truth is beautiful without doubt; but so are lies (ralph waldo emerson)
The trees do remind him of the first time they had met when he had blocked her path and demanded she answer his riddle. Then a chase had ensued in which they had ended up entangled in the limbs of the other. In that moment he had thought that she might be one in which his attentions could stay. Indeed they had stayed up until the moment he had found out that she had chosen Samil. It had all went so
swell until that brute had returned from places unknown and she had been foolish enough to go back to him. So in a way he was delighted to see her here, alone and without Samil because they had abandoned one another and she probably expected that he would come crawling back to her as she had done to Samil. But Enderly was not Naamah, and she had been gone far too long. Her chance had diminished by each day and then Eris had come along and swept her memory out of his mind.
To say that he was completely unaffected by her presence would be a lie. After all he had been enamored with her before. Such things did not simply go away, they just evolved and changed. So when her voice coos into the surrounding area his fur rises in response as his skin prickles in goosebumps. He hates her and he loves her voice. But he does not feel as if he will fall prey to her and that is what keeps him standing here. Because back in his den rests the alabaster, demon-touched female that was his mate.
"I am the one who stayed and you are the one who left. If you had belonged you never would have left. Never would have left our daughter as well," he growls now, lips peeling back at the last sentence as his silver eyes watch her approach. The growl falls away as she sniffs him and his own lips suddenly twist into a slow, pointed smirk as he watches her. Her scent is seductive, but that was the way with Naamah. She loved using her bodily wiles against him to lull him into complicit activity. If he had not found Eris then it was most certain he would have fallen again for her wiles.
"No. I have not," he says with a sick sort of savagery, hoping it would drive a nail into her with each word. His eyes narrow at her demented chuckle and it is clear that something has transpired since she has been away. Naamah is not as in control as she once was. His face falls her movements with a speculative gleam.
"Seek her if you wish, but it will do you no good now. After all, she is my mate." The words fall easily from his lips and he watches her avidly to see her reaction, wishing to push her over the edge just as she pushed him.
A sudden snarl rips from his muzzle and shatters the moment as he jolts away from her with his own tail high and erect as he glares at her.
"Do not think to toy with me. I do not need your body, I have one that is willing and that will not be ripped from me when another walks by. You had your chance and you will have many more with many others, most likely, but never again with me."