Dorian swing open the heavy oak door to his brother's apartment. He found his elder brother Declan, sat at rounded table in the center of the room, surrounded by empty bottles. The stink of spice was evident as was the lingering scent of the outsider, the jetii, Declan had called her.
Declan's apartments were in a round tower room and built of the same cold pale white stone as the rest of the castle. A weathered battle standard hung from the dark oaken rafters, the standard of Clan Kanaka. Declan had once bore that very standard into battle for his father when he was no more than twelve having had his first change only a fortnight earlier. The walls were similarly decorated. Declan's old shield or the pieces that were left hung on the eastern wall. A striking tapestry depicting Durin I capering for Móðrysl hung near the door that led to his bedchamber.
"You did well to bend your knee and give me no challenge. You ha–" Dorian said.
"Is this why you have chosen to wake me at some Godless hour?" Declan interrupted.
Have my gratitude
Is what he meant to say had he not been interrupted.
"It is nearly mid-day." Dorian told him sternly. "Half our fucking world is on fire yet you spend all your time drunk or addled on spice." Dorian said not bothering to soften his disdain.
He means to test me.
Dorian would allow Declan to forget that he was now Alpha without more chastisement than that. Though Dorian would be well within his rights to remind him.
"Aye, when the gods favor me." Came Declan's reply.
To forget once was forgivable. To err the same twice in a breath was as good as an open challenge.
"When have they ever done that?" Dorian bit back. "When they allowed you to be stolen from your home? When our father died without you ever again hearing his laugh? Or was it when our brother was driven to madness and you had to stab him in the heart?"
A fist slammed hard on the table and both brothers were on their feet, faces mere inches from each other, the tension thick.
"I cannot have you like this, Declan."
A bare few days as Alpha and already Dorian felt the weight. Father was no longer here to life him from the dirt when the orbak bucked him off, nor was Durin but by the capricious Grace of the Gods Declan was.
After father, it was Declan that Dori had grown up Hoping to become.
Declan need not suffer through this grief alone and Gods knew that Dorian did not wish to.
He wished only for his big brother.
Needed his big brother.
A tear fell from Dori's eye onto the heel of his hand as he lifted it to wipe those that swam silently on his brother's face.
Declan's apartments were in a round tower room and built of the same cold pale white stone as the rest of the castle. A weathered battle standard hung from the dark oaken rafters, the standard of Clan Kanaka. Declan had once bore that very standard into battle for his father when he was no more than twelve having had his first change only a fortnight earlier. The walls were similarly decorated. Declan's old shield or the pieces that were left hung on the eastern wall. A striking tapestry depicting Durin I capering for Móðrysl hung near the door that led to his bedchamber.
"You did well to bend your knee and give me no challenge. You ha–" Dorian said.
"Is this why you have chosen to wake me at some Godless hour?" Declan interrupted.
Have my gratitude
Is what he meant to say had he not been interrupted.
"It is nearly mid-day." Dorian told him sternly. "Half our fucking world is on fire yet you spend all your time drunk or addled on spice." Dorian said not bothering to soften his disdain.
He means to test me.
Dorian would allow Declan to forget that he was now Alpha without more chastisement than that. Though Dorian would be well within his rights to remind him.
"Aye, when the gods favor me." Came Declan's reply.
To forget once was forgivable. To err the same twice in a breath was as good as an open challenge.
"When have they ever done that?" Dorian bit back. "When they allowed you to be stolen from your home? When our father died without you ever again hearing his laugh? Or was it when our brother was driven to madness and you had to stab him in the heart?"
A fist slammed hard on the table and both brothers were on their feet, faces mere inches from each other, the tension thick.
"I cannot have you like this, Declan."
A bare few days as Alpha and already Dorian felt the weight. Father was no longer here to life him from the dirt when the orbak bucked him off, nor was Durin but by the capricious Grace of the Gods Declan was.
After father, it was Declan that Dori had grown up Hoping to become.
Declan need not suffer through this grief alone and Gods knew that Dorian did not wish to.
He wished only for his big brother.
Needed his big brother.
A tear fell from Dori's eye onto the heel of his hand as he lifted it to wipe those that swam silently on his brother's face.
