#Charles Cornick

[bonemarble]

love your thoughts on Leah! how do you think her relationship could develop or what direction would it go in regards to Anna and Charles after wild sign?

interesting question! i don't think i have a very good answer for a "direction" these relationships could take, mainly because that depends on the larger story pb wants to tell: is this a story where people deconstruct the social order that has generated them or one where they try to find some measure of peace in it? i'll explain better under the cut.

charles and leah, i think, are at a point where they are starting to come to terms with their rivalry and identify its true cause: they were two lonely children starved for affection fighting each other because they couldn't fight bran for it. at the same time i don't know that this modicum of understanding is enough to build a relationship. even seeing the situation with a bit more clarity, the material causes that pit them against each other are not going to disappear, they have centuries of ill feelings between them, and i think at this point they simply don't like each other very much. even more importantly, i think there's a very good reason they are so repelled by each other and it took them so long to see the other's distress: they are very good mirrors. they both spent formative years of their lives with bran as the only (if imperfect) parental (or quasi) figure in their lives and attached the majority of their sense of self to their usefulness to him. to fully recognise the pain of this in the other would come very close to recognising this in themselves. they both know bran doesn't treat them well but they have become accustomed to it, i think. they grow some thick skin over it, shrug it off and get on with things (that's how bran wants them after all). seeing the other's wounds would make their own much more difficult to ignore. there's also an even more convoluted contortion in place: if they each believe bran is somehow unfair only towards them while he is right when he mistreats others, they never need to really question bran's judgement. feeling isolated in this unfairness is preferable compared to confronting the life-shaking truth that the person that moves the sun in your world may be doing it wrong. many other thoughts along these lines but this is already long.

leah and anna also have a mildly antagonistic relationship but of course there's less history there. my main issue with anna is that the only way to give her some true tridimensionality would be to acknowledge with some seriousness the difficulty of her circumstances. she was turned against her will, abused for years, and then latched onto her only saviour. he is a man she knows little when they basically marry and he is violent and possessive. her new life revolves around him and his complex family, with which she lives and has to deal all the time. at the same time, her survival depends on their support and protection, as we have seen how much her 'omega specialness' doesn't really ensure safety without material power to prevent her exploitation. there's no need to turn this into a grimdark novel, but if this context is not always waved away, suddenly she is not an unrealistic fairy always untouched by events: she is someone making strategic decisions to craft the best life possible out of her circumstances, finding love where she can and fighting for it. she has no true interest in anyone besides charles bc she is rightly guarded and balancing her new relationship with him already requires a lot of her energies. + he is the only person she can trust to be in her corner, without which she should be as lost as when they met (she also truly loves him ofc but this hardly explains her isolationist behaviour). she manipulates others not bc she is some quirky genius: it's the only way she sees to obtain what she needs when she is surrounded by aggressive impulsive people that are more powerful than her and feels the need to forestall their worst reactions. when bran and charles start giving her some latitude, she relaxes around them, especially as she realises she has things she can leverage (charles's love and her omega powers) to ensure a better condition for herself. but she is still wary of their flaws and recognises how they impact leah. yet leah is unpleasant. she sometimes makes her life more difficult but not really with the gravity and frequency people seem to assign her. even on good days however anna, so so smart and crafty and sneaky in navigating her circumstances, is almost annoyed by her: how has she not learned to do this better? how has she not learned to make herself likeable and dance around people and avoid confrontation to better obtain what she wants? but there's something else behind it, imo: leah might be brash and crude but she is real. how liberating that must be, to not always feel like your well-being depends on how quickly you past on a smile! the reason anna doesn't like leah, is the reason most people don't: to acknowledge leah's reactions as sensible is to eliminate the displacement of blame that allows life under unfair circumstances. to see leah's anger is justified means asking herself: why is she not angry? leah is a great mirror for her too. she can recognise her pain if she imagines her to be in a much more difficult position, someone to help from a higher standing. to confront her from a position of parity would mean to confront that position of parity: that she doesn't have any more material power than leah and her current better treatment stems from a momentary lucky alignment of events over which she has little control. bran and charles are, in their own ways, as unpleasant as leah is, only 1) anna needs them to survive; 2) since they also need her + they are not threatened by her they generally choose to treat her better. i am not saying anna should roll over and let leah treat her however she wants: leah enacts a similar mechanism with anna after all. disliking anna for being treated better is the only valve available to release her anger: it's not like she can accomplish much by going against bran and charles.

necessary prelude for me to say i don't care if leah and anna become fast friends. much as i don't care if leah and charles do. i think this dynamic is interesting even if it remains antagonistic, as long as either immobilism or change follow some logical exploration of this setting. it can truly go either way i would be ok with both.

