Rind.

"What is Adotre sleeping on?"
Kellan jerked his head up guiltily from where he was carving a large block of wood by the workbench. He glanced at the Layer, then back to his mate.
"Nothing."
Gustin, never one to let an answer like that go, sipped his stew thoughtfully and kicked Kellan's bench, then walked over to inspect the Layer's makeshift bed.
"Is this a pile of clothes?"
Kellan ignored him. Gus leaned down, towards the pile, and got a whiff of unwashed Kellan. He frowned at the floor, then turned to look at the wolfe.
"Are these your dirty clothes?"
Kuskellanar determinedly did not look at Gustin.
"It is where he chose to sleep."
Gus tilted his head in confusion.
"Why?"
Kellan ignored him, quietly working the tool that was in his hands, his steady motion making thick strips of yellow wood rise up and peel away. Gustin prepared to press the issue, but just at that moment, the Layer woke up, yawning his way into the conversation.
"Breakfast?"
he inquired, in his animal voice. Gustin turned to greet him, lifting his soup bowl in indication.
"Lunch. You're late."
Adotre got to four feet and stretched, then shifted, then yelped as his skin touched the cold floor and shifted back. He padded on four paws over to Gustin and rubbed his head beseechingly against the human's leg. Gus scowled at him, but obligingly poured some soup into a dish and set it on the ground. Adotre slurped it down noisily, licking the bowl so hard that it scraped across the floor. Gustin took it from him and refilled. Kellan put down his tool, suddenly, and spoke.
"I have considered your proposition, Human."
Gus raised his eyebrows in interest.
"About what?"
Kellan folded his hands in his lap.
"I believe we should move the den."
Gus tried to contain his surprise, then delight at Kellan (essentially) admitting he was right.
"But if we do so, the move must be completed soon, before you are burdened with the litter such as to make travel unwise."
Gustin swallowed, a sudden wave of fear coming over him; Kellan had made the litter sound like a guillotine, a deadline hanging over his head - a sentence. Was that what it was? He knew that women had died in childbirth, not infrequently...did he carry his death in him now? Gus quickly turned off this train of thoughts, focused instead on Kellan and his plan.
"How soon should we go?"
Kellan furrowed his brow.
"Before two moons. Maybe three. A female must den some moons before the whelp."
Gus narrowed his eyes.
"I am not a female. And I will not 'whelp'."
Kellan looked surprised at the venom in his mate's voice.
"I meant no insult, mate. I only spoke what was familiar to me."
Gustin relented. Adotre, who had inched closer, nosing a near-empty second bowl of soup along, looked on with interest. Gus sat down on a pile of furs near to the low table.
"Forgiven. So you agree with me, then. You want to run."
"Not run - move."
Kellan glanced worriedly at Gustin.
"We must find a den that is safe, stable, and well hidden, in case the birth comes before we can find a pack."
It was Gustin's turn to look surprised again.
"Find a pack? What for?"
Kellan looked uneasy; he turned the carving instrument over in his hand.
"So that we may attempt to rejoin."
"But you're an exile! You want to rejoin a pack now? I thought you said that was impossible!"
Kellan frowned, gazing off at a curl of wood on the floor.
"Unprecedented, mate. But not impossible."
Gustin considered this for a moment.
"But...do you even want to join a pack again?"
the Wolfe looked up at him sharply, longing and pain written clearly in his features. Gustin considered the silliness of what he'd said. Of course Kellan wanted to join a pack again. Exile made most wolfes go mad.
"Well. What pack?" Gustin mused over the thought. "IceWind comes closest to here."
Kellan cocked his head.
"You know the details of our packs?"
Gustin grinned proudly.
"I know quite a bit."
Kellan grunted in response and went back to working his tools over the wood in front of him.
Adotre quietly licked his bowl clean. Gustin ignored his whine for more.
Kellan spoke again.
"IceWind is hostile; they are too close to the exiles in the Irion, and are unwilling to compromise their borders. They would be an unlikely choice." there was a thoughtful silence. "There appears to be a new pack forming, not far from here, to the south and the west. I was hoping that I might be able to join amongst them..."
Kellan trailed off and Gus quietly absorbed the words, listening intently for the ones his mate didn't speak.
"...But you'd rather go back to Arem'mir."
Kellan was silent.
"That's it, isn't it? Joining a new pack isn't the same as going home to your old one."
Kellan grunted from the bench, kept carving. Although the wolfe wasn't speaking, Gus felt his mate's pain clearly; it resonated off him in waves, made all the clearer if you just listened half the time to what he was saying. Kellanar was a wolfe of Arem'mir, above all other things. Even here, banished to this cold corner of a lonely planet, he kept the old ways; he treated his mate with kindness, taught him the songs, observed the holy days, remembered the songs, stories and myths. Still spoke to the Moon.
Kellan dreamed of his home sometimes, Gus knew, because his mate would move frantically in the middle of the night, running in sleep perhaps, jostling his mate awake, and then Gus would watch him and see the stress lines forming, the grimace and the eventual sadness that overtook the wolfe as the dream, as always, faded away. Gus went over to the wolfe, putting one hand over his mate's, stopping his carving.
"Then go to Arem'mir."
Kellan wrenched his hand away. Gus snatched it back.
"No. I mean it. Tell them what happened. Tell them who really killed Sparo. Tell them it was Ideste."
Kellan turned away.
"I cannot betray my beloved, Gustin."
Gus felt a roll of anger wash through him, but he controlled it as best he could.
"Kellan, please, please listen to me. And don't bite my head off - "
"I would not - "
"- metaphorically. This time. I just - " Gus stopped and bit his lip, unsure how to phrase this correctly. He took a deep breath.
"Ideste is not your beloved, Kellan. The person you were in love with (Gus made sure to use the past tense here) never existed at all. Can't you see that? Ideste set you up. He betrayed you. And he's a killer! You have to turn him in!"
Kellan began to growl, and Gus leaned forward and placed one, gentle hand on his wolfe's cheek.
"For the sake of your pack, and the safety of your lit," Gus whispered, "You have to tell the truth."
Kellan stared a long, long minute at his mate, just taking in what his beta had said. Was it true? Could it be? Ideste, an actor...the possibility was heartbreaking. Their love had been lies? Kellan recalled curling up in Ideste's bed, sure that he would never leave it, never love another, never need or want anyone else, ever again. But then here was this green-eyed little human, and he did want him. How badly he wanted him. And now he had a mate, and a lit, and everything had changed. When Kellan really considered everything, Ideste felt a million miles away. But then he thought of the day they'd taken him from Arem'mir, and the pain was back as fresh as before. Kellan couldn't, simply couldn't believe that his exile had been for naught.

