Chapter Text
I'm saying prayers through a throttled neck
Come into the room and make me cry all over again
You come in so hard, gore me through the heart
Just another day and you'll still tell me you're healing
See it on your face, you won't ever change in your ways
Shed your knuckle velvet, torn on my teeth
When you're torn apart, you'll destroy me again
“Knuckle Velvet” - Ethel Cain
The sound of snarling animals is something that Sole didn’t expect to get used too. Out on the road encounters with beasts of all kinds came with the territory of wandering, much like the effects of radiation it was expected to pop up from time to time.
Sole had returned back to the park on her own, needing to part ways after her run in with her old companion. Ever faithful Gage had been a silent follower for days, agreeing easily with her when she requested he help launch gangs on seizing settlements throughout the Commonwealth. It was her job to return to NukaWorld to ensure it hadn’t all turned to shit in her absence.
Now as she walks into Pack territory the animals ignore her rather than attempt to bite her ankles like they had when she’d first stepped foot there. Being the Overboss to a park full of raiders was also something Sole didn’t expect to get used to but here she was making the rounds to the various gang bosses needing something from her. Always expecting, always wanting… would she be destined always to prove herself?
Mason sits on the throne before her, chest bare save the necklace of bones hanging around his neck. There’s a curl to his lips like he expected her presence and no doubt he did for Sole moved like clock work from leader to leader but eventually she would end up back here. Being one of her most vocally opposed leaders, the alpha of the Pack had always eyed her with a sense of challenge since she’d exited the Gauntlet.
“Well if it isn’t the big bad Overboss” He says, eyes on her rather than the fight below.
She wonders for a moment if he had ever heard the fable about red riding hood but most likely not, still, the notion of the big-bad wolf is something that seems to come to mind at the nefarious glint in his eyes. His words always seemed to be edged with a form of scorn, only a hint of it that you wouldn’t be able to notice unless you really listened to what he said.
“Mason” She greets back neutrally.
“Where’s your pet?” He queries, looking past her as if he could spy Porter Gage trailing behind her. There’s a goading undercurrent she’s grown accustomed to lacing his words.
“Doing as I say like he should” She replies.
There’s barely a lid on her anger and it is tangible as it bleeds into her tone. There is no question that she’s slowly wearing down with too many pieces demanding from her. Ask just about anyone and they’d say there’s a hole at her side where her companion should be that it might as well have been a tangible wound. Sole was a force to be reckoned with but it was her companions who helped to stabilise her when she wavered. Without them she was bleeding out a slow and painful death.
Mason shifts uncomfortably as if he could see the image of it in gory detail but then his familiar arrogance rears its head. “I wondered if he was just sick of being at your beck and call” Mason said.
Sole barely keeps herself from flinching. It had been weeks since her falling out with Deacon but the notion of abandonment still festered in her subconscious. She blamed it on the paranoia of sleep deprivation and not the part of her that continuously mourned her losses.
She met Mason’s gaze regardless. “He would keep himself in line if he knew what was good for him” Sole said.
Unbeknown to Sole, the alpha before her had been musing on the fact that he had not seen the Overboss for the last fortnight or so not that he was counting. If he hadn’t known better he would have thought she was letting them run wild or believed the pack to be beneath her call. No matter the cause, he was frustrated by the lack of involvement and it was that frustration that bleed into their conversing now.
“It has been a while, hasn’t it?” He asked, as if in a bid to remind her of her time spent away from the park. “I have had a few challenges recently, if you care to know”
Mason’s words didn’t seem to phase her. “Truly? I’m glad you know how to run your own gang” She jibed.
“Fuck woman” He curses, his knuckles turning white on the arms on his throne. “You’re testing me lately”
Her head tilts, questioning. “How so?” Sole questions and it’s her eyes that have the words pulled from him.
“Between the ramp up of fights and taking orders from an absent leader… I’ve already let you push me around too much for who knows fucking why” He admits.
Now, it wasn’t the challenges that Mason hates no he welcomed them to keep him in shape. Often they were made by foolishly young members who had the ‘smart’ notion that they could run the gang better than him. Although it wouldn’t take long to remind them and others in the pack that he was the strongest out of all of them. Rather it was the unsettling silence from her end that left him wondering if she had left them high and dry, not that Sole knew that.
“Absent?” Sole scoffs on the word. “I was out in the Commonwealth for you all”
“Yeah, sure, Boss, I get it… I do but to the masses they believe they believe they’ve given you a chance” Mason said.
“A chance?” She repeats. “I’ve given you those settlements out there on a silver platter”
It is no question that their bickering had gained the attention of nearby members, their eyes watching them from beneath coloured paint and masks.
“Let’s cut to the chase, are you going to continue to do right by the Pack?” Mason demands.
This close he can see the way her jaw tightens at his words. “Depends what’s the Pack got to offer over the other gangs?” She asks her head tilting to look down at him on the throne. “For let’s get one thing straight, Mason,” Sole said. “As long as you care about yourself you’ll do what I tell you”
Tension sits in his shoulders but he refuses to let his muscles bunch. He refused to go belly up in before his gang for some bitch, even if said bitch was the Overboss. “You might be overboss but I'm the boss of the Pack and it's going to stay that way, long as you don't go forgetting that, we're going to be fine”
Sole’s lips curl back in a grin but nothing about it is friendly. “How about you be a good pet, Mason, and do what you’re told or you’ll be put down… do we understand each other?” She demands.
Mason didn’t respond in the silence that followed, ever defiant but is compelled to speak under her stare loath he admit it. “Yeah, Boss, I get you… But maybe don’t do this in front of my guys, alright? You got enough to worry about without a dominance struggle inside the Pack to deal with”
“You might be the boss here but you aren’t the only gang around the park” Sole reminds him.
There’s danger in his eyes, something barely lidded that settles cold over her spine. “A word of advice, Boss… the key to sitting on top is following the rules when you have to and breaking them when you can get away with it” Mason states, eyeing her. “Just remember that next time you go making decisions”
Sole lets her expression grow mocking. “Wise words, Alpha” She says, turning on her heels before striding from the pack territory. She pointedly ignores the way Mason’s gaze threatens to catch her alight.