[slowlysointernet]

Okay so this is an old contemplation of mine that i forgot to post but why do Samuel and Charles have slightly different views of their father and Leah?

Samuel in Iron Kissed:

''Despise'' huh? That's a strong word. Is that how Samuel sees his father act to Leah?

Charles in Cry Wolf:

Charles seems unsure about it all compared to Samuel.

What's interesting about all of this, is that Bran felt the need to hide and twist the truth about his mating to his sons, the people he's closest and dearest to.

[browsingaround2]

Spoilers for Burn Bright, Alpha & Omega Series.

….

Patricia: Bran maybe has a repressed thing for Mercy.

The Entire Fandom: 😬

….

I’m rereading this book and I gotta say… I think I convinced myself we blew this out of proportion. We did not. It is very clear. What…. Whatcha doing there, Patty? 😅🙃

[sondrawr]

Charles: Let me ask you something.

Teen Mercy: Hmm?

Charles: Um… breasts?

Teen Mercy: [smuggling something in her bra] It’s my cycle.

Charles: Already? Damn, girl. My calendar is way off on you. You must be, what, ten days early?

Teen Mercy: Aw, Charles. Someday you’re gonna make some lucky girl really uncomfortable.

[ippu81]

This is a little snippet of my fanfic, Again.

We have the life force or soul whatever is attached to us by straps. You can have 200-800 straps and when you get in bad shape, the straps start to break. Now Damon's record with me I think is 2 or 3 straps. Colin has been outdone a couple of times to keep me alive. Charles and Adam had been talking to me for a while that I should think of Damon as a Boytoy, just use him every now and then as a heat treatment or sex toy and nothing more. The idea slowly sunk into my head.

Assault after the assault began to make some sense to me. And I was maybe slowly starting to accept that I needed to let go. Then after things like that, when I started to get myself a direction where to go, I might get heat and the only carer was Damon. And he never hurt during the heat. He knew how to handle the heat and in that bed, we were rolling around in, lying sweaty next to each other or on top of each other, he could suddenly look me straight in the eye and beg.

"Don't give up on us, Baby, please. I know I've done terrible things and I can't promise I'll never do it again, I can't help it, but if you give up, I feel like some darkness inside me will take over too much." Then after such a confession, try letting go.  But he hadn't been treating my medical problems for some time now, he wasn't interested in being a doctor.  Even though he himself had caused them for me, now he no longer wanted to fix them. Adam and Charles, and Samuel and Colin had now been the ones who always got me out of everything.

I hoped the opening would go well, Damon would behave and everything would go as it should. My dress was a fuchsia silk dress with a wide neck opening and a generous slit that reached almost to my hip. A bit of a fussy dress perhaps but I decided to wear a lace jacket for the day.

Then in the evening, I could take it off if I wanted to. My hair was blonde and reached halfway down my back. Charles would be in shortly to do my hair and make-up. Charles was a vampire now, too, and could make dental materials.  I showered and got dressed. My underwear was just lace panties and I slipped on a dress. It fitted my body well and left little guesswork about my shape. The slit was gorgeous. I slipped on a pair of high heels in the same color as the dress. And I sat down at the dressing table to wait for Charles.

[ridasart]

today’s leah/bran thoughts: one of my big worries with the a&o series is that the reason patricia briggs is (finally) focusing more on leah, both as a character and her relationship with bran, is because she plans on killing off leah eventually 😭 she keeps teasing an inevitable bran vs charles showdown, and the only situation i can see that happening is if leah dies, bran goes berserk and becomes a danger to everyone, so charles then has no choice but to stop him

[simonsaysletsgo]

Personally, I think Leah Cornick, for her great sacrifice of being mated to Bran for 200 fucking years should just get to be a bitch to whomever she wants. Shes earned it.

[mercybran111]

read my book if you like mercy Thompson book series.

