truth is beautiful without doubt; but so are lies (ralph waldo emerson)
Those dark days of spiraling insanity had come and went with a breath of cold air and the heat of summer. During the time that Naamah had left without a single word to him - after choosing Samil, of course - Enderly had been furious. All he had felt was a rising tide of anger that consumed and burned him. He had been so very close to snapping. So close to taking that last step over the edge of sanity and free falling. If he had done so then perhaps his mischief could have been of a greater variety with a bit more nastiness to it, a trait that seemed ingrained into his only son and a trait that Enderly knew nothing about. Yet during that time he had met Eris. Where Naamah had been a goddess of the darkness Eris was his goddess of the light, although her personality was not quite light. In fact it closely mimicked his own, their constant infatuation and desire to possess one another an addicting factor.
He did not leave her alone for long this winter. Her body was tantalizing and his lust was insatiable, constantly seeking to lure her beneath his seductive ways and she acquiesced. It was a brilliant thing. Their passion seemed a constant force yet even mates need time to themselves, especially ones such as Eris and Enderly, for they were sharp tongued devils.
Enderly awakes with bleary silver eyes and a jaw-cracking yawn while Eris slumbers in a small dugout they had crafted. It was by far one of the better winters he had experienced, he thinks with smug satisfaction. They never experienced a bitterly cold night wrapped in the fur of the other nor was he left feeling unsated. Still, some passions could not wrest hunger from the list and his belly rumbles in an early morning warning. Reaching down he rubs his maw across the white head of Eris while she sleeps before crawling out of their makeshift den and shaking himself off. The cold sets in immediately, his breath frosting around him, but Enderly sets off at a quick pace to warm his blood.
Each step is silent as his ears turn soundlessly to catch faint noises of mice trying to forage enough for their own families. If he is lucky he will catch a few of them or even a hare for breakfast. Lucky for both of them that they were not pregnant as it was a rather lean winter in the woodland. A noise catches his attention and his nose twitches furiously to catch any scent. But it is not that of a mouse nor a hare.
Naamah.
He pauses mid-stride until his paw lands hard on the ground and his hackles rise slowly yet there is a curiously surprised look on his face. What was she doing back here? And then, as quick as his reaction, comes the anger and the need to see her. To demand why she had abandoned their child, because he would not, he could not, ask any other questions than that. To do so would dredge up the hurt that had been soothed by Eris and her attentions.
Nothing masks his steps and Enderly doesn't even try as he follows her scent trail until he spies her. Obsidian and silky and small. Naamah in the flesh.
"Are you lost, because the last time I checked this was not where you belonged anymore." The words are suave with only a thin undercurrent of venom in them as his glares at her.