Lara smiled, then looked at Sylens. "Imagine your brother had a son he raised to be the next Alpha. He probably cared for him, but wanted to turn him into a chip off the old block and taught him carefully how to do things. The son was basically a sweet kid, so your brother did a lot of work to 'toughen him' up so he was 'strong enough' to be the next Alpha." Lara's voice was very dry with her opinion of what was done.

"Then imagine that one day the son said no to the way your brother treated the rest of the pack and said no. He fought back against his father and won, killing him and becoming the new alpha in the process. And tried to take over and protect everyone he was now in charge of, but the only skills his father had taught him were the ones he used. So whenever he tried to do avoid force or fear and still protect his pack he just didn't have the skill to do it. And he knew that the more he was feared the less he actually needed to be to protect his pack, while his father's enemies kept circling, looking for weakness."

Lara didn't think the metaphor needed explaining, but was an insight into Ella that if she was to win the wolves as actual allies they needed.