[leahsupportgroupmember]

On Leah Cornick - Ramblings Part 1

Leah and Bran have been married for 200 years, they have history prior to Mercy and their issues didnt start with her. Its a bit over blown to think shes at the center of their issues. Since Leah literally killed her own child BECAUSE he was a walker. I think she hated Mercy from moment 0 because she knew Mercy was a walker instinctively and to her that spelled doom and danger and unspeakable horrors. She wanted her out of her life/pack even when she was a baby.

It is AFTER when Bran and Sam etc started showing inappropriate behaviour that it turned worse. We get the story from many pov (Mercy, Charles) and I think Mercy is an unreliable narrator whilst Charles is shown to have character growth and be able to look back at his past with new eyes thanks to Anna’s probing.

Also Leah is obviously deeply insecure in her position as Bran’s mate and from that her position in the pack. He made her that way. Shes only tolerated as long as she is useful. Thats all she knows. For 200 years, he never cared to ask of her past. Probably following his brother’s directive to not speak of the Singer and also to not drudge her non consensual change and mating. But he knew nothing of her life prior?! He never cared, he never asked. It makes me wonder, did he care to know her feelings, her mindset, her perspective on things at all?! When she reacted badly towards baby Mercy and wanted her away from their pack, did he wonder why? Did he bother asking her why? Did he fucking hear her out??

He just assumed a traumatized amnesiac woman was stupid and dumb and bigoted. He never got to know her. He never even bothered.

[crimsoncold]

Note: This is my main blog a combination of all my art +a veriety of fandom stuff + any random thing that catches my eye... to find a place where I post nothing but my art you check out my side art blog @crimsoncoldart

A Complete list of all Fanart by @crimsoncold

Organized by Fandom, includes links to posted art work (in white) and a list of ongoing series (in green), in progress works (in blue), and soon to be posted pieces (in red)

(All artwork will be tagged and made searchable with #Crimson Cold or #my art)

A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones

ASOIAF/GOT (Gen) MASTERLIST

ASOIAF/GOT (Jonsa) MASTERLIST

ASOIAF/GOT (Sansa Rarepairs) MASTERLIST

Jon Snow x Sansa Stark (Jonsa):

Family Portrait in the godswood of Winterfell

A Shared Dream of Family (day time version)

A Shared Dream of Family (night time version)

Wedding in the Godswood (winter version)

Wedding in the Godswood (spring version)

A Bedding at Winterfell

Future in Winterfell (A Jonsa Collection)

Jonsa Beyond the Wall (A Wildling AU)

Escape to the Free Cities/Essos AU

The QITN and her Lord Commander

Devotion Beyond Death (whitewalker/warg au)

Jon meets Alayne (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Jonsa Regency AU

Jonsa Period Drama Portraits

Jonsa Modern Hockey AU

Jonsa Post-Apocalyptic AU

Jonsa Modern AU (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Aemond Targaryen x Sansa Stark (Aemondsa):

The Lady Wolf and her Dragon Knight

Alayne Stone and her Dragon Knight

ASOIAF/GOT Second Generation: (HIATUS)

Robb Stark, Jon Snow, Sansa Stark,

Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Rickon Stark,

[House Stark]

Willas Tyrell, Garlan Tyrell, Loras Tyrell

Margaery Tyrell, [House Tyrell]

Arianne Martell, Myrcella Baratheon

Myranda Royce, Mya Stone

ASOIAF First Generation: (HIATUS)

Brandon Stark, Eddard Stark,

Lyanna Stark, Benjen Stark,

[House Stark]

Catelyn Tully, Elia Martell

Arthur Dayne, Ashara Dayne,

Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister

Robert Baratheon, Rhaegar Targaryen

ASOIAF 1st Gen Masterpost

ASOIAF Stark Family Portraits

Ned and Catelyn, Robb and Jon,

Sansa and Arya, Bran and Rickon

ASOIAF/GOT Starks & Direwolves

Robb and Grey Wind, Jon and Ghost

Sansa and Lady, Arya and Nymeria,

Bran and Summer, Rickon and Shaggydog

Miscellaneous asoiaf/got:

Alayne Stone Sansa Stark, QITN

Jon Snow Sketch Sansa Stark Sketch

Jon Snow Sketch 2 Sansa Stark Sketch 2

Jaime Lannister Sketch

The Starks (A Little Women AU)

Shadow and Bone

Alina Starkov x Aleksander Morozova (Darklina)

Nosferatu AU

Nosferatu

Affliction and Appetite (Nosferatu)

