When Diego next awoke there was a bloody haunch within easy reach. "You looked thin." Shetar called from her place on the hillside. She ripped some of the meat from her own antelope leg. "Obviously your woman hasn't been feeding you properly."
Diego growled at her. He was tired of the definitely tired of the snide commentary. "Melle doesn't hunt per my request."
"Which is chivalry at its finest," she drawled. "But don't go letting your pride rule over your common sense or your rumbling stomach."
Attacking the meat single-mindedly, for the next few moments the only sound in camp was Diego tearing flesh and cracking bone. Soon though, he wondered "where is Melle?"
"Ah, she's out scouting for me." The neat pile of bones at his side made him trust Shetar a little more.
Before he could rebury his teeth in his meal, a large paw covered it. "It is interesting Shetar that his chivalry extends to hunting but he lets the female run the perimeter."
The guttural voice was unmistakable. "Need drives Soto."
"Not even a flinch? Very good lieutenant," Soto's approval was bittersweet. "I would have expected that seeing a dead man would have elicited some response from you?"
"Shetar told me you lived." His cold voice and steely eyes didn't betray the knots in his stomach. Or so he hoped.
Soto loomed over him. "A pack leader wouldn't believe such a wild story without evidence."
"He's hardly a pack leader." Shetar commented.
Soto turned to her, "isn't he? Sabers are not meant to travel alone Diego. But if you don't think you can lead a pack, surely you could submit to me again?"
"I do not think that you are in a position to ask me to do that. A lieutenant isn't the voice of a pack leader last I heard."
"An outcast is even lower on the totem pole."
"I killed you once already. I can do it again."
Shetar was nearly purring with excitement. Diego could hardly believe that his sister had changed from the curious cat she was to the blood thirsty creature she was now. "You've gone soft Diego." She panted. "You live with prey. And I saw that moment with your woman this morning. Very tender. Very sweet."
If he attacked Soto, he would die before the blow landed. Diego knew that Shetar was fast on her feet and would defend her mate. She had changed too much for anything to happen otherwise. Refusing to be driven to a fight he wryly said, "That may be. But by living with you Soto would have grown softer. Obviously Shetar, you are the strong independent type."
Abruptly Soto laughed. "I'm glad to see that you are still a saber. Eat your fill." The leg was pushed back towards Diego.
With the tension eased, or at least masked, Diego was no longer listening to Soto. He had his head cocked to the side slightly, listening to the voices on the wind. Noticing, the larger male turned too. "My family" his face lit up with a grin. Diego had never seen that expression on a saber's face before; it was a spitting image of how Manny looked at Peaches. But he had assumed it was a herd thing, none of the adults in his pack had looked at their children that way. And Soto was only hearing their voices. "They are the best thing that ever happened to me."
Melle crested the hilltop followed by three shaky legged kittens. Two of them wobbled over to Shetar but one, the steadiest, approached Diego. "Arla is the bold one." Soto explained. The little girl swiped at Diego with dull claws and Soto knocked her gently onto the snow. "The tall one is Himlad, and the cute one is Sita. Shetar asked Melle to take them away because we didn't want them to see anything if our reunion ended in a fight."
Diego had a flashback to his youth: Soto protecting Shetar from seeing Diero kill the human. Apparently nothing had changed, desire for revenge aside, Soto was the protective father to his children that he had been to his pack mates. Arla was back on her feet trying to attack Diego again, Diego looked on. He wasn't seeing Soto's children anymore, he was seeing his future.
