The shriek of pain that she produces pierces through my chest as the tumbling ends and while it agonizes me to hear such a thing I cannot let up. I physically and mentally cannot let her get away with this. My mind spins in circles as it relapses upon what all has accumulated within such a short evening. But my resolve will not falter.

I stand like a colossus over her diminutive figure and I find difficult to even keep her gaze for longer than a moment at a time. The deception digs deep beneath my skin and it is clear that I have caught her in the act when she begins to react to my words. Eyes of pink and red broaden in what I can only assume is her disbelief at being found out; the utterance of one singular word causing my lips to pull back into a display of fangs. Her mutterings only work to fuel the emotions that rage beneath my quivering shell of a body. ”AFRAID? Afraid of—what exactly?” I stop, eyes closing for a moment as my voice quakes with my body. A sigh signals my next onslaught of words. ”The only time you should truly be afraid is right now…” Hardened eyes look back to her now, the gleaming light of the moon that peeks through the clouds now displaying that red sheen so rarely witnessed.

She pleads to me, her voice wavering in its tone, her posture showing unfaltering submission and yet it does no good for her cause. Obsidian ears press back tightly against my skull as she presses toward me, her nose touching to my flesh and yet I take a step back, knives of bone bared toward her as a single growl resonates within my chest. ”NO.” It is spoken in a harsh, brutish timbre unlike any other time and the solemn look in my gaze should betray nothing else. ”I knew that there was a reason why I had entrusted my legacy with other females. There was something off about you—now I’ve found it out.” The snarl upon my features deepens and my hackles flare up as burning desire and hatred fires up all at once.

Her words would have assuaged me at any other time but this… this was too much of a problem. My muscles tense for a moment, a moment of which she may determine is her end coming to claim her, but I only lunge over her and tear off through the night painted woodland. I do not slow, I do not stop, my lungs heaving as I go further and further away from her. That she-devil. This is why they never get the chance for compromise or deals to be made. This is why they always die before the night can end. But not Malleah—she had to be different.

My legs carry me as far as I can possibly go from the forest, my paws finally hitting upon a field of grass and rocks of blackened color. An agonizing howl lifts unto the stars as I cease my movement before moving onward once again.