The wolf perched high in a tree, shrouded by leaves. He tilted his head, faint silver tips on his fur softening his face, even as the storm screamed and tore, ripping branches past him only to fling them to the ground in a fit of rage. Suiting if he really bothered to think on it, considering how he raged. How tightly he held the faint control.

A faint stir of movement drew his eye. Alpha Firestorm, with her sleek tawny pelt and cool pine green eyes.

Simple. Too simple really. It hadn't taken much on his part. Just timing. In fact she had suggested they do it. Distasteful if you asked him, but so be it. She had been well punished for the suggestion.

The wolf grinned, tongue lolling past his fangs as they dropped down with anticipation at the still sweet memories. Her fear, so ripe and heady as he gutted her, tearing out her internals to watch those kits twitch and spasm with her pain. Their paws kicking out at the sudden chill, the sudden loss of blood.

The wolf shivered with pleasure, remembering when she begged him for mercy. When she used his name, whispering it in a faint plea. "Frost, Frost please. It's your heir I carry. You need to stop. I'll lose the litter."

Movement drew his eyes, his momentary distraction costing him as Firestorm settled to wait in the clearing. He twisted his head, licking his lips as she hunched up with a wince. Even from afar he could see the fresh scar, scab still flaking away.

Her voice was harsh, fierce even, as she ordered his ice demon to her, offering him a choice. One wrought in hell.

His chest thrummed, the low growling note of amusement catching him with surprise, an unnatural emotion for him. Demodaxi obeyed easily, whining and pleading with her in the most perfectly mocking way. He cajoled for peace, whimpering fake promises, all while Frost held her people in a tight clenched fist. A single order and they would die.

Demodaxi performed exactly as Frost ordered, and why wouldn't he? Frost had stolen his mind, his free will. It was a perfect situation. No danger for him.

The snick was his only warning as he was prematurely ejected from his pet's mind. He stared, eyes wide as Demodaxi's head rolled into the river. Dukari do not kill each other. Not like that. A fight is a requirement. It was cowardly to kill so suddenly.

He tilted his head, annoyance buttering his thoughts. Technically speaking, he killed fast. Without a fight. But he was no coward. He did it to terrify his people. Stop their cowardly attempts to dethrone him from his ill gotten but owed to him throne. But Firestorm? She had no reason. She was the good one. The perfect one.

Firestorm examined the bushes, her gaze never drifting up. Blood darkened her feet, her face. "Frost, get out here. I have no want to deal with your underlings tonight. I just want our deal." She sounded tired. Done.

He sighed, his eyes so dark they seemed to be closer to that of a void of space then anything alive, began to lighten. Faint enough that the storm easily masked the difference. A clone shimmered below him, sitting just to the edge of her vision. It stood, drawing her eye.

Fog rolled off it's pelt, ice crystalizing off its red fur. Tiny shards, sharp as glass shrouded them. Slicing into their skin, their lungs.

Frost's eyes lighten further up in the tree. Veins of ice blue lace through the deep purple of his eyes. He settles again, annoyance sinking its claws deeper into his mind. At almost 50 years he should be able to hide his eyes. He was an alpha. He should have the perfect mentality, maturity even, to control them in any guise. He had no need for his eyes to reveal how to kill him.

The clone began to speak, "I have no time for your whining. What is your offer?"

Firestorm twitched, just the smallest of flinches at his harsh words, "You got your alpha with your disease." She spat, "Congrats." Her tail twitched just slightly. "The offer is the third in the litter. Canine in type, just like you. Not insane. Not alpha either. Her for my packs."

Frost tilted his head, the clone mirroring his actions. He heightened her pain, waiting for that tiny wince to distract her from her mind. The clone smiled, his teeth baring in a brief mockery of a grin. "What stops me from promising and then doing just that anyways?"

Firestorm examined his eyes, her tail twitching again. "Your oath."

His oath. Quite a heavy fine of he ever dared break that agreement. Torture on his soul in fact. But, an oath not spoken by his own lips? Was that truly his oath? It wasn't him exactly speaking it. Either way, best to leave a clause in, just in case.

"Of course. That sounds fine." He purred, words mockingly sweet. "I swear, oath upon my soul, that I will leave your packs be, as long as the child in trade is in my care."

Firestorm glared, "So what, you just going to off her next time you want to attack me?" Her ears flattened, lips lifting even as her tail flicked madly to either side.

"Oh of course! She's the perfect way to declare my intentions to you, you know. Leave her flayed corpse to rot in the noon day heat before dragging her right to the heart of your home. Throw her right in the nursery, letting her maggots writhe in your spawn. Right where they belong." Both he and the clone laughed. "You know me far too well darling sister."

She stiffened, fur rising with unease even as she glanced to the storm raging around them. "Then nevermind. I'll keep her."

Frost flicks a mental command out, his mind perching as the bloated spider in his twisted map of treachery. Each line strung taunt like strands on a web, thrumming with power as they struggle in his ties. He pulls tight, snuffing out each light with agonizing slowness.

She shot towards his clone, claws sinking into ice shards. "Frost! Stop! Please! Keep it! I don't care! Leave them be, please."

"Alpha Frost." His clone corrects, slowly reforming in front of her, releasing the people from his hold. "You know I won't hesitate to kill them all Stormy. Now where is this child that you are so willing to sacrifice to the greater good?"

He flicked his ears back, rushing water filling his hearing as he casts a glance back down the river. His heart catches in his throat, the wall of water racing towards them. Even though it was miles out, it filled him with dread. His abilities would do little to save him from something like that. Well. His probably would, but would it really be comfortable? No. Definitely not.

He closed his eyes, tuning out Firestorm's next whining cries. Tendrils shot free from the confines of his mind, each line spintering into thousands of strands. They connected, fueling his mind with energy, with the thoughts and sensations of thousands of microscopic lives. Lives so easily crushed if he ever so wished.

There. Young life. His own bloodline. He tsked under his breath. Their power thrummed already, hidden behind a hastily made shield. He slid to his feet, fog swirling around him as his feet left the branch he'd claimed.

His feet fell softly, any noise they made smothered by the rain. Shadows fell across him, only expelled for brief moments by a dazzling burst of light. A rotten stump, hardly worth a second glance, but a delightful treasure held deep within.

She should've known better. It was far far too easy to snap it apart. It was an insult to him. To his mind. That shield, so pathetically weak, a newborn kit could do better.

Fangs sunk into the tip of his muzzle as he shoved his head deep into the trunk. He reeled back, shock slapping the child hard. His mind curled in on itself, leaving all but the three lines left to the kits. "You dare bite your alpha?!"

Pale emerald jewels for eyes glared right back at him. Her short baby fur immediately became soaked in the downpour. Her ears came forward even as she snarled. "You have no right to be here. Leave us be."

Frost stared at this kit so full of fire. His line. A worthy successor and not even his to keep. He leaned in, death wafting off his coat, "You may not be my heir, but you are no heir to her." He snapped out, his mind splintering her connections to blood lines. "You belong to none. Leave us!"

She squealed, wrapping her paws tight to her head. Her hind feet paddled pathetically against her chin as she mewled.

Frost tilted his chin up, the rage of the water already racing to knock his feet aside. He grabbed his heir, a child as red as he pretended. A clone of his main clone. He slapped a paw out, scooping his collateral damage away as well before shifting and shooting into the air.

He cast a glance back, his eyes meeting those of the last child. He tilted his head, dropping his mental manipulations of his sister. A final gift to the one not his. To the wildcard. He focused, ice wrapping the kit in a thick, skin tight bubble before fading away into the storm.