CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains, and some aspects of Usurpation of the Darkness through chapter 36.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Background: It's time for part 6 of Gold's mini-saga, and I refuse to even hint at what is going to happen. Read on if you want to find out.

Suspicion hung over the valley like fog, stifling laughter and stilling tails. Conversations were stilted wherever Claw went, which fueled his suspicion even more.

Gold had witnessed three interrogations in the last two days, and those only because he had been in the area at the time. Now, he suspected he was about to see a fourth, and it was not even midday yet.

Claw landed on the rock of a small family, dropping out of nowhere and startling a bark out of the male. "You," he growled.

The male knelt low, his chin to the ground, and with his tail he subtly shoved the fledgling behind him toward his mate. "Alpha, what do you need of me?" he asked, obviously making an effort to sound as subservient and spineless as possible.

"Where were you last night?" Claw snarled. "Where was your mate?"

"Here, alpha!" the male cried out. "Both of us!"

"The night before?"

"Also here!"

"Before that?"

"We went to the ledges," the male admitted.

"Where did you leave your fledgling?" Claw asked.

"Why?" the female intervened. "We have not done anything."

"Just checking." Claw jumped back into the air and left, winging toward the caves.

Gold sighed, leaving the confused and relieved family behind. There was no rhyme or reason to Claw's interrogations, just anger and questions. He wasn't even sure why Claw was so suspicious nowadays. Gold's 'arguments' with Lily were objectively harmless unless one was sly enough to see the underlying purpose, and Crystal had stopped agitating openly. Aside from the unresolved mystery she had left behind, there was nothing to imply Claw's leadership was under attack.

But that was an unresolved issue, and Claw was still hunting, so he supposed it made sense. Claw's approach to said hunting, less so, but when had Claw ever been particularly clever?

Gold emerged from between two rocks and beheld the pond. His eyes immediately went to his mate, whose back was to him. Her tail swayed as she drank, and he contemplated startling her. He stepped lightly, closing in on her.

She would be annoyed, but her yelp would be worth it. He needed something to brighten his mood. He prepared to leap, planning to land on her back. He crouched, just behind her...

She abruptly struck the water with her paw, splashing it back at him. He reflexively closed his eyes, and when he opened them again she was staring into them, her grey gaze amused, while water dripped from his nose.

Not one to lose the initiative, he licked her nose, slobbering all over her face with glee. In the heartbeat it took her to react and pull back, he got her just as wet as she had gotten him, and with a far stickier substance.

"Gold!" she exclaimed, blowing air through her nose.

"Me!" he barked back, pleased with himself.

"I'm going to get you for that," she promised, closing her eyes and turning around to dunk her face in the pond. "We sleep together, remember that. I have ample time to enact revenge."

"How could I forget?" he sighed, happily ignoring the threat in favor of thinking about how pleasant sleeping with her was.

"You were distracted," she replied without missing a beat.

"Every single time," he hummed, thinking of all the ways she had to distract him. "You done here?"

"I want to find Crystal," she admitted. "She will show up soon. Mind if I linger until she does?"

"I'll walk around the pond," Gold suggested. "If she does not show after two circles, then you will catch up with her tomorrow. Deal?" He had learned that proposing compromises was the way to go, when dealing with minor things. It was Lily's go-to for resolving things, and by doing so first he got to have the satisfaction of her agreeing with his idea.

"Yes, that is fair," Lily agreed. "Then we can go flying."

Gold sidled around her, dipped his tail in the pond, and flicked it as he left, spraying her with water. She snorted and splashed another pawful at him, though it fell short, and then they were too far apart for any further exchanges.

He spent the time it took to get to the other side planning how he was going to get her this time around. It promised to be more difficult, as she would definitely be on the lookout, but a quick splashing followed by a flat-out run would probably surprise her.

He noticed a light wing landing by Lily, and looked long enough to determine it wasn't Crystal. He would have ignored said light wing after that, except that she struck up a conversation with Lily…

And, he noticed, not a friendly one. Lily was crouching by the edge of the pond by the time he made it two thirds of the way around, her tail swaying angrily, and the other female was baring her teeth. He sped up, wondering what they were arguing about, but the female left before he got to them.

"Gold, move faster," Lily called out, her voice strained but pleasant. Too pleasant; he could think of no good reason for her to want him to return quicker, and that meant it was a front. He broke into a run, not caring how it made him look to come running when his mate called. This sounded serious.

