Anya is guardedly by her side and Espera, though an older mare, seemed quite at capable of handling their journey. They had taken a short break just at mid sun, wanting to avoid the overhead burn by remaining in the forest's shade. Though by how the sun is starting to dip into the waters of the shore, that rest period must have happened hours ago.

She's distinctly starting to feel the grim, the sweat from the ride having cooled against her back. Her thighs and ass are starting to ache though she can only guess how Bellamy and Wells are holding up.

The Grounder wolves are like a well-oiled machine, their breathing in-sync as they keep formation through every terrain. Her own wolves are gasping but still going, against the bigger more efficiently moving Grounders her two wolves are straggling. While they are mainly unable to sweat in their lupine form, the bridge of their nose was drenched along with the pads of their paws, this had caused Wells and Bellamy to slip and slide into the damp forest foliage which made their furs get matted down by more moisture. They are just starting to dry thanks to the lake cooled breeze; its stubborn determination that keeps them going instead of stamina.

It's another while until they are skirting the edges of the Lerna's cave. There hasn't been any rain the last several days so the silt and sand of the lake shore are still covered in rusted maroon. The blood of their people's and the Lerna's mixing into an unappetizing scent.

They couldn't rest here; even though Clarke knows their dead have been carried back to camp she can't envision staying long enough to make a stall worth it. A putrid stench pervades from the cave itself. She moves the group along faster. She can't bear to turn her gaze into the pit, knowing somewhere at the bottom of the chasm lies Finn's broken body.

When she ushers Espera to a faster gait and the whole pack moves willingly with her, even Wells and Bellamy quicken with a burst of speed.

She can still feel the dead's presence linger on her skin.

…

The moon shines clear down on them as they get closer and closer to camp. There's not a cloud in the amethyst night domed above them and the light from the moon paints long inky shadows from their feet. Their shapes elongated into larger images of themselves, the shadows all lapping together to form a greater beast clearing along the lake's circumference.

Anya starts out a drawn out howl as they near the dropship. The rest of the guards join in and soon their calls are answered by pitching cries. Several large wolves come sprinting out of the confines of the drop ship, they are Grounder in size and they come charging into Clarke's group.

There's a lot of ferocious sounding growling as the Grounders who were sent to the dropship greeted their fellows. They bump and nudge into each other in a wild enough manners to cause Bellamy and Wells to back up closer to Clarke. They are alert and not sure if the display is friendly.

After a moment, Anya steps away from Clarke's side, her presence making the other wolves settle and lay down. Anya sniffs noses with a big light brown wolf, half of his face remarkably darker and similar in markings as Nyko's tattoos.

The Grounder wolf shakes his shoulders, his shaggy fur fading back into his skin as his bones cracks. He's groaning as his body elongated back into human form and he stands in the moonlight buck naked. Clarke pointedly looks into the sky while Wells and Bell stare up at her.

Anya is next to shift, two humans among a pack of insanely large wolves. They speak in Trigedasleng and Clarke is left staring at Anya's back, there's a sequence of tattoos cascading down to book case around the woman's spine. Its design is reminiscent to the marks Lexa has on her arm.

Just like the marks on Lexa's skin, Clarke wants to trace her finger along the ones on Anya's back.

It's like Anya senses these thoughts and glances over her shoulder at Clarke. They lock eyes and Clarke gulps, her uninjured hand death clasping at the horn of her saddle. Anya's expression is impossible to read until she's casting her eyes down at the also staring Bellamy and Wells, she bares her fangs at them and has both of them dropping down. Clarke glances at her boys to realize they had been gaping at the Beta leader just as much as her. If they weren't so small compared to the Grounder wolves and low to the ground she would've swung a hand at their heads.

There's a pause in conversation which signals the entire set of Grounder wolves to stand. They all move one after another, Aerius at the front. He comes to Anya's side, grazing his furry shoulder against her hip before leading the group off. They move as a single silent unit into the trees. The trained precision of their entrance into the forestry and the speed which they took off makes Clarke realize they've been traveling in a rather lax manner all day.

Only Nyko, Clarke, Wells and Bellamy remain. They watch as Anya grabs Nyko's arm above the wrist, they shake once then Nyko is throwing himself into wolf skin, taking to the forest after his people.

Anya turns towards Clarke and while the boys have been pushed to submissively stare at the ground, Clarke only has her own self-control letting her remain eye contact with the Beta. "Didn't they have things left in the camp?"

"Your people will keep the supplies." Anya is right next to Espera, watching up from her usual spot beside the Omega. "Can I help you down?"

"Oh… I think I can manage?" Clarke tightens her clammy grip on the leather of the horn, starts to swing one of her legs over but she bumps her still healing arm along a saddle bag which makes her hiss in pain and start tilting back. "Fuc-"

Anya's arms are around her in an instant and Clarke finds her back against the Beta's just as before when she had fallen asleep on the shores to the Lerna caves. "Ooomf."

