However Elisabeth had expected him to respond to this unprompted and public confrontation, his casual dismissal of she and her concerns was not it, and only served to fuel her righteous indignation. Honestly, Lucent expected no less of the fiery young lieutenant, and in most circumstances, it was one of her most attractive qualities. There was a fire in her amber eyes that he couldn't help but lose himself in...and not as a contest of dominance. But he had to break the spell out of pure will alone.
Lucent lamented that despite all he had tried to tell and show her, Elisabeth hadn't yet learned to play the game, how to seperate their true selves that shared the few private moments between them from the characters they had to play for the public eye. Lucent and Elisabeth were much different people than the Alpha Mane and the Lieutenant Vaughn. However much Lucent despised the narrow-minded class and sex-based hierarchy held by much of their race, it was a society he was working to change from within....he didn't just have to meet it's expectations, he had to exceed them until the time was right. And that time was not today.
It wasn't even that Elisabeth was merely a Female challenging a Male, or merely a Lieutenant challenging an Alpha....it was that she was an Evertail challenging a Fang...the Fang. Her words and actions, and Lucent's responses to them, reflected on the power dynamic of their Alliance. To give her even this small, well-meant gesture meant admitting a need and weakness on his part towards Savic. As Elisabeth turned to leave, he caught the older russet-haired Alpha watching intently, wearing the sort of chilling smile that meant he either knew something, or thought he did.
Lucent met his eyes and maintained a neutral expression but for the slightest cock of an eyebrow...something that would translate to 'I know you know, and I don't care' It was the most he could do without giving anything away. He then turned back to where Elisabeth was stalking off, intent upon loosing her frustrations on her hapless man Bryant. The Mane Alpha found Lash He made a few gestures toward her, and turned back to Alpha Savic, but made sure his words were loud enough for Elisabeth to hear.
"I'm leaving my Lash to protect the Luna's and enforce discipline among the captives. A few may be....convinced, that they would rather live on our terms than suffer on those of their faithless fathers and mates. She can be very persuasive...." Lucent stated with a even look at his pale shadow, exactly where he had left her at his side, looking as distant as ever...but for her dark eyes following the brunette with unmistakable curiosity. She cracked her whip to emphasize his statement, with a genuine smile of her face that was twisted into something ugly by the five-line scar Khlia's claws had marked her with. While Savic might not have wanted her in his camp, a member of the Fang Elites was not a gift one could reject without giving insult.
"Tonight I've been lenient, sentimental, even....but let none mistake that for weakness. It's just that killing women of children brings no harm to our true enemies, Damon Redmoon and those that feast on his scraps. Alphas Davit and Mauric...." He stated, turning to regard to two that had shown the grace to accept his invitation, who showed momentary surprise at their inclusion in the conversation considering the uncertainty of their station under Lucent Mane, and quickly puffed out their chests to look able and proud."...Know this, I meant what I said when I raised you back up. That we are a family, a Pack of Packs. And just as any family has it's idiot cousins, it has it's scarred veterans and promising youths." He stated with a surprising amount of grace, tailoring compliments to stroke each man, the elder and the youngers, respective egos in such a way that they couldn't have realized he was only singling them out for praise because they happened to be the ones there at the moment.
"Your respective packs prosper and grow large, and so should your territories. And as Alphas, it is only right that you seize them with claw and fang. Train, prepare, coordinate your forces, and when next the moon goes black...be ready. It will be for you to have the honor of crossing the river and spilling first blood on Redmoon soil. I will give you no orders...Fang, Evertail, and all the others will fight beside you, but elsewhere, close enough to give aid but far enough as to not interfere. All glory and gains you make will be yours, and you will know it to be earned, not given." Lucent went on to explain, causing a stir in the crowd. Lucent was known for his meticulous management of time and place...this was not usually his way. But it was what they wanted to hear, and more importantly...it meant the traitor he suspected might be in their midst would know no more than they. If the Redmoon were prepared on the night of moon, it confirmed his suspicion. And if the outcome was a defeat...well, that wasn't his fault, the Nightwalkers and Skyclaw's should have fought harder. Lucent clapped his hands and rounded up his entourage, minus Lash, signaling that he was prepared to depart. Before he did, he turned to Savic, who seemed more animated that usual at this news...perhaps because it gave the other Alphas a goal to persue and robbed him of the opportunity to play on the concerns raised about Lucent. Or not. Either way, it kept him guessing. He then turned to his sister beside him, gesturing in the direction Elisabeth had gone.
"Dear sister, I believe Lieutenant Vaughn mentioned some warriors eager to join your nightly hunts, and other...nightly...activities. I'm sure she and Alpha Savic would like to give them a few inspiring words before sending them off." He added, almost as an aside of little importance, as to suggest that surely his friend and ally had approved such an exchange beforehand. Lucent greatly enjoyed the flash of confusion followed by a transition to anger that his counterpart adopted upon realizing what had been said.
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Khlia did not entirely understand the true nature of her brother's relationship with Elisabeth, nor did she care enough to make sense of the of the game of double-meanings and false smiles he played with the others Alphas. It was all extraneous to her real interests, such as weather she'd have time to take some wild game on the way back through the woods to fang land, finding out new and inventive ways to murder Redmoon spies, and how best to lord her new 'gifts' from Elisabeth over Alicia, who would have been able to share them with her if only she hadn't sunk her claws into Lucent first.
But she did know her brother, that the Mane blood ran just as thick in him as it did in her, and that the earlier confrontation, regardless of Elisabeth's intent, had wounded her usually calculating twin keenly. And that whatever he was scheming, be it with or against Savic, was his own confounding way of doing what any wounded animal would do, what she would do...biting back. She trudged off towards the building she knew by the smell of blood and sweat to be the Evertail warriors' den, where she knew she would find the aggrieved brunette.
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