Harry Potter

Harry Potter x Hermione Granger (Harmony):

Family Picnic (TO BE POSTED)

Dancing in the common room (IN PROGRESS)

Sirius Black x Hermione Granger:

Family Outing to Diagon Alley (TO BE POSTED)

Attack on Titan/ Shingeki no Kyojin

Erwin Smith x Levi Ackerman (EruRi):

Expedition beyond Wall Rose

The Witcher/Wiedźmin

Geralt of Rivia portrait (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Fae Jaskier | Dandelion (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Star Wars

Padmé Amidala x Obi-Wan Kenobi (Obidala):

Clone Wars AU (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Tatooine AU (TO BE POSTED)

Miscellaneous:

Queen Amidala (TO BE POSTED)

Miscellaneous Fanart

Charles and Anna Cornick (from the Alpha & Omega series by Patricia Briggs)

Kate Daniels (from the Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews)

Nevada Baylor (from the Hidden Legacy Series by Ilona Andrews)

[bonemarble]

the make-up of the current cornick family, with all the age disparities and complicated pasts, makes for such confused familial roles. i don't think interpreting each character's actions according to very traditional scripts of mother-father-children is the most useful choice. for instance, reading leah as bran's daughterwife sheds a lot of light onto the specifics of her antagonism with charles. since she was mentally a teenager when she met him and bran took on a role of guide and authority to please for both of them, in some ways their relationship growing up would have been more similar to that of siblings than to a parental one.

charles has expressed he was initially pained at leah's inability to adopt a maternal role with him and i am sure this disappointment still colors his feelings towards her. and it's not that step-mothers can't hate children from a previous marriage: that particular flavour of displease is certainly present in leah's feelings, as charles is a constant reminder of leah's inferiority to blue jay woman. but their competition for bran's attentions feels also very fraternal at times. they were raised simultaneously to hold almost complementary positions within the pack, bran's left and right hand. the hierarchy between them is always confused and shifts depending on the situation. they hold reciprocal jealousy for how bran treats the other and you get a feeling that, secretly, each would want a bit of what the other has. leah bran's love and appreciation, that he would see her as a person instead of an intercheangable body to calm his beast. charles to be treated like someone to keep close and protect, not a useful tool sent into the world to get smashed until it breaks. their vision is limited by the shadow bran projects: they both feel somehow mistreated compared to the other, but the truth is bran makes tools out of both for different purposes and puts both in the way of different harms. he raised them as extentions of himself and shaped them to fulfill his political and personal needs, charles as his soldier and leah as his wife. neither experienced his actual unconditional love nor the possibility to develop fully independent personhood. charles's situation presents some venues of respite because, as he is a man and "only" a son, he can still find love in an exogamic relationship and he could technically branch out on his own. as bran is leah's entire world, her options are much more restricted.

[slowlysointernet]

Leah's introduction as the mean stepmother is really funny because we see Charles pov in Wild Sign when he first met Leah, and he pretty much rejected her because of her indifferent gaze towards him. He didn't say a word, and he rejected her. So yeah i have always though it was an unfair situation for her to be in, loosing everything, her family, friends and children then having the ‘stepmother’ role thrust upon her when she most likely didn't want to. There's a lot of resentment there.

In reality, a lot of people don't really like let alone love their stepchildren or stepparents as much as they tell people they do or society expects them to.

I also think the difference between her son Zander who was ''a bright-eyed affectionate child'' (Wild Sign) and Charles who was ''sullen and silent'' (Burn Bright) didn't endear him to her because he was so different to her children.

In the end, i'm mostly of the opinion that Charles was Bran’s, Samuel's and his maternal family's responsibility and not a woman who was essentially a stranger and who was too damaged to form any bonds with the people that she was suddenly dropped onto.

[browsingaround2]

Books/Series in the Mercy Thompson universe that I am respectfully (desperately) asking Patricia Briggs to write asap:

(Some spoilers.)

1. More. Bran. Lore. I am insatiable for it. Wild Sign and the short story Silver are everything. How I both love and hate this man. I’m in awe of Patty’s ability with this character.

2. Stephen deserves happiness. Please a spin off where he finds reciprocated love. 🥹

3. More Samuel and Ariana content! What were they doing in Africa?! How did Samuel react to that baby news?!

4. More stories about Ben. He deserves happiness too! (If you want to read my WIP where I’m attempting to do this, check out my ao3 story “Soul Flight”. My page is linked in the pinned post.)