"What is up?" he asked casually, sidling up alongside her. Her wings were twitching anxiously, which was yet another bad sign.

"That was Cressa," Lily hissed. "She came looking for an argument, and she hinted that she would lead Claw to Pyre!"

Gold didn't need to have the consequences of that laid out for him; Claw was hunting a traitor, and there was a flightless exiled light wing within reach of a short flight. He would take out his impotent frustration on Pyre if he found him, regardless of how he couldn't possibly be the traitor. Presumably, Cressa could lead him straight to Pyre, too, else Lily wouldn't be worried.

"Can Pyre hide?" Gold asked. That seemed like the easiest solution.

"I'm going up there right now to watch over him," Lily said, not directly answering him. "You keep Claw off our backs for a while. Cressa did not say she was going to set Claw on him right now, but we should assume as much."

Gold opened his mouth to object that he didn't know how he would do that, then closed it again. This wasn't the time for arguing. "I'll try," he said confidently. He didn't know how, but she needed his help and he would do his best to give it.

O-O-O-O-O

Gold flew over the valley a very short time later, looking for Claw. He had gone off somewhere in the short time since Gold had last seen him, and that was a problem.

But there was another light wing circling around with their eyes roving across the valley below, and there were several ways to solve this particular problem. If it was a race between him and Cressa, nothing said he couldn't sabotage her.

He flew over to her, passing in front of her in order to ensure she noticed his presence. "I heard you were looking for Claw?" he called out.

"Why do you care?" Cressa hissed back. "Mate of my insolent, idiotic failure of a daughter."

Gold resolved to find wherever Cressa slept at night and relieve himself there, but outwardly he grimaced and nodded. "Yes, and I feel like spiting her. You will find Claw searching for traitors out over the forest, away from the shoreline. Go do whatever has her so upset, she would not even bother telling me."

"You might not be so bad," Cressa hummed. She set out in the direction he had indicated without ever thinking to question his motives. He rolled his eyes. It appeared that whatever made Lily and Pyre so devious had skipped the generation in between. The air above the forest was the place Claw was least likely to go for any reason, and Gold doubted he had even left the valley.

That aside, Gold had no clue where he was right this moment. He swooped low, gliding above the valley and once again checking all the obvious places. The plateau was empty, he wasn't by the pond or waste pit, and there was nowhere else for him to be. The caves would be swarming with hatchlings and fledglings at this time of day, and he had it on good authority that Claw didn't have anything to do with his offspring most of the time, so he would not be there…

Gold knew he had tricked Cressa into giving him a big head start, but he was beginning to wonder if Claw had actually, for some unfathomable reason, gone flying outside the valley. That would be ironic, and very bad.

An angry roar saved him from his worries, and a flapping male with a thunderous look on his face brought him a new set of worries right away. "Alpha," he called out. "Over here!" Somehow, in planning to get to Claw first, he had managed to avoid thinking about what he would do next, and now he was stuck improvising.

Claw jerked around in the air, beating at it in a very inefficient fashion in his haste, and flew straight for Gold. "What?" he barked, barreling forward on a collision course.

Gold spun out of the way and wheeled around to follow, spinning a lie in his mind as he moved. "The traitor!" he barked back. "I saw someone camouflaged in the dark side of the valley!" The point was to keep Claw away from Pyre and out of sight of Cressa, and having him searching there would do both.

"Finally," Claw snarled, diving down toward said shadowed place. "Lead me there!"

Gold hadn't anticipated being dragged along, but he couldn't exactly argue. He obligingly took the lead and did his best to act like he knew where he was going, headed for the outskirts of the shaded area. He set down quietly-

Claw slammed into a rock so hard Gold flinched. "Where?" he growled.

"Somewhere near here, headed deeper," Gold lied, walking in between two sharply-edged boulders. "I am not sure what direction."

"Then search, do not give excuses," Claw hissed, leaping ahead of him. A heavy tail slapped his face as Claw passed, and he reared back until his eyes stopped watering.

They walked in silence for a little while. Gold kept careful track of the breathing and movements of the dragon in front of him, knowing that Claw's mood was both important and prone to swinging at small things.

Strangely, the search, though entirely fruitless, seemed to calm the angry alpha down to something more reasonable. His steps grew softer, his breathing lighter and quieter.

It was, Gold realized with a shiver of dread, a change from searching to hunting. He was glad there was nobody to hunt, but also worried that said lack would turn into Claw hunting him in some way.

