Welcome to Gaia! ::

Although he would have to be very hungry to condescend to eat raccoon, Ralastor found himself stalking very near the scent and sound of the distasteful creatures. His interest, however, was in the male wolf that smelled of foreign places and uncertainty. He had yet to actually claim any territory - goodness knows on his own the local packs would have no problem simply chasing him away if he got too cocky - but he was in the general area of the land he planned to one day make his own, so it seemed logical enough to practice guarding his borders.

Creeping up behind the stranger, he watched him and his movements, trying to remain unseen. It looked as though he'd be hunting soon, and Ralastor wanted to confront him before he had a kill to guard. That could potentially make him much, much more dangerous, and after the lone she-wolf this adolescent was not about to underestimate solitary wanderers the way he once did.

"Stay where you are," he declared at last, stepping out of hiding with a low rasp. Exuding confidence, the mostly black wolf held himself like an alpha, not a lone adolescent. "And state your name and business."

Dumaka. The complete lack of hesitation to comply with his demands filled Ralastor with a certain proud joy. He was assertive enough that the newcomer assumed he spoke on behalf of a pack - if not as one's leader. The thought made him stand taller, his tail high. He had missed this complete certainty, the reassurance that he knew his place in the world.

Dominance.

It was a wonderful feeling.

He inhaled deeply, as if supping on Dumaka's perfume of passivity, rolling the flavour around in his mind and enjoying it. Of course, it was not the smell but the body posture and the reply that gave away the other's feelings. Unless, of course, taunted Ralastor's newly discovered sense of caution, it was a careful act to trick him into letting down his guard. This in mind, he did not walk any closer to continue the conversation.

"A lone mouthful of flesh hunted on my lands is still stolen flesh," he responded, raw ferocity in his tone. Forget that this... technically wasn't his territory. "Consider yourself lucky you've yet to make a kill."

The edge of paranoia he'd felt a moment earlier softened. Surely no wolf could fake the sound of an empty stomach. Ralastor sidled a little closer to get a better look. The wanderer was surely older than he was, but probably wasn't much bigger. Interesting that he let himself be bossed around by a younger. Was it fear, or exhaustion, or natural submissiveness?

"How did you come to be here?" He asked, cocking his head slightly to the side to reveal true curiosity below the harsh interrogation style of his speech. Was the stranger little more than a nomad, born alone and destined to die alone? More importantly, could he be useful to Ralastor in any way? His scent was certainly strange, not entirely of this place, so perhaps he had no ties or naturally allegiances to any of the local packs just yet. Certainly he wasn't familiar enough with the land to realize Ralastor was no more than a lone wolf himself. Not that he would be for long - his encounter with the female in heat had seen to that. Once those pups were ready to be without their mother, he could begin to build the foundations of his pack.

It might be good to have someone with him in case the dam fought to keep them from him. Although Ralastor naturally inclined towards the brave, the clever, the strong... the subservient had their place in the world too.

"I am Ralastor," he said, imperiously, and stared down at the "trespasser". Although he remained standing, some of the tension of uncertainty leaked from his posture, replaced by a quiet confidence. There was a pause, and then some of what Dumaka said began to sink in. "Hunted? By what?" Certainly there were things to fear as a pup, but nothing should be capable of hunting a pack of wolves. They were the predators, not the prey.

Something in the notion disturbed him, but Ralastor anticipated the explanation would reveal some sort of devastating war between a small pack and a much larger one. Surely it was just that he'd used the wrong word - what could stalk and eat a wolf aside from another wolf? He stopped himself from thinking about it. Fear over a distant, bizarre threat was stupid, and unbecoming.

Ralastor blinked, baffled. "Men who hunt wolves? I've never heard of such a thing." The place Dumaka came from must have been very strange indeed. Humans killed almost an entire pack? For - pelts? Ralastor had heard that man stole fur from other animals because he had none, but he'd always assumed it was a story invented to frighten pups. What other information was he completely lacking that every wolf was privy to? His education had been cut short, and perhaps this was the consequence.

"Regardless, the ones around here are tame. Some wolves consort with them. I personally do not." A dark thought crossed his mind, and he added, "There are other things in these lands to fear." Threat laced his tone. If Ralastor was not yet a force to be wary of, he certainly planned to one day be.

A slow, smug smile slid across Ralastor's face, and he flicked his tattered ear absentmindedly. "There are tensions between some, friendships between others." A distant ambition prickled his skin, leaped from the tip of one bristled hair to the other, and something of it showed in his body language. "So I would be wary of whose lands you step into. While some are interested in new recruits," he said, eyes locked on Dumaka's face, "Others are interested only in repelling them."

Time to stop beating around the bush he supposed. Ralastor took a moment to inspect this wolf, decide if he was worthy. Certainly he was no warrior, no masterful hunter - but he was an underling, and Ralastor needed to start somewhere. "Mine is," he said suddenly, making up his mind to take a chance on this cringing example of a wolf. "If you were willing swear loyalty to me."

((No worries! Happens to everyone. XD And you're doing great! I think it's fantastic that you're embracing the omega thing. It's not just about rank, it's about personality, and I think you've hit that nail right on the head.))