Lusse ❆✒️

Lusse was nurtured by his mother with her specific kind of love, and this involved a lot of learning. Skade was nutorious for valuing knowledge and history, acting as the packs pups teacher ever since she was young. Lusse and his sister, Hel, had no father that they knew of and their mother never took a mate either. Lusse grew up to be calm and calculating, not unlike his mother, but he lacked the dedication that she was known for. Rather, his sister Hel seemed to have it, but she was struggling to find something to dedicate herself to. Lusse watched her trying to find it in various males, even their grandmothers mate, and he found it silly. Lusse didn't need anyone else to find purpose, he could make do by himself. Still, somehow, he found himself being followed everywhere by a young female. She liked to talk, she had the funniest things to say. It was like her brain assembled random information like a basket and sometimes dropped it in the form of words when the basket was full. Did you hear Nejlika has a crush on Ull? Did you know trees can live for hundreds of years? Any topic. Lusse quite enjoyed it and eventually he settled down with this girl.

-

"He looks a lot like Hel," Lusse couldn't hide his disappointment.

"I think he looks more like you, look at his eyes," Tola pleaded. Lusse nodded and kept his thoughts to himself. "I'm so happy Gerd is allowing us to have pups, it's a shame your grandmother caused all these wasted heats."

Tola didn't look angry or bothered despite her harsh words about their old alpha.

"If only your mother had had the spine to tell Tyr that she was wrong. She was the Beta after all, she could have influenced the decision,"

"Mamma didn't think Tyr was wrong, she found it a reasonable request," Lusse said frankly while watching his son yawn and stretch. Tola looked surprised, but not by what he said but rather at the fact that he did say it, then shook her head and continued.

"Then I guess they were both wrong."

Lusse got up and decided to check in on his older children instead. This puppy, his new son, was born as an only pup. Not such an uncommon thing, it happened to his uncle and aunt often, but Lusse and Tola always had big litters, he couldn't remember her ever giving birth to less than 4 pups. It made him very concerned. Lusse had heard about sharks, who eat their siblings in the womb. Had this puppy done something similar?

It bothered him, as well, to hear Tola talk about the old alpha that way. After Tyr had asked her offspring to not reproduce for fear of overcrowding the pack,  Tola had been disappointed and became friends with Hel. Tola even convinced Lusse to break this rule a couple of times. He understood now that his mate had fallen into some bad company, and after his mother had died, he now had responsibilities to keep Hel in check.

-

Skades death affected the alpha harder than it affected Lusse, but it was to be expected really. The alpha was much younger and had lost someone she relied on. Lusse didn't rely on anyone. He still missed his mother though, and somehow him being at the burial made all his aunts and cousins see him as included in the family. People started coming to visit, despite them being scared of Hel, and even the alpha started asking for his opinions on things. He tried to keep this a secret from the rebellious females in his cave.

-

The moment he woke up that morning, he knew something was up. And surely enough, the bad news reached him. He now stood at the far outskirts of the territory, looking at the bloody corpse of a small puppy. His small puppy. Its brown fur was almost unrecognizeable, and the wolves with him even checked to see if the eye colour was right.

"Black eyes. Is it the puppy you adopted?" Björnstjärna asked, and Lusse nodded silently, "She probably mistook a pack of coyotes for wolves and wanted to play."

Play? Why would she want to play with strangers? "Why do you think that?" Lusse asked, confused.

"Well Månskära found some coyote paw prints, and it does smell like coyotes here."

Lusse went with them to see the prints, there were indeed a lot of small paw prints riddling that muddy area. Lusse nodded and thanked them, but he knew his adopted daughter wasn't the type to try to play with coyotes. She didn't like anyone but her family. There's just no way she went there on her own, and a second puppys paw prints would blend in really well with the coyote ones..

-

The pup was named Himlaklar, in an attempt to sway his curse, and after the alphas adopted pup also died under mysterious circumstances, Lusse went to that weird bear with all the puppies to pick up a puppy. A puppy who would be older and bigger than Himla, a pup with a strong will and confidence in itself. And he named her Kalla.

-
Tola became pregnant again, and just to be prepared for what may come, Lusse took her to the scrying stone to see how many pups she was having, and he convinced her to retire with him so that he could make sure the birth would go safely. Tola seemed to think he was being silly, but she wasn't objecting. And just like that, two little pups were born. One looked exactly like Tola, and one looked exactly like Lusse.
"See, I told you things would go well," Tola said, she sounded snide but comforting at the same time. Lusse gave her a kiss and then laid beside her and washed the puppies as they squirmed and yawned.