“Well you are an idiot when it comes to women," Frelki noted with some satisfaction.

"It comes from lack of practice, and women generally being too unpredictable to try to predict." Nullik nodded as if bearing the wisdom of the ages on the matter.

Frelki rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Anyway," Nullik went on, "the point is that he's infatuated with her. And I take it that you, oh great Lancer of wanton vagina that you are, gave Ulla a good seeing to before he found out about it?"

Gregory choked on the cup of water he'd been in the process of taking a drink from. Lancer of wanton vagina? Christ, he hoped that wasn't going to be a title that stuck.

“I did not do anything with Ulla, alright? I don't even like her that much!" He protested whilst keeping the sputtering to a minimum.

“Oh, come on!" Nullik gave him a knowing side-glance. Most of the others were equally suspicious of Gregory's excuse.

“Ok, I mean she's gorgeous, but who isn't around here? You all spend about 12 hours a day working out for crying out loud. It's hottie central around here. That's not even counting..." He trailed off as he looked over to Valise, of whom he'd been about to say something quite revealing.

She smiled at him whilst drawing her lower lip between her teeth in amusement. Apparently she didn't mind the idea of revealing that they were an item, and given the noises he brought out of her when they were together she doubted anyone didn't know about it. Although she didn't appear self-conscious, she did find it rather funny that he was.

"Ahem," Gregory continued whilst ignoring the way his cheeks felt Like they were re-entering the atmosphere after a short journey through outer space.

“I just meant to say that I'm not arguing she's attractive, ok? It's her personality that makes the idea about as appealing as sticking my head in a bucket of live slugs. And why the hell would I go be with someone I didn't Like? I don't know if you guys have noticed but I'm not exactly starved for that kind of attention around here."

“You mean that she offered and you really said no to her?" Frun was awed at the prospect.

"Well of course I did. She insulted Algra."

"What did ULf see then?" Nullik asked.

“That's between me, Ulf and Ulla." Gregory didn't want to let it out that Ulla had put it all out there on display and he'd turned her down. He didn't Like her, but that just felt cruel.

“He just got the wrong impression."

"So, wait, hold on a sec here..." Nullik mimicked Frelki's earlier gesture of pinching the spot between his eyes with his fingertips whilst shaking his head in frustration.

“You're saying that not only did our alpha just get our collective asses kicked out of spite towards you. But that you didn't actually do the thing he's pissed off at you for in the first place? Why the hell didn't you tell him?"

“I tried! He wouldn't hear anything I said, and I didn't want to have it out in front of you guys because it‘d only have embarrassed him and Ulla more."

“You need to talk with him." Frelki spoke up, sounding equally annoyed at the situation. "Soon."

“I will, alright? I'll tell him everything. Right now I think we should head out to the glade and do some basic routines to try and make up for today. Who's with me?"

"I can't Lift my arm," Nullik grunted.

“Then I see a Lot of running in your immediate future. C'mon, I'll run with you. We can all keep at it until we burn out the frustration."

"I have a lot of frustration," Frun said.

“Then we'll make a lot of progress, won't we? Now let's move. Hey, I won't take the alpha position but if you guys want me in charge then I'll be deputy-alpha for a while and deputy-alpha says we train our butts off."