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"Kaegan wouldn't let that happen to me. Not a-" He paused in midsentence, body freezing. "How did you know about that? Who told you?" His countenance went from worry to anger. He didn't need Connor.. knowing..

Well it's not like he wasn't going to tell him eventually, but.. That was something he had wanted to say in person, not through hearsay. "Did Kaegan tell you?!"

He grunted. "I'm not going anywhere. I earned my place here, with my blood, and I'm not about to leave it. And you aren't, either." He leaned back against the wall, growling in his chest.

"I guess I have no choice, then. Kaegan has to go down. And soon." He unfolded one arm from the other, shoving his left hand into his pocket, the right rising to rub his temple, shutting his eyes. "I didn't want this.."

Isiah grunted, shoving Connor playfully on the chest before standing and leaving, murmuring a quiet "Stay out of trouble.." To Tsurai before finding Kaegan.

"Kaegan?..."

The older denzien looked up from whatever he was doing, smiling weakly. "Yes, Isiah?"

"Come to the well with me. I need to talk with you."

Kaegan groaned inwardly. He knew what this meant. He nodded weakly, pushing himself up onto his feet from his seated position, hopping down into the well, Isiah lowering himself down afterward. Isiah and Kaegan walked along the inside of the tunnel as far as they thought necessary for privacy, Isiah turning his back toward the empty end to make sure nobody ducked in their head afterward to watch.

"We have a problem."

Kaegan grunted, leaning against the opposite wall, his back straight, shoulders high. He folded his arms protectively over his chest, frowning. "YOU have a problem. CONNOR has a problem."

Isiah sighed, lowering his gaze to the floor to stare at Kaegan's boots. "Why'd you have to go after Connor like that, Kaegan? Why couldn't you have let it pass? You KNOW neither of us can go on pretending like it didn't happen. I don't understand-"

"What I don't understand is how you can put so much faith into that god damned f*****t-" Kaegan spat. He instantly regretted it after Isiah rose his face, the younger Denzien's eyes cut into slits.

"What?" Isiah tilted his head, leaning forward, mouth slightly ajar, teeth shining. He curled his fists at his sides, his lip rising in a snarl. "Is that what this is about? Listen, you old <********> I went through hell and back because you couldn't accept that. They ******** put a HOLE in my GOD DAMN d**k, Kaegan! Me! And you let it happen! All this ******** time, I've been fighting to not ******** HATE you for that. I thought you wouldn't let them do that to me, Kaegan, I thought you were a friend, and-"

"Isiah, you know I never meant-"

"SHUT THE ******** UP!" The roar reverberated through the tunnel's walls, the veins in Isiah's neck bulging with anger. "I don't CARE what you meant! It ******** happened to me! And after all that time, you still wanna call me a f*****t?! ******** you Kaegan! I don't want to be your little protege anymore! I'm always gonna be a f**! I'm never gonna STOP being a f**!"

Kaegan unfolded his arms, leaning away from Isiah, nearly pressing himself against the tunnel wall. "That isn't what I-"

"Shut up. I don't care. You ******** watch your back, because your days as alpha are ******** numbered." Isiah stabbed his forefinger at him with each of the last syllables of the sentence before storming back up the ladder, ignoring whatever else Kaegan had to say.

Braeden, of course, had been alerted to the scuffle the moment the two of them had dissapeared, and had been waiting at the entrance of the well. He'd only heard the 'shut the ******** up', but it gave him a clear idea of what was happening.

Isiah shoved Braeden onto his back as soon as he emerged- Braeden landed there with an oomph, about to sass back a retort before Isiah grunted "Don't talk to me," storming back off to his own quarters.

Braeden quirked a brow up. "Damn. PMS."

Isiah had sat down on his cot, elbows propped on his knees, face buried in his palms. "It's okay, Tsurai. You can come in." He didn't pull his face free from his hands, sighing, shoulders slumping.

"You know, kid, I don't think I want all this responsibility."

Isiah sighed, turning his head to the side to smile weakly at Tsurai. His eyes were starry before he turned his face back toward the ground, folding his free hand over his knee.

"That's okay, Tsurai. It's not your job." He stared emptily at his boots for a moment. "You know, it's times like these I can't remember why I was so eager to be a Denzien in the first place."

He grunted. "Denziens don't let this go. They'd follow me where ever I went. It might take a month, a year. But they'd find me and the old wounds would be opened again. We both learned that the hard way."

He sighed. "When I joined up I thought I might want to be alpha. I really intensely believed all of that malarkey." A tear fell down his eye just from gravity, running down to his chin, hanging there momentarily before dropping. "When you're young it's easier to accept dumb s**t like gods and justice."

Isiah stared blankly, listening but not hearing. There was no way that could happen. "Things don't work that way with Denziens, Tsurai. Nobody will disband. I don't.. I don't want to fight Kaegan.. I don't want to be Alpha. I don't want to spread our disease over to other kids who don't deserve it." He groaned, eyelids tightening as they shut, his brow furrowing

"I couldn't take another shame ceremony."