#::RydenxCeline

[wolfontheloose]

|| Celine & Ryden ||

Ryden sighed for the nth time - a deep, cleansing exhale of air full of smoke from the cigarette he was halfway through. It was the middle of the forest, near the pack camp clearing, but it still didn’t stop the alpha from posing a small forest fire hazard with his occasional bad habit. Likewise, the fact that he was stark naked and sitting on the ground in soft, damp moss with his legs carelessly crossed didn’t stop him either even though he was aware that this was such an odd way to hang out. However, his only company was another werewolf, and one who was the closest to Ryden out of all other numerous pack members. One out of two actually, but it had been a few days since Nicky left town. Ryden sighed again. He kept losing his Nickies. Should be calling them nickels - one moment your pockets were full of them and in the next you’re out of change.

All in all, it wasn’t odd sitting around like this. Nudity wasn’t something most werewolves were overly bothered with. It just added another useless thing to think about atop of all the full moon anxiety. Imagine if everyone in the pack were too shy to strip down and not ruin their clothes when their shift was about to happen. And imagine everyone finding a tree to hide behind so they could get naked and turn into something entirely fur-covered in the next second. Ridiculous. Though Ryden did do something similar most of the time and it had nothing to do with being shy about his private bits. He was always the first one to step ahead of the pack to shift on the nights of the full moon. That was simply because his shift was somewhat disturbing and entirely physical. Rarely any of the pack had seen more than glimpses and distant silhouettes of their alpha’s wolf form. The pack usually ran together as a single unit and Ryden was sort of an orbiting satellite, padding on his large paws around the perimeters of the main pack congregation, making sure its sides and rear were protected.

Rare few mustered their courage to approach him, instinctively knowing that this particular wolf, although he meant safety and leadership, also had something peculiar about him. Something not easily explained. The only ones who fearlessly coordinated between the pack and its alpha were Nicholas and Celine, the she-wolf whose company Ryden kept right now. So far, they were the only members who fully bonded with Ryden’s wolf, who was not of the sort who shared its human side’s consciousness, only the body. And even that the wolf changed in its entirety so it would fit its animal nature.

Although it was somewhat uncharacteristic of him, Ryden was procrastinating and even the sharp chill of the forest at the beginning of February didn’t make him hurry the hell up any, feeling it a little even with the high body temperature of a werewolf because there was nothing between him and bare skin to protect him right now, nothing but ink. He knew that an offer to run together as wolves was always open with pretty much any of the pack members, even when it wasn’t a full moon, especially with Celine whose wolf was as odd as his own and who had no fear or doubts of Ryden’s, but the alpha still found himself feeling somewhat insecure and reluctant. He knew it was something he had to work on, it was important for an alpha to interact with the pack every chance they could get to build trust and security but Ryden’s immense dislike of his own potential for failure sometimes made him take more steps back than he took forward.

“Hey, wanna hear a joke?” He asked the woman, intentionally being his own distraction. “Wife asks husband how long snakes live. He asks her why, are ya feelin’ okay? Heh.” He knew it was lame, even for him. But that was the first thing that came to his otherwise kind of bummed out mind. He was missing Nicky. Pined for him even, at least a little. Even for his obnoxiously energetic energy, which he always scorned before.

@celinecerberus​

[wolfontheloose]

|| Celine & Ryden ||

They finally had a moment of peace and quiet in the back office at the Den, dust and clutter not nearly bothering Ryden as much as they sometimes did because who the fuck cared about dust and clutter right now. They were in a situation. Who cared how much a room was falling apart when everything else was too. At least at moments it felt like it was to Ryden but perhaps he was being a bit overly dramatic about it. Leaving it to Celine to take a seat at the only good office chair in the room, Ryden found another less comfortable one to perch himself on, feeling like he was sitting on pins and needles anyway. Any seat was good right now, since the loss of his werewolf stamina made him feel the very human sense of exhaustion and tiredness which was normal for a non-supernatural but had not been an issue for Ryden for pretty much six years now. That was apparently enough time to unlearn how to be a feeble little human. Not that humans were weak in general - but in comparison to the power Ryden took for granted as a werewolf, it felt like such a drastic level down to him, especially considering he needed to be at his best now more than before. He was being majorly nerfed and at such an inconvenient time too.

