It was that insistent tugging that had woken him. That pack bond jolting and hauling him into consciousness as the violet of his gaze fluttered open and the stallion merely stared blankly at the roof for several passing moments allowing the blur of sleep to leave his eyes and offer him some level of clarity in the dark room. He had been aware of Claire, even at the distance between, that bond they shared assuring him she was alive if nothing else on this expedition she had decided to undertake. He had been displeased at the notion she was going only. The man protective, in a sense, off his first and indeed one of his favoured pack members. The was an innocent thing in so many ways and the idea of her wandering about without his being nearby had been a difficult notion to agree too and yet there was perhaps none other them himself whom so better understood those needs of 'family'. The blood ties were wholly difficult things in more ways than one and in this he had been content to allow the little fox her privacy. If she had need to tell him she would. If she did not then she would not. Provided no harm came to her it was not his concern whom or what she cared to visit unless she chose to make it so. She had not and though reluctant- he had simply allowed her to go.

He had felt that pack bond dull some time later and for a moment the snowy-haired man had truly believed she had befallen some ill fate. It had only been the faintest of thrums that assured him he remained connected to the girl and seem him hesitate in attempting to find her. Either she was a truly great distance from him- or she was attempting to shield herself. Frost, at last, having decided to merely wait for his pack mates return. She would come back when she was ready, of that he was sure. Tonight, it seemed, she was finally back within range and finally willing to be found. Those blankets were pushed back with ease, the man rolling from his bed, hardly bothering with a shirt and as he pulled on the closest pair of jeans to trail downstairs and towards that barking sound. He turned readily for the front door only to pause, the sound seeming to come instead from the back. God could only hope she hadn't brought anyone else home with her as she had done that boy so many months before. His bare feet padded soundlessly on the wooden floors as he moved to that back door, prying it open at last to peer into the back garden before his gaze dropped down to the little red fox by the step, her tail curled about her, one eye lifting upward.

"Well now, Little Refur, why are you sitting out in the cold, hmm?"

Those lyrics were the same as always, smooth, cold, calm and yet with the faintest hint of intrigue to lace them as his violet gaze lingered upon her beneath that forelock of white hair. Frost shifted forward then, crouching down atop that step to be at a more even level with the little fox, something almost akin to a smile seeming to twitch at his lips before his features shifted into that ever guarded look all the same.

"Are you coming inside to tell me about it, or are you going to sit there?"

For his pack alone- he had the time to give. Even in the middle of the night.


f r o s t
we built this city on broken glass