Clarke stumbles out of Anya's arms, gushing out a mumbled thank you and backing into Espera's belly. The horse shuffles from her movements which make the boys scuttle away from stamping hooves. The boys growl at the sudden commotion and pace further away from Clarke. She tells them to return to the dropship and Bellamy is quick to pad away from Anya though he seems to be limping slightly in one of his front paws. Wells whines but nods his big head, taking several steps towards camp and then coming back to her before finally stepping away with his head and tail down.

Clarke knows damn well that Anya is very naked, practically perfect in the moonlight and an arm's length away from her. Her legs are shaking from the fatigue of the ride but the rest of her is trembling for a whole other reason. She resolutely keeps her head turn towards the drop ship. They should move. She should move. She feels Anya approaching and holds in her breath.

She's shaking when Anya reaches to her shoulder. "Ummm, I'm…"

Anya leans back, having grabbed a cloak from the saddle bag behind Clarke; she wraps it around herself and secures a clasp over her shoulder. "Are you ready to go to your camp?"

Clarke sighs, finding her face hot as she looks at her companion. Anya is patient and seems completely obvious of what she had just done. Anya had practically been stark naked and pressing into Clarke and yet the woman is confused at why Clarke is so worked up.

She's never felt this flustered in her entire life and now in a span of a couple of days both Lexa and Anya have made her a hormonal mess. She was always quite proud of herself never acting like a sex crazed teenager the Ark labeled all out omegas to be. She had control; she had stayed off the Ark's watch lists.

Anya takes a breath and her eyes widen. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." Clarke is not equipped for this, managing her pack she will do on her feet but the whole chase and suitors has her on edge. "I'm just not use to," she grinds out the rest of her sentence, "I'm not used to having such a urge," she rubs her palm against her leg, nervous, "I think it's cause the suppressants injected into the air on the Ark have been wearing off and sometimes, I'm not saying always since it fluctuates but it has been very difficult to focus around you or Lexa and it's just making me kind of anxious."

"I wasn't attentive enough." Anya backs further. "I should have been but I thought you were …would be fine with me close..."

Anya's voice is still controlled but Clarke can detect a distressed note in the words. She can understand that she's giving mixed signals. She had clung onto Anya's wolf form and yet freezes when Anya nears now.

"I am fine with you close." If anything she craves for them both. "I'm..." Clarke wants a lifetime to explain herself but each second she wastes on herself is another the Ark loses, she's never felt so weary in her life. "I'm not sure we have time to discuss this."

Anya is solemn when she minutely nods several times; almost reassuring herself that it was okay. She's resigned as she takes Espera's reins, leading the mare slowly towards camp. Having been Lexa's mate for this long she knows that leaders don't have the luxury of time and her place as the Heda's Beta has always been second to their people's needs. It doesn't surprise her to see it be the same with Clarke.

Anya is just so disheartened that Clarke wants to balm the upset immediately.

Clarke can't stand having been the cause of it. She takes Anya's hand into her own, tugs for the Beta to stop. Clarke is trembling hard when the other woman turns to look at her. She tries to still her quickening heartbeat as she leans into Anya's shoulder. Anya straight away wraps her arm around Clarke's waist, tugging the shorter girl secure into her hold. They breathe together; the contact permits a tension to unwind in them both.

"I don't want to seem like I'm just stringing you two along, you've both been nothing but supportive but I just don't… It seems insane to ask for time when I had been so ready to answer Lexa's Chase the first time I met her and I don't want you to think that my reluctance has anything to do with you."

Anya grunts, the hand wrapped around Clarke's middle pulls her even closer.

"You're important…" To me. "You're important and I want to figure things out not just because my wolf wants you two but because I do too."

Anya hums, letting Clarke continue.

"And I do," Clarke tilts away, trying to gauge Anya's reaction; "I really do like you."

Clarke blushes, tucking back against Anya, sighing happily when she feels a hand run up and down along her back. She feels like she's ten, not yet burden by her Omega status and just confessed to a boy she had liked in grade school. He had run away and she had shrugged it off. It's all fine and dandy then but she's a grown ass women and she's just told Anya that she likes-likes her. She's terrible inept at this, she's so used to locking everything away, to keeping fine control her own impulses and to never show any type of interest least she got onto trouble. The Ark's list of potential issue was always growing, micromanaging through the populace to weed out any potential threat.

Anya brings a hand up to clasps onto the back of Clarke's neck, angling the girl away so she could press her lips against the top of Clarke's head. She holds the touch there for a second before pulling away and taking Espera's reins back into her hand, the other still laced with Clarke's.

"Let's return you to your pack."