"Mmmmhm." Corrigan lifts his hand slightly, examines the marks on Kurt's wrist, brow furrowing deeper. Unlike the marks covering their neck and shoulders, these are ragged, clumsy, more about violence than making a permanent connection. But at least the bleeding's starting to slow. He guides their arm to submerge in the water, letting the coolness of it help the wound begin to clot, moving on to carefully combing dried blood out of their long hair. "It took Benji a while to understand that it wasn't a failure, not really. He's still part of our family, just not in the way we thought he would be."
It's a bit of an understatement -- the pup had been devastated by his apparent inability to be what the pack needed, aware from the beginning that the calming, centering effect of a true mate wasn't something he could do. Of course that hadn't mattered, not to Corrigan or Naseer, or Leo and Kai, for all their teasing. He was still theirs, like they were each other's.
But Miles...that had been another mark against him, his active attempts to freeze Benji out of the pack, constantly picking at and belittling the youngest wolf. This, coupled with his perpetually undermining and disregarding Naseer's authority, had led to that final confrontation, that final challenge. Corrigan doesn't like thinking about it, any of it, the pain it had caused his pack as he tried and tried to smooth things over with Miles -- because Kurt's right. A pack bond is for life.
"He caused too much pain to stay," he says finally, looking down at the jagged bite mark, submerged beneath the water, violent and cruel on his mate's delicate wrist. "The difference is that Benji's role changed, and he changed with it. When things began changing for Miles -- when the pack grew, and his role in it became altered from what he thought it should be, he rebelled. He fought against us, instead of growing with us." More than that, he seemed to enjoy causing the chaos, the dissent. It seemed to delight him.
Corrigan lifts Kurt's hand from the water, examining the wound, then pressing his lips to it, gently. "He's the sort of person who would hurt you. He's always been that person. I couldn't have that in my family, not back then, not now."
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It's a bit of an understatement -- the pup had been devastated by his apparent inability to be what the pack needed, aware from the beginning that the calming, centering effect of a true mate wasn't something he could do. Of course that hadn't mattered, not to Corrigan or Naseer, or Leo and Kai, for all their teasing. He was still theirs, like they were each other's.
But Miles...that had been another mark against him, his active attempts to freeze Benji out of the pack, constantly picking at and belittling the youngest wolf. This, coupled with his perpetually undermining and disregarding Naseer's authority, had led to that final confrontation, that final challenge. Corrigan doesn't like thinking about it, any of it, the pain it had caused his pack as he tried and tried to smooth things over with Miles -- because Kurt's right. A pack bond is for life.
"He caused too much pain to stay," he says finally, looking down at the jagged bite mark, submerged beneath the water, violent and cruel on his mate's delicate wrist. "The difference is that Benji's role changed, and he changed with it. When things began changing for Miles -- when the pack grew, and his role in it became altered from what he thought it should be, he rebelled. He fought against us, instead of growing with us." More than that, he seemed to enjoy causing the chaos, the dissent. It seemed to delight him.
Corrigan lifts Kurt's hand from the water, examining the wound, then pressing his lips to it, gently. "He's the sort of person who would hurt you. He's always been that person. I couldn't have that in my family, not back then, not now."