5. The next Alpha & Omega book because oh my goodness Charles Cornick as a daddy 🥹

6. What happened to Tad at college?!?!

7. Will Mercy ever get pregnant? What will that baby BE?!

Please and thank you, Patty.

Sincerely,

Your devoted reader

[mercy-thompson-fanfiction]

So Burn Bright went more into Charles feelings he had for Mercy as a sister. How he went out of his way to protect her and get some of the pack involved in helping. And how Mercy also taught him a few things. Could you do a story of Charles first meeting Mercy and then later on realizing that he thought of her as a little sister. And how their relationship evolved from the beginning to what it is now.

That someone was knocking on the door was unusual.  Charles looked up briefly from the book he was reading and frowned, puzzled.  His father and brother were the two individuals who entered his home.  His brother lived to invade his space.

His father might call before hand or otherwise communicate that he was on his way, but he wouldn’t knock.  It was out of character.

And the door—they all knew—was almost never locked.

The knock came again and then a familiar but disgruntled huff.

His father, then.

Charles made note of the page he was on, but the book wasn’t particularly interesting.  It was some sort of fantasy book Samuel swore he’d find funny, but he was halfway through and he still wasn’t laughing.

He opened the door, fully prepared to ask what was wrong, and then a coyote pup wriggled its way out of his father’s grasp and sprinted in its own wobbly way through his entry way.

Charles quickly spun and scooped it up.  Fast, the little critter was, but short little legs could only get you so far.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”  He held it back out to his father by the scruff.

“That’s a human child.”  His father corrected him, taking it back into his arms. 

That explained the diaper that had taken a tumble out of his father’s arms when the pup did.

“And her name is Mercedes.”

A silence settled between them because Charles truly did not know what to say to that.  He had seen a lot of things in his life, but a human child that turned into a coyote was not—

“Walker.”  Charles crossed his arms.

His father hummed his agreement, adjusting the pup so he was holding her not unlike the human baby that he said she was.  Charles watched her closely.

He hadn’t met one of Coyote’s before, but he had met one of Raven’s and Raven was similarly cunning.

“Where is her family?”

“Her mother is seventeen, actually, and has dropped her on our doorstep.”  He sounded too cheery and Charles wondered if it was for the benefit of the child. 

He himself wasn’t good with children.

“I need you to take care of her while I find a suitable family.”  

His father must have sensed the hesitation and the wariness.  Charles didn’t think himself superstitious, but a child of Coyote was probably not something he wanted to invite into his sanctuary.

And, again, the issue of her being a baby.  

“Where’s Samuel?”  Charles asked, not removing his eyes from the pup as she playfully snarled and tugged at the collar of his father’s t-shirt.

Bran Cornick, for all of his boyish appearance, gave his son a fairly dangerous smile.  It was the type of smile that told Charles his father wasn’t quite going to get angry, but he was going to chastise him if he didn’t listen without too many questions.

“Samuel is managing some business for me.”

“Samuel likes children,”  He loved children, actually.  Charles had been practically raised by him at some points in his early life and had mostly fond memories.

From what he could immediately recall.

“Yes,”  Bran agreed with a tone one might use to exchange fake pleasantries.  “Charles, it will be a few days at the most.”

“Why can’t Leah?”

Two centuries and he hadn’t learned this lesson.  His father’s power washed over him in a way that even had the pup silenced.  Charles trained his gaze on the ground.

“Leah has a hard time with babies”  Understatement, Charles thought as he again recalled his own childhood.  “And she doesn’t like walkers”

Leah, he thought to himself, didn’t like him either.  It might be more to do with her own heritage and upbringing than his father was willing to admit.

He accepted the baby, Mercedes, this time when she was handed to him.  Unlike his father, however, he gripped her by the scruff when he pressed her against his shoulder.

His father grimaced.

“Gently, Charles, she’s a baby.”

“She’s a puppy right now.”  Charles countered.

And he didn’t want her squirming out onto the floor again.  That was a far drop and what would come of her if she changed mid-fall?

As if sensing his thoughts—and Charles wasn’t convinced that his father couldn’t read minds no matter how often he denied it—Bran smiled.

But his expression turned serious not a moment later.

“Do you know any of hers?”