"Is it the same one as before?" Claw asked gruffly.

"I could not tell," Gold replied, wondering why Claw expected him to know that. Maybe it was a trap meant to catch him in a lie. If he had answered yes or no, he would be in a tight spot.

"Twice, you have failed," Claw hissed. "Do not fail again."

Gold held his , he had plenty of practice rolling over and submitting when it came to Claw, so that was his first instinct. If there was a trap to be had, it would be in getting on Claw's bad side right now.

"Yes, alpha," he said dully.

"If you fail again, I will punish you," Claw said. "And maybe your mate, as well."

"I would not like to see Lily harmed," Gold said noncommittally, unable to continue with the bland acceptance when it came to that. Not only did he not want to, no sane male would be able to, so doing so would be suspicious.

"She is your mate," Claw acknowledged. "And a very, very attractive one."

"Yes." Gold contemplated 'seeing' the camouflaged light wing, but that would be too convenient. He could only use that trick sparingly, and this was not immediately dangerous enough to call for it.

That didn't mean he was going to follow along and let Claw direct things, though. "But I have always admired other females more," he offered. "Your mates include the finest females in the pack, like her Dam." False praise came easily to him, and far more easily than listening to any more all too sincere praise from Claw about Lily.

"Lily has certain qualities that make her attractive," Claw rumbled. They were still searching, but Gold suspected that short of an actual camouflaged light wing passing in front of him, he had forgotten about the search's real purpose.

"Promises of qualities, anyway," Gold retorted, trying once more to redirect the conversation to safer, less sickening skies. "She is a promise, and Cressa is an example of what she will be. You have the real thing."

"Cressa has a way about her," Claw agreed fondly. "A nimble tongue, a nimble tail… Lily may have gotten that from her."

"I would not know, her tongue is always sharp for me," Gold quipped. "She has a way with words." He ducked down a side passage, desperate to get Claw off of this subject. "Can you smell anything down here?" he asked. "I cannot tell if someone has been by recently."

Claw shoved past Gold and into the corridor, and inhaled deeply. "No, nothing," he growled. "This was a waste of time."

Gold agreed with that; wasting Claw's time in a forgotten corner of the valley was exactly what he was going for. By now, Lily had definitely gotten to Pyre and warned him. The more time he could give them, the better, but-

"There!" Claw snarled and leaped forward, pursuing a moving patch of shadow. Some stupid light wing fled, camouflaged and unwittingly sticking their idiot self into this hunt. Gold followed, thinking frantically. What was he supposed to do now? Let Claw catch that light wing, and hope they had an amazingly good explanation for being camouflaged and fleeing? That way would get him and Lily out of trouble…

He leaped from rock to rock, following Claw and doing his best to look like he was trying to help while being utterly ineffective. He didn't block the camouflaged light wing as they fled, though he did take the chance to pounce, miss, and trip up Claw in a wider corridor.

Two back paws tangled on his wings, he rolled with the blow, and Claw's hindquarters came down on his chest. He took a nasty scratch as Claw kicked free, but he had 'accidentally' given the stranger a small lead, which they used to take to the air.

Claw followed, snarling all the way, and Gold forced himself after them. He flew as fast as he could, coming level with Claw, and then pulling ahead. "I will get them, alpha!" he proclaimed. This could go the way of his last chase with a camouflaged dragon. Hopefully it was Crystal he was chasing, she would remember what he had done.

Whoever it was, they fled up toward the mountains, and out over the forest beyond. Gold spared a moment to wonder whether he and Claw would run into Cressa, and another to wonder what in the world this light wing was thinking.

The light wing dove, twirled and juked from side to side as he and Claw doggedly pursued. The bright, clear sunlight made it easier than normal to keep track of the shimmer of camouflage, though it still was not easy by any stretch of the imagination, and when Gold really did lose their trail, Claw did too.

Claw snarled, cast about in the sky, and then turned on Gold. Gold had fully expected that, and managed to dodge the angry slash of claws aimed at his face. "He is still around somewhere!" he frantically cried out.

A flash of camouflage off to his right gave truth to what he had intended to be a lie. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the dragon dove down to the treetops and crashed through-

The noise caught Claw's attention, and he spun into a dive with a speed born more of strength wielded against the air than actual skill. Gold watched in amazement as Claw flung himself down into the obvious opening the other light wing had made. That wasn't a smart move for either of them.

