Crowe mourned – the snap as his soul tie broke with Echo upon her last breath thrummed in his heart constantly over the past days. Upon her passing and the pups falling asleep, Crowe had ordered Narcissus to take them away so that the King could properly mourn and bury his soulmate. Those moments alone with her were necessary, but it made it so hard to do his daily alpha duties. He groaned, slowly gaining consciousness from his depressive nap that lasted who knows how long. Crowe’s dark eyelids slowly blinked, and the black frame slowly rose to its feet. The first sensation was the obvious all-body stiffness, but added onto it was a weird added weight and additional stiffness at his joints, which when he was finally awake enough to process, Crowe looked at his shoulders – crystal clusters of some black gemstone were sprouting from his body. He knew nothing about stone types, but he would find out sooner or later that it was onyx. That didn’t matter at this moment, however.

What did matter, was him finding some food and water.

Crowe at first stiffly moved his way towards the waterfall and river that ran through Amaya. It had partially frozen up, but it was still possible to find a fish there and get a refreshing wake-up call to his system with the cold water. His limbs became looser and more pliable as headed towards the waterside, and once arriving, he dipped his head down to drink, satiating his parched maw. Once he had his fill, he scanned the rapids for any fish that might swim by, and thankfully, a trout fell out from the waterfall just a few feet away, hitting the rocky earth beside the bank. An easy catch – Crowe quickly got up and snagged the delicacy before it could wriggle back into the icy water. Laying back down, he tore up his “catch” and began to eat, thinking about what his next plans of action were.

Crowe knew he would have to call a pack meeting soon to announce the death of the queen. In doing that, he knew he would be leaving himself vulnerable since that agreement with many of the other leaders of fellow packs. He knew he needed to find a new mate, or at least someone to act as one, and quickly, so that there would be little suspicion about his ability to give royal children up for peace treaties. He scowled at that idea. Crowe had really wanted to have more pups with Echo, he did, but then Narcissus had to sweep in, that prick. The king let out a sigh, tearing more into the fish’s scaly flesh. It was the rules he made, after all. Margaery had crossed his mind – he never laid with her that night he went to check in. In fact, he still wanted to. She was pretty, after all, and from what he could gauge, also attracted to him. Crowe still lacked energy to try and find her, partly because he was not ready to face the world again after the death of his soulmate. The brute knew he had no choice, however, and hoped maybe she could come find him.

Actions and thoughts and "Words."