Charles shook his head, wincing when tiny teeth gnawed on his collarbone.  

“The man I knew is long gone now.”  And he sighed, thinking about him brought back not-so-fond memories.  “His people are gone, too.”

Many of them were.

His father nodded, turning on his heel to return to his car to retrieve supplied—bottles, formula, diapers, and clothing he insisted were called “onesies”.

“They don’t have tail holes.”  Charles pressed his lips in a line.  “She’s a baby, she can’t be naked?”

“She’ll catch a cold, Charles.  How old are you now, you can’t care for a baby?”

Charles didn’t know that his father could.  He had been missing for a good chunk of his early childhood.

“And this,”  His father gestured to the box that contained it all, “Is where she can sleep.  There’s a little mattress in the bottom of it.”

“You’re handing me an abandoned puppy…in a box.”

They both stared at each other for just a moment before they laughed.

***

Charles, if he were being fully honest, was feeling a little ambushed.  His brother, his father, and Bryan were all stood in the office and they clearly had a conversation before he arrived.  They didn’t even wait to jump in.  Charles had hardly taken off his snow-covered coat before Bran was suggesting he teach their coyote some tricks.

Mercedes, they called her Mercy more often now, was only eight.  

“You would be doing her such a favor.”  Bryan told him, as if that was going to sell it.

Charles met his father’s eyes for a split second before looking away, frustrated to be cornered.  He liked Bryan, Bryan was good people.  

“It’s not a favor.”  Charles disagreed shortly, turning and leaving the office.

He was halfway down the hall before he heard someone move after him.

“I’ll talk to him.”  His brother, Samuel, was quickly catching up.  

It was only a split second longer before Samuel’s hand was gripping his upper arm and Charles allowed himself to be dragged out to the yard.

“What is wrong with you?”  Samuel snarled, which meant he was actually angry for real.  Charles knew his brother preferred keeping things light. “You’re acting like you’re fifteen again.”

“She isn’t my responsibility.”  Charles tried to walk away again and crossed his arms when his way was blocked.

“So you act like when da brought Leah home again?”  

Charles was ten when that happened.  He remembered it distinctly because she had been awful to him, even then.  He met his brother’s eyes briefly and watched as realization dawned upon him.

He hoped to be let in on what his brother had just realized soon.

“You’re jealous.”  Samuel snorted.  “Da likes her and you’re jealous.”

“I am not—“  Charles didn’t even know what to say to that.  “I’m not jealous.  She’s a child who needs help, her mother was a child who needed help.  Why would you ever believe that?”

Margi was actually wholly capable of taking care of herself, but she was not a match for a coyote.

Samuel grinned, the childishly playful one he had when he was torturing his brother by choice.  Charles had unluckily discovered that no matter the fact they hadn’t grown up together, Samuel was dead set on riling him up as if they were both the children that he was being accused of acting like.

“Da is paying more attention to her than to you, and you don’t like it.”  Samuel taunted and Charles could picture it, he could picture himself strangling his brother right here in their father’s back yard.

“I don’t like being ambushed by a room full of people who think I need to be teaching Mercedes about what she.  She is not my daughter.  I didn’t agree to take her in.” 

“We’re her family, baby brother.”  There was the charm.

Charles kept from rolling his eyes and again tried to remove himself from the situation.  He wasn’t stopped this time, but his brother did walk alongside him.

“There are things you can teach her.”  

“She looks like her mother,”  Charles told his brother, picking up the pace just a little to try and get to his car sooner.  “And that is good for her.  She should lean into that.”

“You don’t think she should learn about who she is?”

Without even thinking, because his reaction was more emotional that he wanted to acknowledge, Charles spun and shoved him.  Stumbling half a step, Samuel met his gaze, clearly shocked by the outburst.  

He was reserved, everyone said so.  Reacting wasn’t something he usually did, not like that.

“Contrary to what you and da seem to want to tell yourselves, Mercedes and I are not the same people.  I don’t know anything about how she should have been raised.  What I know of the language is because I lived here in Montana, not because it was my own.”  He snapped.  “And, because it is entirely lost on the both of you, it isn’t safe for her.  It is not safe to be an indigenous woman in this country in this year and it is not safe for her to run with wolves.”

There was no way his father hadn’t heard that outburst, even from the house.

“Brother—“  Samuel followed him again, picking up his own pace to catch up just as Charles was getting into his car.  

