What has happened? Malleah's world has turned upside down in one night. Accusations fling through the air between them, bitterness and fury mixed with the potent scent of desire and danger. She could never have dreamt this is what her life would end up like. Wanting a creature so strong and powerful as Carnifex, so grotesque in his desires but beautiful to her eyes. The heart does not always choose the most fit for the mind and this is by far the truth for he is not the kind of male she had ever envisioned herself with. Malleah had assumed her life mate would be large and handsome like him - never AS handsome as him - and that she could coo into his ear and receive whatever she wanted in return. She would wrap him around her like a cloak and he would obey her commands but here she was, obeying his commands, and in this heated passionate exchange of anger finding that her heart is sore for him. It wants him above all else - even above herself. Carnifex was right, Malleah was a selfish creature, but wasn't he too? It stung for another to see her so clearly because she didn't feel that what was hidden was worth viewing except to herself.

His fangs flash in the darkness and her ears tip back, her tail tucking into her legs although he cannot see from his position above her. He is both her executioner and her defender - a shadow of death and a cloak of protection. She wants both to bite him and lick him, to curl beneath him and to lay beside him. "I did not want children!" She whines petulantly at his fury and it is true. Malleah had not wished to share her body and her time with such a creature so weak when she knew in her heart that she was the weakest of them all. Still, she flinches when he threatens her and her own lips draw back to flash diminutive fangs in comparison to his. It is a facade - they both know she is powerless against him.

A soft whine, almost a coo, issues from her as he jerks back from her touch and growls. He loves her, she thinks, so why does he resist her touch? All he had to do was let her touch him and things would be okay - she is certain of it. A sudden growl issues from her throat when he speaks of her, wounding her terribly, and she glares up at him with a hurt expression. "The only thing off about me is that I was not some willing tramp to bear pups for the sake of bearing pups," she snarls, trying at once to offset the point and to seem strong.

Suddenly his body tenses and so does hers, fear flooding her face as she flinches back into herself only to find he has leapt over her. He did not kill her. Her head snaps around, ears pricked, as he flees into the night and she leaps up, ignoring the sharp pains in her body as he disappears. "Carnifex," she breathes and then suddenly she is racing after his distant shadow, screaming into the night. "CARNIFEX! CARNI! COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! GET BACK HERE NOW, BEAST!" She screams, her voice going from fearful to hateful to demanding then pleading.

She runs, tripping over logs in her haste and paw twisting in a small foxhole in the ground. She whimpers softly in the night, pausing so long to hear his gripping howl, and then she is running once more, ignoring the stabs of pain as she spins around a corner and finds herself suddenly jolted from the ground as a sharp pain rips across her hip. A screaming yowl splits her ears as she rolls and leaps up, hackles rising and body fluffed out, turning to face the svelte figure of a mountain lion as it prowls low to the ground. Its fangs are as thick as her muzzle, she thinks, and its muscles outweigh her soaking wet, and in this moment she begins to snarl, yapping loudly and slamming her paws into the ground in an attempt to intimidate it. Oh god, she thinks, she couldn't do this. It would EAT HER! She would be dead and she wouldn't get to tell him she was sorry - was she even sorry? She didn't know, her mind was so muddled and she was scared. But she would fight as it slinks closer, a rolling growl in its chest and flashing eyes.

It leaps for her and she darts to the side with a yelp, the pain from the earlier scratch making itself known, but she fastidiously darts in to take a bite of its tail and yank, much like a puppy to an adult for it spins and slashes at her face, gouging across her muzzle and spraying blood on the ground as she backtracks out of range, blinking harshly against the pain. There was no one now - just her and certain death.