Citrus

such orange. many pupsit
Earthshine's first NBW

Personality

Citrus is a playful and loving wolf, but he has a sadness to him. He's the pack's ray of sunshine, but they've accepted that even the sun needs time to hang its head and cry as it sinks behind the mountains.
Pups adore him, and in turn he treats them like his little angels. He has particularly soft fur, and they often sleep on him in piles. He's very lenient, and will never bark at or punish them. Lightning wishes he would be a little stricter. He never lost a pup during his days as a pupsitter, but he did let them wander off far more than she would like.
Orion encouraged him to become a mentor as he grew older. Citrus was never quite convinced by the argument that he's too old to be watching pups all day. He still feels like a mischievous adolescent, and his achy joints and old wounds are yet to stop him from playing in the river. Still, the time off is liberating. He usually only has a lesson or two a day, and he can spend the rest of his time enjoying himself. Sometimes he wonders if it's all just chasing his lost time as a pup.

Backstory

Citrus was the first wolf to wander into Earthshine's territory. He was an older wolf, or at least compared to the two founders, who were barely out of adolescence. The pack was a still-blind, deaf pup, made up only of its two founders. Vampire bristled with instinctual protectiveness, and tried to chase him from their territory. He submitted immediately, whining his innocence.
"I'm no threat," he promised, with real fear in his eyes.
Vampire still wanted him gone, but Orion trotted up to him and struck up a conversation. He learned that Citrus was just like them; a wanderer who left his past family behind. He left by choice, though. He'd spent all three years of his life there, and he couldn't take it anymore. He didn't elaborate after that, but Orion invited him to join the pack. His voice and tale had calmed Vampire, and she agreed that he should join. When they performed the first Ritual of Family, they bit into a wound that had been opened again and again. It took him a long while to explain why he was so scarred.
He had always been a distractable, playful creature, and his old pack was sick of him. He was covered in wounds from the times they'd ganged up on him, even as a pup. Every time he veered off in a hunt, they'd rip another piece of his flesh. He'd only gotten the strength to leave when one of his pack mates got her jaws around his throat, and only backed off when the leader snapped at her.
He expected Earthshine to be the same after the Ritual. He expected to be thrown to the ground after a hunt and ripped to pieces. He still didn't leave. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad. But he was never truly hurt, apart from playful or warning nips. He had to shed his blood for his family, but only once. Eventually the pair even asked him to look after their first litter of pups.
It was strange, to be surrounded by wolves who were so violent, yet so gentle. He'd only known the black and white before — unrelenting violence or the lonely freedom of a wanderer. And in their myriad contradictions, he allowed himself depth, as well. He found a home in his mixed feelings.