When he had made his way to one of the safehouses in the district after a long, exhausting battle with one of Gotham's ever notorious villains. The last thing the masked alpha had expected was to find a pup there, eagerly waiting to greet... who?

'Daddy!' They had shrieked the moment he had opened the door, coming to greet their supposed 'dad' at the door. Only to immediately bristle and panic the moment Richard had turned out to not be who they were expecting to see and going into hiding.

"Easy pup! Easy! I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a good guy! Nightwing is a good guy, I promise, chickadee," he crooned softly. Immediately dropping into a nonthreatening position, sitting on the floor of the room the pup had skittered off to with his hands up and open in an offering of reassurance. "See? I'm not gonna hurt ya. You can even come take a sniff, I won't move a muscle," he adds, going the extra mile to flop onto his back and going starfish with a goofy smile on his face as he angled his head to watch the pup curiously.

The safehouse scented vaguely of Jason still, which... no... that couldn't be right. Jason wouldn't... would he? Maybe he would.

The idea the other alpha would hide something like this from the rest of the pack hurt his heart to an unexpected degree. But, maybe he should have suspected with how Jason's mood had been subtly improving as of recent months, if not a bit more restless than usual to hang around long.

"Who's your 'daddy', nugget? If you're good and tell me I have a lollipop for you..." Richard prompted with an encouraging smile as he slowly retrieved the sweet from his utility belt and offered it forward, waggling it aloft for the frightened pup to see.

How long had the pup been under his younger brother's care? Jason wasn't exactly the 'welcome home' type, yet the pup had been eager to greet him as if he was a teddy.

Whatever the case... he couldn't just leave now and pretend he didn't know. No pup should be on their own for long, or ever. Especially not one that was family.