ARES

Ares is a seductive chap, he adores the chase involved in courting. He lives for females, they make his world. That's not to say he is a cheap little get-around, despite being a heartbreaker he rarely mates with any of his 'playthings'. It is unusual for him to care about his lover, simply wanting her company and the odd fumble in the grass. It is true he has a hard cold heart, and Ares is not too far from cruel. He regrets many things from his past, but fails to change his ways, being set in them.

The tall wolf will often hang around with a female and flirt with her for several days, sometimes weeks till he is satisfied then moves on. You couldn't really say this boy is loyal, and can rarely settle for one vixen. Ares has a short attention span, and gets bored very easily and isn't afraid to say so. He speaks his mind, though knows when to shut up. Wily and sly is his middle name, he knows all the tricks in the book for luring in innocent young girls. He has a rich deep voice, and a charming sharp smile. One very useful trait is being extremely pursuasive and can get pretty much anyone to do pretty much anything for him.

He doesn't care much for anything other than Hell wolves, he feels them unworthy of his attention at all. Ares is known for his brilliant battles, he adores the kill. In a face-off, the big wolf would kill his opponent if he could. With the blood of many on his paws, he has had to live with a conscience which he has managed to swallow down. Ares is a good hunter, like most of his kind and an excellent tracker.

Ares is a handsome devil, being tall and powerfully built. His limbs are long and robust with strong paws, he has the ability to turn over a moose carcass or horse. The wolf's most striking feature would be his power and size. He is large even for a Gray Wolf, his head is heavy and large yet sloping into a slender almost wise-looking muzzle and dancing amber eyes. His pelt is the richest jet black, though his neck fur, ears and muzzle is tinged with light silver. Some mistake this for ageing, they are wrong. The fur is dense and rugged yet gleams like a dark pearl, it is thick enough to withstand the harshest winters, the coldest winds.

The winter was harsh, the wind blew icily over Yellowstone. Amid the snow, a black wolf cub curled up beside his mother's soft tawny fur and his sister's pale pelt. He was the second surviving offspring of the Emanti Pack, they were the largest in the whole national park. Yet they had been battered and beaten by this terrible freezing winter, its icy claws raking over the land. These two cubs were their only hope, the male's name.. Ares, yet they didn't know the truth, his half-pack lineage.

His mother was a beautiful reddish brown wolf, tinged with gray. She was slender but strong, her eyes being the lightest hazelnut brown. Her name was Iriana, and she was the daugher of the pack leaders. Her sister was very jealous of Iriana, because she had always been her parents favourites. Her name was Eostra, she was a small plain looking gray vix, yet she held a very distintive black zigzag mark on her forehead. She bore danger for the whole pack, the mark was a sign, an omen. And Eostra was cast out. Iriana was sad to see her twin sister go, she was a kind soul and had failed to see the smaller bitch's envy. Their brother was a big dark slate grey wolf, with chocolate brown eyes. Thiazzi was his name, and despite having a fair heart he had all along known of Eostra's jealousy. They had been closer to eachother than their favoured sister, and blamed Iriana for her departure. He too turned against his tawny sister.
The pack leaders were level-headed wolves, Syenn the female and Keddin the male. They believed fully in the spirits of Yellowstone, and the land they lived on. To them they saw the mark on their daughter a sign of evil, and that she would bring the pack only badness. So they did what they had always done, eliminated the danger. Perhaps had they not done this Ares's parents might have lived.

Ares's father was from an enemy pack, the Aslaaki's. The two clans had conincided for many years, though a deep-rooted rivalry and hatred ran between them. His name was Nanuak, and was a large black wolf with hints of brown. He was very similar to Ares, a seductive, pursuasive, casanova. And yet, when he bumped into Iriana one evening on the Emanti border he saw something in her which made his heart falter. From that momemt on they were in love. Their meetings were secret and romantic, before long Nanuak had changed his ways. He became a calm mellow male, who lived only for Iriana and her happiness. They bred in the autumn, when the golden leaves falling around them. Their happiness didn't last long. Iriana had been watched by her sister, Eostra all this time and being an outcast had made her bitter and cold-hearted. She delighted in the fact her 'perfect' sister had done something wrong, which she, Eostra, could point out. Excellent.

Meanwhile, the large black-brown Aslaaki male wasn't Iriana's only admirer. A muscular yet gentle white male, Khazei, had loved Iriana since she was a pup. He longed for her as a mate, and to honour her yet he sensed her heart was elsewhere. With whom, he didn't yet know. Khazei was good friends with Thiazzi, Ares's uncle, and one day they were hunting when they stumbled across the mated pair. Both Emanti males were beyond shock. Here was where Iri and Nanuak's relationship ended, but their love never died. Iriana realised her mistake, and that their cubs would be cast out from the Emanti pack. They would lead a life of misery, and loneliness. No other pack in Yellowstone would accept them, they would become outcast's like Eostra. So she did what a mother would do, and put her son first. She swore never to meet Nanuak again, and Khazei, loving Ares's mother so much, decided to help her. He would say the cubs were his. Thiazzi wasn't so sure, he still felt resentment towards Iri.