Claw roared angrily down below the trees, and then again a few moments later. Gold circled above, wondering whether he would be punished for not following. He could give the excuse that he was watching to be sure they did not come back up through the same hole; that would probably sound reasonable to Claw.

A small shadow passed over him, and he flinched as he looked up, wondering what the newest addition to this stupid, unlikely chase would be. He was rewarded with the appreciable sight of Lily's underbelly.

"What is going on out here?" she demanded, flying lower. "First I see Cressa going out for no reason, then she comes back, then you and Claw fly out here, and now Claw is gone."

"You are done with what you were doing?" Gold asked casually. "Because we are chasing a traitor… I think." He nodded down at the hole in the treetops. "It sounds like they have given Claw the slip."

"I'm done," Lily confirmed, frowning down at the hole. "I hope that is not Crystal," she said quietly.

"Better her than some hapless idiot who decided today was a good day to go around camouflaged," Gold retorted. Crystal knew the risks and was mentally prepared to flee if the worst happened – which it had. She wouldn't get caught.

Lily began a retort, but she had not gotten out more than the beginning of a rumble when Claw lurched into view. He smashed his paws down on the top of a tree, bending it with his weight, and barely made it into the air. He was bleeding in several places from his rapid descent, and his expression was murderous as he flapped toward them.

Gold watched his blood drip into the air and fall away. He looked at the anger, and thought of all he had been told. He remembered Claw talking about Lily in a way that pointed to his deeper sicknesses.

If he was honest with himself, it was the latter thought that had his blood boiling and his mind scheming. Nobody got to covet his mate, let alone her own Sire, and it was well past time something was done about it. Right now, Claw was in the right state of mind to be led into something-

And just like that, he had an idea. A terrible, treacherous idea that his time with Lily and this day's events so far had convinced him he could pull off. "Alpha," he roared, "they fled into the sky again!"

"Where?" Claw demanded, as angry and ready to hunt as ever, though his wings hitched in the air.

"This way," Gold said, pointing himself toward the sea. "Lily saw them pass by her, and we know where they are headed."

He flew toward the ocean, and both Lily and Claw followed. Both would want an explanation, and he could give one that served for both of them. "Do you know of the island?" he asked, spinning yet another lie.

"Which one?" Claw asked, avoiding admitting that he didn't. He wouldn't; as far as Gold knew, there were no islands anywhere around. He only knew the term because his Dam had taught it to him, not because he had ever seen one.

"The one just out of sight, this way," he elaborated. They passed over the shore, and out into the sky above the ocean. "It is a long flight, but it has a stream, and some hills, and a tiny forest. They went this way, and they must be going there."

"That would be a place to hide after narrowly avoiding the alpha," Lily mused. She caught his eye, and did not ask the question they both knew she wanted to ask. She would trust that he knew what he was doing.

A rush of confidence filled Gold, and he knew he could do this. Claw had tunnel-vision, and that meant he would believe with the right tricks. This sort of opportunity might not come again.

"How do you know of this place?" Claw demanded.

"Variety is the best part of life, and we wanted some privacy," Gold said smoothly.

"You are not supposed to tell people that," Lily loudly hissed, playing into the lie perfectly.

"Well, the alpha asked," Gold retorted.

"Still!" Lily insisted. "You found out about it because you were chasing a school of fish, you could have just said that."

"Maybe I could have," Gold conceded. He suspected that she actually was upset that he had made the backstory about mating, given who he was talking to, but it was the first thing that had come to mind. It was not like he was reminding Claw of some ignored inclination; what Claw had said and done earlier made perfectly clear that the twisted, wrong desire that had driven Lily to Gold was still very much present and awaiting the right excuse to be acted upon.

"I want to hear exactly what you know of this island, and how," Claw said coldly.

"It is small, far too small to hide a light wing if three people are searching," Gold said. He knew better than to elaborate too much, so he stuck to the facts he thought Claw would want to know. "Hard to see, too. You might miss it on the horizon if you did not know what to look for."

"And how is frankly none of your business," Lily huffed. Gold resisted the urge to look back, but he kept his ears up. Thankfully, he didn't hear either of them changing their positions relative to him, so Claw wasn't about to strike at Lily for her insolence.

Then again, Claw did not strike at the females nearly as much as he did the males. His treatment of them was far less openly violent… and given what Lily had told him, far worse if they were not happy to play along with his intentions. The most Gold had to worry about were cuts and bruises, so long as he kept his head down and obeyed. Lily feared something far, far more sinister.

