His scent is one I will not forget - not for the time being, at least. It lingers with a familiarity all too akin to Lihi's own, some kind of bitterness that lingers below the scent of swamp and forest. If it had not been for the masculine musk of it, I would have surely believed that she had come to finally surrender herself. Still, it is an oddity, and I allow myself the opportunity to investigate it in the breeze as I linger within the tree line of the pack's interior. He is nearby, and I wonder if only for a moment what such a thing means. After all, I had been surprised that curiosity had not gotten the best of him - perhaps I expect too much from those I meet. I expected intrigue. I had chosen my words carefully, after all, in an effort to pull information out of him one way or another. Perhaps it had merely taken time for those words to sink in enough to initiate some kind of action.

Surely he must not expect me to wait so patiently for his arrival despite the prior arrival of his scent and yet, I am ever so fast to appear before him as he calls for me. It is only several moments before I break into the tree line before him, watching him closely as I take a position between he and the territory beyond. I take this time to truly analyze him once more; from the darkness of his fur to the familiar pale fur that accented his face. Hers surrounded the eyes. His, the ears. There is a familiarity in the eyes, too, I am sure. Flecks of colour. Dark and gold. I had eaten the other. I'd taken that from her, but it had never been enough. Maybe if I took one of his, I'd recognize the taste. Maybe the scent confused me. It is a need - the need to know.

I am not discrete about these observations. I watch him with hard, narrowed eyes that reflect the intensity of my internal debate. What to do with him? What is the best way to decipher if he knows where she is or isn't? I feel the tension within myself. I wonder if it extends even to him as I stand there watching, my skin prickling ever so slightly from the nearness to some part of her. I finally muster the patience to speak, or at least the desire to do so. The mere hint of her existence that lingers on him is enough to make my blood hot, and my teeth seem to pry apart with discomfort as the single word slides out.

"Yes?"

It is all that needs to be said. He has summoned me, as I have desired to summon some part of him. But why is it? For now, it is all I can do to compose myself. Her eye had tasted so bitter. It still lingers on my tongue.