The older wolf leaned against the door as soon as he’d closed it and Charles closed his eyes.  It took him a moment before he put in the effort to roll down the window.

Even though he could have heard Samuel through it perfectly fine.

“I am sorry.  We are being insensitive.”

To say the least.

“It would be nice if you taught her what you can.  Mercy is not a witch, and yours is going to be the closest magic.”  And then, because he really wanted to twist Charles’ arm and get him to just say yes to whatever it was everyone wanted.  “I am sorry, brother.  I will try to be more mindful.  I forget you still remember your family.”

And, because Charles could play the same game, he rolled his window back up (one day he would appreciate how much more ridiculous manually rolling the window was) and said “I am sorry you can’t recall any of yours.”

***

“He doesn’t like me.”  The tween whined. 

Charles inwardly groaned.  He never should have caved and let her convince him to put her on a horse.  Mercy was going through a phase—apparently all girls did—and he was going to lose it.

“Pick his head up.”  This was rapidly becoming a catchphrase. 

With all of the skill of a practiced horseman, Charles backed his horse up the few strides to land beside her again and leaned over.  A little pressure on her the neck had her horse picking his head right back up.

“Well, I can’t do that if I’m sitting on him.”  She huffed.

“No, that’s why you have reins.”  And while he appreciated that Mercy didn’t yank on his horse’s mouths, he found it incredibly annoying that she couldn’t just keep them from eating on the trail.  “I’d prefer you not let him eat everything, they have sensitive stomachs.”

Charles would swear they were growing more and more sensitive by the generation.

“I’m trying.”

His nose told him that she was lying.

Curious.

She realized he had caught on and smiled sheepishly as he raised an eyebrow.  

Well played, sister.

Charles didn’t dwell on Brother Wolf’s choice of phrase too much.

Instead, he made a quick kissing noise, barely lifting a hand to keep his own mount from taking off because he knew better than to just go off a vocal cue.

Let her figure out how to use the reins to stop herself of she could flip over the pony’s head when he inevitably stopped to eat.

She’d recover. 

***

It was as if ice water had been dumped over him.  Charles couldn’t process the words coming from his father’s mouth.

“Gone?”  He repeated hollowly.  

“She’s old enough that I thought it might be time for her to live with her mother again.”

It wasn’t a lie, Charles knew it wasn’t a lie.  It felt like a lie, though.  His father loved their coyote, he never would have sent her away.

“I don’t understand.  This is the only home she has ever known.”  Gone.

“She has a family, Charles.”  Bran repeated sounding angry now.  “Margi is her mother.”

His father had no right to be angry.  He had been the one to take her in, to take on the responsibility of this walker child.  And in turn, he had passed responsibility to Charles to train her and teach her and—

“Gone?” He said again.

“Charles, she is gone.”  

A rage Charles hadn’t expected bubbled up inside of him.  He needed to leave the room and handle this before he spoke to his father again.  There were too many words he wanted to have with him, too many things he thought he saw and then he remembered Samuel.  

Between the two of them, Charles didn’t know who he was angrier with.

“Where are you going?”

He didn’t answer.  His father knew where he was going and if he wanted to intervene, he could stop him right then and there.

And he didn’t.

Charles drove all the way to Samuel’s home.  It wasn’t far, they all lived close by Aspen Creek standards (which was to say that “close” was relative).  He thought driving would bring back the human side of things, make him focus on something other than the unyielding desire for blood.

“Charles?”  Samuel met him at the door in surprise.  

“What was it you said? ‘She’s our family,’ was that it?”  Charles snarled.  “What kind of family—“

“What are you talking about?”

He knew.  Everyone knew what had transpired between the two of them, even if Charles had only discovered the worst of it. 

The feeling of his hand making contact with his brother’s face wasn’t satisfying enough, even when he heard the crunch.  He might have preferred actually bashing his face in, if he could stomach it. 

But inside of him, he knew it was his brother and the darkest, blackest parts of his should couldn’t even stand to break that.  

“What the actual fuck?”  His nose was bleeding and Samuel rarely cursed, specifically he rarely cursed in English.  

He’d switched to Welsh and Charles had barely noticed.

“You staked a claim on her?”

He didn’t have time to read the emotion that flashed across his brother’s face.

“Charles, what happened?”

And Charles realized that Samuel actually had no idea what had happened, what their father had done to protect their coyote.