They flew in silence after that. Gold's wings began to ache, but he knew he had a long way to go yet, and he ignored them. Thankfully, after Lily's little mishap with getting into shape, he had a much clearer idea of her limits, and his. She would be able to identify when she was getting dangerously tired, and he had more stamina than she did. So long as she did not propose turning back, he was fine.

Besides, they needed to go far out over the ocean, far enough that the valley was only barely visible in the distance.

Far enough that nobody fishing would see them. Nobody at all would see them.

As they flew, leading Claw to an island that did not exist, Gold felt more and more sure of what he had in mind. He could barely see the mountains behind them when he looked back, and if there were any light wings flying over the waters, they were too far to make out. The same could be said for his little group.

Claw's wings began to hitch at every other flap, faltering ever so slightly. "Where is this place?" he growled.

"It will be showing on the horizon any moment," Gold said confidently. "You go ahead, you will probably spot it before I do. My vision is bad." He fell back, and so did Lily. Claw led them, flying ahead.

Gold said nothing to his mate; he did not trust that Claw wouldn't hear them. Instead, he stuck out his paws, caught her attention, and let his claws out. He clutched at the air, then flew over her, batting his tail down at her wings.

When he flew back to her side, he saw that she understood. She stared at Claw, gauging the risk he was proposing. Wondering, if he had to guess, whether they would ever get another chance like this. Claw did not usually go anywhere outside the valley, let alone without an escort he could trust. He had chased an enemy that was partly real and partly fiction, and he had done so stupidly, believing them as they led him here.

Lily nodded, and her claws came out. She flew up, over Claw. "I see it," she claimed. "Squint, it is right in front of us, on the horizon."

Claw strained forward, flapping hard, and narrowed his eyes to look. Gold watched from behind. He did not give a rotten fish for his oaths to Claw, not really, and he was not holding back because he thought he couldn't strike for himself. He was holding back in case something went wrong and Lily needed him to swoop in to save her.

Lily dropped, raked her claws through both of Claw's wings, and pushed off of his back as he roared in agony. His wings pulled up and smacked into her, but she ignored the impacts, making good on her escape. Multiple large tears were spreading through his wings, forced open as he roared incoherently and flailed to remain in the air.

There was only one way such an injury could end, when the one flying had no choice but to keep flying. Claw began losing altitude, his head angled down despite his efforts to turn. He flailed in the air, dropping down toward the restless waves, so far from land of any kind that it could barely be seen on the horizon. His wings were shredding themselves, and every flap was less effective than the last.

Lily circled around to fly by Gold. Her eyes were cold, and she watched, unflinching, as Claw roared and screeched his way down to the waves. He hit head-first and disappeared in a matter of heartbeats, having never said a word throughout the entire attack.

They circled around, but he didn't come back up.

"There is no island," Lily said in a faint voice.

"Nope," Gold confirmed. "But there was an opportunity."

"To murder the alpha and get away with it." she let out a shaky laugh. "Just like that. One and done. One trick, one short flight…"

"One long flight," Gold corrected, feeling his aching wings. "We should not linger here. As it is, getting back is going to be a pain."

"We still need to get away with it," Lily huffed. "There will be consequences to Claw disappearing. This does not solve everything, it just rids us of him. The pack is still flawed and that is dangerous."

"I did not do this to fix the pack, or any of that," Gold explained. "I did it because he was talking about you in a bad way, and because Pyre was in danger, and because I saw the chance. The pack can fix itself, I care more about protecting you."

"I like that," Lily murmured, flying close. "Maybe I do not agree for myself… but I like it in you."

"Good, because I am not going to change it," Gold replied. "Now, I need some help. I have no clue how best to cover our tracks."

Lily barked an amused laugh. "Even now, you make jokes," she snorted.

"No, seriously," he insisted. "My plan was 'ask Lily to make a plan' past this part." He had thought up to whether it could be done and whether anyone would see them do it, not what would come afterward.

"Oh." She looked at him with wide eyes. "You planned a murder without having the clean-up thought out?"

"It was not a plan, it was improvising," he huffed. "We have the whole flight back." Hopefully, Lily would pick up the slack there.

"Well, I guess I have to help…" She looked back, her eyes narrowing. "This will have consequences no matter what we do."

"So long as they do not affect us, then I do not care," he asserted.