Eostra bided her time, when one day she caught her dark grey brother alone. They argued and talked for hours, mostly over Iriana and her forbidden love. Eventually they hatched a plan, despite Thiazzi's clear reluctance. Perhaps Iri wasn't so bad he thought. When Ares was born, there was only one other cub, a female. She was pure white, possibly because Nanuak's mother had been a silvery she-wolf. She was also the Aslaaki pack leader. Luckly, Khazei was white too so it helped. Thiazzi played along to his sister's plan, and kidnapped one of the cubs, the white female called Renna. Renna was brought to Eostra, and the small vixen bit into the tiny pup not enough to kill but to draw blood. Then she laid a trail for both Nanuak to discover and for Iriana to track. Then she headed for the Emanti den.

So it worked out perfectly for the siblings. Iriana and Nanuak met in the middle after following their daughters scent, the border of the two strong packs. Thiazzi's job had been to draw Nanuak but also the Aslaaki leaders.. Eostra had told her parents that there was a raid from Aslaaki onto Emanti territory. The two packs met at the border to find Iriana and Nanuak nuzzling eachother, standing over their daughter. It clicked at once, they had been discovered and the pack leaders stepped out of the shadows. The pair froze but there was no escaping now. Syenn and Keddin were furious with their daughter, but mostly the enemy male Nanuak. They were outraged he had even dared look at the dominant pair's precious daughter.. The Aslaaki leaders, Morgra and Totanai parents of Nanuak and his three brothers, felt the same about Iriana. The two packs began to argue viciously, circling the frightened pair. Eostra watched darkly, her small black eyes glittering maliciously.

Yet it was Khazei who suffered the most, to actually see the large Aslaaki male with his beloved was more than he could possibly bear. He switched from being a usually gentle male, to a raging hurt wolf. He waited for the right moment. Meanwhile, the pair were split from eachother and Renna herded back to the Emanti den. Both packs were still in shock, and hated eachother more than they ever had. Both Nanuak and Iriana weren't spoken to and were shut away in the cave den for days without proper food while the leaders deliberated as to what to do. Both feared for their lives, it wasn't unknown for packs to turn on those who had betrayed them, and their loyalty to the family. Eventually the verdict for Iriana was that she would have sanctions such as have someone to follow her everyone, confined to the denning place and so on. The pack would also be forbidden to speak to her for three weeks, she would stay with Ares and Renna instead. Meanwhile, Eostra had been ignored. After her outburst, she had expected to be welcomed into the pack. Wrong, she may of done so but she was still an outcast, she was still cursed. This made her full of hatred and brutal vengeance rippled through her, this was all her sister's fault. She would pay dearly.

The Aslaaki Pack punishment was more physical, he was forced to a life outside the family for a whole month before being allowed back. He wasn't allowed on pack territory either, and if he was found there the members of Aslaaki had permission to kill him. So Nanuak fled to the southern area of the park, and he felt lonely and afraid. Never before had he been separated from his pack and he hated it. That was when Khazei struck.

The news of Nanuak's death spread slowly, it wasn't until a month later when the dark wolf never returned to the Aslaaki pack, after another week they sent out a small patrol to discover his whereabouts. It didn't take long to find his body, while a cleanly slit throat. The mark of a wolf, an Emanti wolf. The enemy pack were furious, how dare they do this! The patrol shot home, and Morgra and Totanai mourned their son before setting out for Emanti territory. Still Eostra watched, spiteful black eyes glittering, a cold twisted smile. This was what she had been waiting for, a war between the two packs. The Aslaaki led a battle patrol to Syenn and Keddin who rallied the Emanti's to face them. They of course had no idea who had murdered Nanuak, but they were hardly upset by it. Good riddance they thought, but Morgra and Totanai didn't believe them. They attacked.

Iriana was devastated, she howled in heartbreaking pain while Eostra slipped in amongst the fighting wolves to the cubs den where Iri hid. She stood guard ready to defend her offspring when she saw her smaller sister approach, at first she was happy to see Eostra but then she remembered.. the grey she-wolf was an outcast. She must go.

"Sister, it is not safe for you here! You must leave before you are discovered by either packs" whispered the reddish bitch urgently but Eostra merely sneered, "Hah, I fear nothing and no one. I have the power to destroy you, and you're precious children. You will pay, precious little Iriana." And with that she leapt at Iriana, throwing her aside. Then she picked up the nearest cub, Ares and dashed off with him. Iri couldn't possibly leave little Renna to her fate, so was forced to stay, howling in fear for her baby. Eostra cackled, carrying the black Ares far from safety...

The outcome of the fight was terrible. Totanai was killed while fighting Thiazzi, who was then murdered by a large Aslaaki wolf. Syenn lay dying by the end, and was gone by the next morning. Not only that but in her pain and anger, Morgra killed little Renna. She couldn't bear the fact that her grandchild would be an Emanti, Iriana who had nothing left to live for then threw herself off into fast rapids and drowned. Both packs began to fall apart, there were frequent brutal battles and casualties rose horrifically everytime until by the end of the year the Aslaaki pack was nearly wiped out completely and only six wolves remained in the Emanti when they had once been thirty strong. It is unknown what happened after that long terrible year, nobody has returned since.

Meanwhile Eostra raised young Ares, he was seven months old when he was taken by his Aunt and remembered his mother and Emanti well. He missed them awfully, and often pined but he feared the small grey she-wolf more than his homesickness. She told him horror stories of his parents, though he knew she was lying. She hurt him and starved him, until one day she simply didn't come back after an evening's hunting. Ares was a year old by then, and set out to escape. It was midnight when he stumbled across a mangled body, tripping.. it was small but powerful looking and he recognised those little black eyes instantly. Eostra, dead. Hell pack stumbled across the yearling, brought him in and raised him then as their own.