It's rude to let the wind announce you, Alpha." Corvus said, putting a little sneer on the word Alpha. "Your scent is new to me. Are you from a different region or are you the replacement for the weakling whose eye I removed?"

Brock was simply tired, tired down to his bones. He could not bear to be away from his- from Kallie for so long a time, and remembering the last time he'd been separated, the monster he'd become... it wasn't pretty. This was why he strived to be a good alpha. This is why he approached the young Greyback heir with an air of bored authority, rather than his old honed friendly technique.

As if he could remember how to be friendly.

He continued walking, unconcerned with the fact that the heir of Greyback was alone, and less concerned with his emotions. So what if the boy was throwing a tantrum. He hadn't even found a mate yet. He was still a pup.

The shift in wind was not something that overly concerned him - he would have announced himself anyway - but the boy's automatic attitude amused him more than it should have. Something sparkled in his eyes as he continued walking, never having stopped, and approached him.

"No need to be so coarse. I was simply walking toward you. I can not control the direction of the wind." He shrugged, coming to a stop some feet away from the boy, his brown eyes sparkling with something unreadable as his gaze swept the boy. "Must you speak my position like that? Alpha? Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"Ah, so you've removed an Alpha's eye already? You're more like me than originally thought." His gaze turned thoughtful, as it was drawn to the horizon, the wind playing with the light brown hair and brushing it into his eyes. He ran his hand through it and hummed softly, returning his eyes to the boy only after the thought had passed.

"I am what I am. In Britain, France, Finland, and Russia, those are my regions."