As his partner left in a silent huff, almost pouting in her departure from his side, the steely-eyed Dominant relaxed subtly on the inside and set about keeping his word; being around his seemingly ever-famished Tracker for too long always set Alexin's teeth on edge, constantly on lookout for when she would force him to do something drastic.  She was commonly a source of mockery within the pack, an object which attracted no end of petty angst for him as the one responsible for her. It was the same for all those in that animalistic, feral minority she was part of—whether they were Submissive or Dominant—mostly because they were so at odds with the lifestyle so enjoyed by the majority.  Walking through the compound with her at his side always drew snide, mocking looks to him when they thought he wouldn't see them, cutting remarks where they thought he would not hear.  It was a tiresome social onslaught to weather, and insensitive to the ridicule as his mate might have been, Alexin was all too attuned to it.  Even alone, he felt the prickling sensation of eyes at his back, heard the whispered remarks about how little control he had over the one he'd been tasked with controlling.  And snide comments about the prodigal son who threw aside the gifts of his family to live the comparatively lowly life of a Hunter.  His expression hardened with every step to the kitchens, and every step down to the basement where his partner kept herself far away from him when they weren't forced together by assignment, an arrangement both had found the most agreeable.  Instead of in her room, however, he instead found Fera meandering about the halls nearby, lazily pretending to appreciate the tapestries and oil paintings of their pack's history.  A minuscule scowl marred his countenance before he cleared his throat sharply and spoke plain.  "I have some beef here, it's even still bloody."  He extended the plate towards her, covered in a cloth that had, at first, been lily-white.  Now it was soaked through in the center with dazzling, nauseating blood.  "Enjoy."  He left her with her meal, certain she would eat in her room where she would be left undisturbed, retreating to his own chambers on the upper floors of the many-storied mansion.<br/><br/>In stark contrast to the concrete near-kennel that Fera spent her eves in, Alex far enjoyed the more refined creature comforts of the civilized world; a large and soft bed with plush pillows and warm sheets.  When he was younger he had frequently enjoyed immature trysts with other Dominants in that bed, Huntresses-in-training for the most part who had themselves yet to be partnered with an appropriate mate; he had since outgrown such things along with the adolescence that had encouraged them.  He sat in his reading chair, thickly-cushioned and plush, and massaged the temples that throbbed slightly at the beginnings of an exhausted headache; today had been strangely draining for him.  He chalked it down to having not gotten much restful sleep the previous night, reclining slightly in his seat and letting his eyes slip quietly shut for a time, accompanied only by the sound of children playing in the distance and the occasional soft footsteps passing by his door as someone or another went past.  Being on the fourth of five floors, Alex's room gave him the privacy owed to the distinguished members of the pack; very little traffic passed through the halls, and the height muffled any noise from the grounds.  It was quiet, the thing he loved most about it for the comparatively little time he was allowed to enjoy it; normally, work as a Hunter or as a high-ranking Dominant drew him away, as it no doubt would before an hour was up.  For now, though, he simply relaxed, getting up briefly to pull a book from the shelf which dominated the east-facing wall—the manor being oriented such that most rooms' windows faced north, such as his, or south rather than into dawn or dusk—before once again being seated, pulling out the small, slim-framed reading glasses tucked away at his breast, opening the hardback and reading the autobiographical accounts held in his hand.<br/><br/>Surprisingly, it took a whole two and a half hours for him to be disturbed, this by a young cousin he had from time to time crossed paths with over the years.  They had progressed through life almost tangential to each other; where Alexin had pursued the life of a Hunter as a method of throwing off the shackles of high status from time to time, Richard had forgone the talents that would have made him an even greater Hunter in order to run the rat race that was being a candidate for the next Alpha.  Where the wolf with eyes of iron had spent his life caging and silencing the wolf that yearned to run with the wind that all his kind held in their hearts, his stolid brown-eyed cousin had grown closer to it, drawing comfort and some bizzare, bestial strength from it that left him bordering the same territory Fera dwelt within.  Where Alexin was said to be a capable Dominant in his own right, with most families in the clan having competed for his attention on their Submissives before—and some even still after—he was mated to Fera, Richard was too freely unrestrained to control most of them and was closer to a Submissive in his abilities and some aspects of his nature.  All told, their one similarity was the thing all Dominants shared, the defining line between them and the other half of their kind: the Change pained them, their inner beast a thing of power and fury that their human spirits struggled and strained to retain themselves in.  Submissives drew comfort and pleasure from the Change, with most loving nothing more than to be permitted time as a wolf where they could run and howl to the moon.  That was the line which separated them more than anything else.  And sure enough, Richard had come to his elder-by-two-days cousin for the same topic of discussion that they usually did: Feralupina, the free spirit whose will was unbreakable in the face of any Dominant seeking to control her.  She and Richard were rather a like in those respects, so unlike the rest of their breed as to almost border along the opposite.  And so he approached Alexin with disgusting regularity to broach the topic of transferring her to him, an act that was unprecedented, forbidden, impossible and irresponsible in so uncountably many ways that Alex never knew what reason to state before beginning the beating that never occurred.  And beyond all that, Feralupina was a Tracker first and Submissive second; being paired with anyone but a Hunter would leave the years she had spent training as a killer instead of a homemaker as a useless waste of effort.  And so after much headache-inducing dialogue, the nearly-feral yet not quite cousin was coldly bidden farewell once more by the regal and icy Hunter, who after a time leant back with a groan before leaving for the lower floors, intent on enjoying a cup of coffee—black with extra sugar, just the way he loved it—in the small, almost cafe-esque den that looked out over the woodlands towards the city.