"I think I can swing that," Lily admitted.

O-O-O-O-O

They flew back to the valley under the cover of camouflage; it was stupid, Lily had pointed out, to risk being seen returning from the scene of the crime, even if that would not necessarily contradict their story. The less anyone knew aside from their word on the subject, the better.

As such, they had flown down to the shore, then wandered in the forest until their camouflage wore off. They emerged from the forest and flew into the valley in full view of anyone who was looking, without a care in the world.

From there, they went to Crystal. She was at her parents' rock, lazing around. The subtle little cuts on her front and sides were barely visible, already licked and closing, but they were evidence.

"Been here all day?" Lily asked conversationally, leaping up onto the rock.

"Because we have had quite the day ourselves," Gold agreed. "Chasing a traitor with Claw, all of that fun stuff."

"He came across me when I was talking to Cedar..." Crystal huffed quietly. "Thank you for slowing him."

"For more than that," Lily said in a low voice. Gold made a show of hopping from rock to rock around Crystal, making sure there were no eavesdroppers. It was very unlikely, but he had a habit of assuming someone like himself might be sticking their nose where it didn't belong.

"Claw flew off into the horizon, chasing a camouflaged light wing we could not keep up with," Lily relayed. "He won't be coming back."

"You tricked him into chasing nothing?" Crystal asked. "He will be back sooner or later."

"Something a bit more permanent than that," Lily hedged, baring her teeth for a moment.

Crystal's eyes widened, then deliberately narrowed. She nodded. "Thank you."

"It was coming," Lily huffed, "but Gold was the one who saw the chance."

"Thank you," she called out to him. "But why tell me first?"

"Because we needed to be sure you were the one we had chased," Lily explained. "No loose ends."

After that, they split up. Gold went to the pond, and Lily into the caves. She would deal with Claw's many mates…

All of which were now unmated, though they didn't know it yet and might not figure it out for a while. Gold groaned inwardly, wondering once again why all of this couldn't have happened before he had his own mate. He would not trade Lily for just any female, but a few moon-cycles of seducing the better part of a whole pack before settling down with her would have been the stuff of legends. And also him possibly the Sire of a half-dozen different eggs, but one could never have everything. Maybe it was better this had happened now.

In any case, his one and only mate would be spreading their version of events among Claw's former mates. He would be telling anyone he had the slightest excuse to speak to.

Cedar was easy to find, and easy to strike up a conversation with. "Duck," Gold cried out, intentionally flying low over Cedar's head. Cedar ducked, and in the process dunked his face in the pond.

"Go jump in the waste pit," Cedar growled, shaking himself vigorously. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to brag, and humiliating you sets the tone nicely," Gold quipped. "Guess what I did today?"

"Let your mate beat you senseless," Cedar shot back.

"That is later tonight," Gold retorted, ignoring the weak attempt at annoying him. "I spent the day helping the alpha hunt down traitors. If it was not for me, we would have lost them."

"You actually caught someone?" Cedar asked. "Who?"

"Well, not yet," Gold admitted with a grimace. "Last Lily and I saw, Claw was chasing someone camouflaged out over the ocean. He was flying fast, and told us to give up. Lily got tired, so obviously I flew my mate back."

Cedar nodded, accepting the lie with ease. It was so close to the truth as to be indistinguishable to an outside observer; so long as nobody had seen them actually attack Claw, there was no difference between the lie and reality.

"You lucky short-winged idiot," Cedar snorted. "Why do you get all of the impressive feats? Liona would love it if I got on Claw's good side, she is always nervous about him."

Gold could have prodded at Cedar's budding attachment to Liona, and if he and Lily hadn't provoked it in the first place, he might have done so. Instead, he shrugged his wings. "You are just too slow, I guess," he offered.

Cedar responded by throwing a wing at his face, and the important part of the conversation was done. Gold leaped into the tussle, burning off some of his remaining nervous energy before he continued on his rounds. By nightfall, the lie would be firmly planted.

Nobody would know he and Lily had murdered the alpha.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was already at their rock when Gold returned, much to his relief. He could not be told he had not spread the news widely enough if she finished before he did. Not that he thought she would get on his case about that; she was not the one to badger him about petty little things. If she complained, it was about something she considered important and actually his fault.

"To the ledges," Lily requested, leaping up before he even set down. He landed long enough to take off again, and followed his mate out over the mountains once more, through the rapidly darkening sky.

