Veti smiled coyly when she smelled the hors d'oeuvre Thad offered, her sultry,half-lidded eyes riveting his gaze to hers. Opening her crimson lips just wide enough to envelope the salty, slightly sweet bacon-wrapped scallop, the soft tip of her tongue traced the length of finger and thumb before she took the whole bite into her mouth. But before Thad's hand could fall away, the werewolf snatched her lover's wrist, keeping his fingers suspended right where they were. Crimson lips and tongue slowly wrapped finger, and then thumb, licking away any least of remnant of salt or oil that might have lingered. 

It'd be a [i]damn[/i] shame to get bacon grease on that lovely suit, after all.

"Thanks love, I was [i]starving,[/i]" Veti said with a throaty laugh and a small, knowing lift of one perfectly-shaped eyebrow. She couldn't miss the thoughtful look in Thad's eyes as he watched the ancient werewolf, so magnificent, [i]beautiful[/i] really with an unselfconscious animal grace she found endlessly mesmerizing. Aislinn's scars mattered not at all, not really. They spoke of a long life, a sometimes hard life and, above all things, her survival. 

Veti truly [i]liked[/i] how Thad looked at her, taking the whole of her in from the top of her magnificent head to the bottoms of her wickedly-curved, clawed 'feet.' She savored the wonder in his eyes, praying the shining glint she saw there might mean everything she hoped, that one day - sooner rather than later - he would join her, a wolf within of his own. 

"And of [i]course[/i] I'll share my food. There's only one or two things left in this world I won't share at all, you know." Veti winked up at Thad before her eyes returned to Aislinn, gladly. She wouldn't interrupt whatever conversation Henry wanted to have with the elder wolf. If not much else, Veti [i]had[/i] been raised by her mother - a much-loved middle school teacher in upstate New York - to at least [i]recognize[/i] good manners.

She really couldn't help that the roll of the genetic dice favored the boisterous, laughing enormity of wild appetites that was her former pro-wrestler father. 

Even so, there was something about Aislinn's mere presence that subdued some of Veti's excess of enthusiasm to a more sedate level, very much as Mrs. Blasko had once tamed herself a Mr. Blasko. No, the younger werewolf did not interrupt, but let Aislinn and Henry talk as they would. Instead, Veti leaned against her lover's shoulder where his arm was wrapped around her, tilting her head up to his ear. 

"Her name is Aislinn Hoyle," she whispered, knowing very well she didn't have to distinguish of whom she spoke. "She's Mr. Hoyle's sister, you just have to meet her - she is such a dear, lovely person. She said... Well, she said we could be [i]packmates."[/i]

Veti couldn't keep the child-like joy from her voice, and didn't even try. Of all people in this world, Thad would understand the significance of this delightfully unexpected offer to the young werewolf who, but for Mr. Hoyle, knew nothing but scorn from her own 'kind.' 

The lightness could not last long, of course. The pale crescent moon of Aislinn's scar was testament enough to that fact. Veti continued, her voice still a whisper as she explained the condensed version of all she'd learned thus far. "Do you remember the so-called Ice Queen, Thad? The fae bitch menacing Henry? She sent some of her henchmen to kill Aislinn. I only have the barest details myself, but somehow her minions and the Lupus Naturae are working together to release Fenrir, the Fenris wolf, and start Ragnarok - the Viking version of the end of the world."