His father hadn’t stopped him, because he didn’t want to tell Samuel and Charles had fallen into a trap again.

“She’s gone back to Margi.”  Adrenaline was still pumping and he really considered punching the man in front of him again for good measure.  “I’m not allowed to contact her on your behalf.”

Wasn’t allowed to contact her at all except to help with her banking, because he had all of her access.  

“She is sixteen.”  Charles snarled for good measure.  “And she was ours to care for.”

***

“When Mercy was sixteen,”  Anna began and Charles tensed.

They were alone with his father at their home.  True to nature, she was bringing this up while baking something Mercy had given her the recipe for.

He loved, not-so-secretly, that they spoke.  

His father hummed, raising an eyebrow.

“You sent her away because of Samuel?”

Samuel, his brother, whose child was asleep in her cot in their bedroom.  She would wake if Anna upset his father now and then her nap schedule would be amiss.

Bran’s eyes fell on him, instead of on Anna, with a question in them.

One Charles didn’t have an answer to.  He didn’t know where this was going.

“Are Leah’s feelings because of her own history which she didn’t remember, Bran?”  Anna turned to him, hands on her hips, “Or are they founded in something else?”

His father smiled and Charles’ blood ran cold, but his Anna was unphased and smiled sweetly back with all of the strength of a woman who had faced down the worst monsters one could face in her comparatively short years.

“Both?”  She raised an eyebrow in challenge when he still didn’t answer.  “The babe that sleeps under my roof might be your granddaughter, but you will never be allowed alone with her.”

And Charles realized she had put into words something that might have been keeping him up at night.

***

They hadn’t been to Mercy’s home since the wedding.  Charles wasn’t often out that way, and there wasn’t much need to be.

Mercy—fortunately or unfortunately—tended to handle trouble singlehandedly.  

The other alphas in this country could learn a thing or two from her, he thought with a sort of smugness as he watched his mate interact with her.

Cerys, his daughter for all intents and purposes, was toddling around now.  It gave him anxiety, watching her stand and fall and stand and fall in some sort of torturous cycle.

Adam cast him a sympathetic glance.

“It doesn’t get easier.”

Great.

Anna glanced back at him to see what they were talking about.  It only took her a moment to catch on.

“Looking forward to doing it again?”  She smiled at Adam and Charles got to see her holding Mercy’s daughter.  “Methinks my niece is going to be something to reckon with, just like her cousin!”

Seeing her with a baby again made Charles’ heart ache.  Cerys had only just been a baby not that long ago.

And there was little to no chance of a repeat.

Charles never thought he would ever desire another in a million years—not before children and not after months of sleepless nights.

“I am actually,”  Adam laughed,  “Never thought I would have the chance.”

He must’ve been a mind reader as well.  Charles took a deep breath.

Anna approached him, reading his hesitation, bouncing the little bundle in her arms and pulling the blanket back just enough so that he could see the baby’s face.  She didn’t look entirely unlike Mercy as an infant.

“She’s beautiful, Mercy.”  He found himself smiling at the memory of a little coyote gnawing on the box she was meant to be sleeping in at one in the morning.  “Have you named her?”

When he looked up, Mercy had wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them to her chest and resting her chin on top as if she were watching him closely.  

“Evelyn.”  

[longsightmyth]

Truly Charles is the superior Cornick

[toasterchan]

I NEED someone to validate my leah and bran cornick fancast of tom and zendaya

Okay first of all SO jazzed that someone is coming to me with Bran and Leah fancasting. Let’s get some photos up in here, and to really play into the Cornick fantasy I’m gonna try to find ones where Tom isn’t looking at Zendaya like she hangs the moon. (As anyone would, really)

Love that Zendaya means Leah is a tall glamazon she deserves to be

Love that Bran is shorter than Leah. Man was born in antiquity, even if he was tall then there’s no way he’s tall now

Tom definitely fits the “could be your pizza delivery boy” and “everyone’s favorite friendly Marrok” vibes Bran likes to project

My big question is, could Tom pull off the darker dictatorial and manipulative sides of Bran? Would I believe him when he brushes Leah off in public? When Charles defers to his will? It’s hard for me to imagine because my brain auto jumps to Spider-Man and “oh gee Mr. Stark” haha.

Final conclusion: I may not be 100% sold, but I definitely want to see that screen test now