“I shoulda seen this comin’.” He said to the she-wolf in the office with him. “That freak that got sacrificed to the green mist back then? He said ‘you will be weak’ er sum shit loike that. That was it. He literally told us. I am so fuckin’ dumb…” Even as he berated himself, Ryden knew that even if he’d realized this before, there was likely nothing he would be able to do about it and question was whether anyone else would too or if they would even believe and go along with what he’d said. In any case, what would Ryden be able to do on his own? He had no magic. He’d spit on magic even if he had it. So no matter how he looked at it, he was useless. And it gnawed at him something bad.

@celinecerberus​

[wolfontheloose]

🅵🆁🅾🅼 🆁🆈🅳🅴🅽 🆃🅾 🅲🅴🅻

- Absolut Grapefruit Vodka, a bouquet arrangement of white, pink and red roses and a Valentine’s card that reads:

“You have the biggest heart And butt <3 Happy Valentine’s, from Ry to Cel”

@celinecerberus​

[wolfontheloose]

|| Celine & Ryden ||

The Den’s little office area was mostly used as additional storage room for years now, even before Ryden had taken over as pack leader. With the access from the kitchen behind the bar, it had old file cabinets stacked high one on top of each other, even older furniture whose use was questionable yet they were still kept around for just in case situations, empty crates, a few baskets of items left behind by patrons that never got reclaimed and who knows what other junk that never got de-cluttered and just sat around collecting dust since god knows when. Still, Ryden had made sure that it had an office desk and a few chairs that could be used for more than just stacking stuff onto them, the one behind the desk at least having a whole proper backrest, whereas the others were in various states of broken.

Most of the time it was kept locked and unused, no real frequent need for it on a day to day basis, so when Ryden unlocked it and let Celine in, the stale air and dust accumulated in the corners were noticeable and snuck into one’s nostrils to stay and annoyingly itch. The alpha suppressed a sneeze before fully stepping in to let Celine through too, closing the door behind them once she was in the room. Naturally, being the leader of a pack and its advisor respectively, the two talked a lot, had many serious conversations over the course of time they’ve known each other and managed the pack together, so it was nothing unusual when Celine told Ryden that they needed to have a chat in private.

However, Ryden was just getting a certain sort of vibe, like this talk might be especially big and important for Celine in particular. And perhaps he was a little nervous about it. Well, nervous might not be the right word for it. He was more concerned than nervous. But like with everything else, Ryden chose not to preemptively worry too much because he found the emotion pointless. Whatever it was, he could only guess and worrying over something you got no clue about yet was stupid. And once he knew about it, there were only two options: he would either be able to fix it and help or he wouldn’t. In either case, things would get their conclusion, thus worrying still remained pointless.

Offering Celine to take the only unbroken chair in the office with a motion of his hand, Ryden found a stack of sturdy boxes to lean on, strong arms crossing over broad chest as he did so. “Alrighty, m’listening.” They were alone in the room, away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.

@celinecerberus​

[wolfontheloose]

Crossword Puzzles || Celine & Ryden

“’Starlike’, six words?” Ryden asked absently, the other end of the pen he held tapping against his cleanly shaven chin as he sat at his spot at the bar in the Den, right at the end of it next to the wall. Ankle crossed over his thigh, he held an old magazine full of those old-fashioned brainstorming games like crossword puzzles folded against his knee, having pulled it out from one of the old boxes back in the pub’s over-cluttered office which he’d been slowly going through but made no actual progress in decluttering as intended initially. He just kept getting distracted, mostly by himself, his short attention span entirely to blame.

He’d found a whole stash of those from the previous decade, when printing such things was still very much a thing, if only for the elderly’s entertainment. He loved doing those with his mum when he was a kid, nostalgia hitting him, so instead of doing the few chores he’d come into the Den this early for, he was sipping on a double shot of expresso, chain smoking while pouring over one of the copies.

With no one currently in and only Celine present, the ask for help was apparently directed at her, the alpha wolf feeling not even a bit guilty that he had called his second advisor into the pub only to have her sit with him and pass time doing basically nothing, when in fact they should be sorting out the back with a new shipment. This was just so much more fun than stocking up. 

@celinecerberus​

[wolfontheloose]

[TXT]: whats the status? [TXT]: kids good u good? [TXT]: we will gonna do scouting the town forn the next week or so just in case [TXT]: pack just walking in small groups doing rounds lookin out for anything suspish [TXT]: no sweat if u got no time to join [TXT]: we juus being overcautious rly

@celinecerberus