"Ennis, Alexei. Glad you could join us. Come along, all of you, inside. I'm proud of how well you comported yourselves today- especially you, Jamie."

He begins walking towards the house.

Jamie's only half listening. Most of his attention is on his brother, blood soaked and shell-shocked, staring at him in turn. He has enough attention to spare to hear the praise, though. He averts his eyes, then, avoiding Alex's gaze, torn between guilt and - tentative pleasure. 

Alex is moving to meet him before Deucalion even speaks. He registers those words halfway through- along with the guilt- 

He remembers, suddenly, the words Jamie whispered to him, carefully targeted, to remind him of all the worst aspects of the people he'd killed, to make him forget, in the moment, their reasons, the good they'd done when they could, the way they'd all had a knife held to their throats- 

Normally he'd be able to consider the circumstances surrounding Jamie's emotional manipulation.

Normally, all the fury at their treatment would not be enough to make him murder dozens of people. 

He growls, low in his throat, eyes on Jamie. 

"-Alex?" 

"Control yourself, Mr. Starr. You're a human, not merely an animal."

Is he, though?

(He disregards the order.)

"Alex. I-" he stops. "I messed with your head. I'm sorry. And..." he looks away, "I'm not sorry." Both are true. He's sorry that it was necessary, but... his brother needs to live. That's his first priority, because anything else he wants for him can only come if he's alive to have it.

...this does not help. He stalks forward, herding Jamie up against the wall of the house, pressing him against it with clawed hands - one at his shoulder, the other over his heart. He continues growling lowly, eyes intent on Jamie's face, the tips of his claws digging into his skin. "You manipulated me. You lied." 

He tenses up, eyes flicking to Deucalion- and then quickly away. This is his mess, he needs to deal with it. 

"...Yes." He closes his eyes, hiding the beta-blue, tipping his head back and relaxing under Alex's hands. "Nothing in the world matters as much as you being alive. I already said, you can hate me if you want. Kill me, if you want." 

The hand over his heart tightens, claws drawing blood. Jamie winces, just the slightest twitch, but he doesn't move. He means it.

"...do you really want to, though?" He whispers. 

...he presses his face into Jamie's throat, squeezing his eyes shut. No, he doesn't want to kill him. He doesn't need to kill him, either. He's just- so angry- 

He rips himself away, claws leaving bloody rents in Jamie's chest as he tears them loose, and stalks around the house and out of sight. 

That's fine. The pack can wait for Alexei to come back. Ennis knows exactly where to find him.

They work out sleeping arrangements: Kali and Ennis together, Deucalion alone, and...

"You're welcome to share either room, if you don't believe you and Alexei can spend the night together."

If the boy even comes home. His fit of idealism and self-hatred may last longer than one night; his certainly had.

He looks up from the still lightly bleeding claw marks in his chest - alpha wounds, probably going to scar in his experience - and shakes his head, "We can share." He'll want Jamie with him, if he comes back tonight.

He nods. They can make themselves scarce. Ennis will want his full attention for a few days, and he's happy to provide.