She did not speak until they were well above the mountaintops. "It is known in the caverns," she said warily, looking around even as they flew. "You?"

"It is known to all of our friends, and all of their neighbors, and by morning will be spreading as people ask where Claw is," Gold reported. He knew how that sort of thing worked, if only because his Dam routinely regaled him with the latest gossip from all over the pack. Or, she had done so, before he got out from under her wing by taking a mate. He wondered whether he should have told his parents.

"He will be back soon," Lily said blandly. "And we won't say otherwise. Ever."

"Crystal knows, and that is it," Gold agreed.

"And Pyre," Lily revealed. "I had to tell him. He is still in hiding, though. We'll have to keep a careful eye on him while all of this plays out."

Gold landed on the ledge, and Lily landed beside him. "All of what? The alpha has gone chasing a traitor, or maybe just what he thought was a traitor. He'll probably never come back." As far as he was concerned, that was the perfect scenario for them. Nobody took the blame, but the deed had been done and everyone was a little bit safer for it, his mate most of all.

"Yes, but what happens when people realize that?" Lily replied, pacing around the ledge restlessly. "Who is alpha next? How will they even choose an alpha without anyone to challenge?"

"Sounds like a good time to make a clever plan and get one of us put in charge," Gold offered.

Lily shook her head. "No, don't you see? We can't. It would be way too suspicious. We were the last ones to see him, and if we start maneuvering to take power, everyone will suspect we did it."

"And that is bad because… why?" Gold asked.

"Because it was not a challenge and we were both there, so it does not have the excuse of being fair. Because I just spent a long time talking to all of the females who will hate us for murdering him and then covering it up." Lily huffed and looked down at the ground. "I don't think us taking over is a good idea, but I don't know what will happen next. There has to be some way to figure all of this out, but I am not used to doing something so huge without thinking through the consequences."

"Then do not think about it," Gold advised. "Just wait and see what happens." He walked over and put a comforting wing over her, pulling her close. "I am not worried. It will all work out somehow, and you just said that the safe move for us is to do nothing. I am happy doing nothing." In fact, he would prefer doing nothing, if trying to take power was doomed to fail or at least make them hated.

"I am not confident the pack can fly out of this better than they flew in," Lily said.

"So?" Gold huffed, licking the back of her head. "Are you confident that we got away with it?"

"Yes," she admitted. "So long as we don't obviously benefit from his absence, nobody will suspect a thing."

"Are you confident Pyre is safer now than he was this morning?" Gold pressed.

"Yes, definitely," Lily agreed.

"That the whole pack is safer than it was this morning?"

"For now, but that might change." She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "But I guess we can wait and see…"

"That is the spirit. Now is the time to celebrate freeing Crystal and Pearl and all of those other oppressed females." He took his wing off of her and nudged at her side. "Do you feel like celebrating?"

"No," she said, surprising him. "It feels wrong to kill him and then mate to celebrate. Can we postpone that?"

"Sure," he granted. He certainly didn't see anything wrong with it, but if she did, it would be no fun anyway. It was in his best interests to be generous about accepting that. "We can do something else, like…"

He cast around for something to do on the ledges that was not inherently entertaining in the way she had just said she didn't want. "We could watch the moon rise," he offered lamely.

"I would like that." She padded over to the outer end of the ledge and sat down, neatly arranging herself facing the darkening sky. He sat down right next to her, savoring the closeness.

The moon began to rise with painful slowness. Gold did his best to tolerate the boring lack of activity by daydreaming. He wondered whether she would mind if he fell asleep…

"Gold?" Lily said, breaking the silence.

"Yes?"

"This is really boring," she admitted. "And I am feeling much better about what happened today." She pulled her tail in and slid it under his hindquarters suggestively. "So I am thinking I was too hasty in saying no…"

Gold purred happily. Maybe she was changing him, but he was definitely having an effect on her too. "Glad to hear it," he rumbled.

Author's Note: Oh man, this is going to get hectic. Sorry, this chapter probably wasn't as funny as the previous ones, but it's hard to depict a cold-blooded murder and make it humorous. (Not to say it can't be done, in fact I've seen multiple examples of exactly that in all sorts of fiction).

Anyway, this AU is about to go even more off the rails, and in the process I think I'll probably be addressing the question of 'what would happen if Claw just disappeared one day, before Lily did any serious usurpation to prepare for his absence?' With the added complication of Gold influencing her, but still.