And yet...Gustin was an informer; he noticed things that no one else did, picked up on tiny details that could make or break an escape, an attack, a harvesting plan, a life. Gus weighted his life on knowledge. Perhaps he knew something of this. Anyway, it was often said that betas knew the hearts of betas best...perhaps Gus had sensed something from the story? Perhaps because he was the Synthesis...but was there truth in even that? Kellan shook his head; he needed more time to think. Sounding disconnected, he heard his own voice say:
"I will consider the things you have mentioned here, Human."
Gus sat back, still looking worried. Idly, he rubbed his shoulder, touched the mark. It brought Kellan back from his trance. Ideste would be a problem for another day. Today, there were things to do. Homes to begin to pack, and Layers to tend to, and mates requiring discipline, and plans to make.
Kellan cleared his throat.
"We speak now of other things." Kellan felt his tone made it clear that the topic was closed for conversation. Gustin did not feel the same.
"We haven't finished talking about your pack yet."
Kellan frowned.
"Human, I have told you I require time to think. We will discuss this later."
Gus squinted at Kellan.
"Are you sure you're a wolfe? Because you sure run away from things like a rabbit."
Kellan drew himself up, his ego bristling sharply at the attack. From the floor, Adotre giggled. The wolfe silenced him with a glare, then turned it on his mate.
"You will mind your tongue, little mate. Do not think I have forgotten your recent disobedience."
Gustin scanned his memory for clues as to what his wolfe could possibly mean. Then the door, and the promise of punishment it had earned came to him, clear as day. His stomach did a little flip.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Kellan narrowed his eyes, first at Gus, then at Adotre, who had inched his way so far into the conversation that he was almost in Kellan's lap. At Kellan's growl, he backed up to the other side of the table. Kellan looked again at Gustin.
"Your attempt to open the heavy door, Human." Now Kellan leaned forward, seizing Gus' jaw in his grip. "You must understand that you are Mate, important to me. And my lit? Important to me. I will not allow you to endanger either."
Gus wasn't sure whether he was flattered or offended. But he knew that he was definitely turned on. Aggressive, Commanding Kellan seemed to have that effect on him lately; must be a side effect of the lit. The wolfe leaned closer so his words could be heard clearly.
"The door is not made for humans, Gustin. Do not attempt to open it again."
Gus didn't answer, the thrill of minor rebellion tickling through him. Kellan snorted and released his jaw.
"It is clear some discipline is necessary." Gus felt a tremor slip up his back. He watched the wolfe and waited. "That will have to wait."
Kellan glanced at Adotre.
"What happens between us does not require an audience."
Gus bit his lip and didn't know whether to feel relieved, amused, or disappointed. He turned to go and contemplated getting himself another bowl of soup. Kellan's growl once again captured his attention, and he turned to face his wolfe.
"Oh, do not think I will forget, little one, your small disobedience. You'll pay your due, as soon as we are alone."
Gustin simply smiled charmingly at Kellan, raised an eyebrow to make the smile a smirk, and got up to get himself a bowl of water. From the floor, Adotre stared on in fascination. Was this, he wondered, what having a mate was really like?

~:~