Arturio watched her carefully. There was no need to play with words here. He merely stated truths as he knew them. If that meant he was the 'bad guy' in their eyes, then so be it. His ear twitched slightly but remained forward. He listened to her words. It seemed as though, to him, she had been conditioned this way. There was loyalty in blood and family, but to what ends? His own brother had done things that caused them to distance themselves from each other, yet this girl stayed right there no matter what he did.

A soft hm... escaped him regarding his earlier than preferred departure. It was of little consequence now, even though the white male knew there would be more after this little venture. Things would not be over with Blackthorne, not so long as he possessed any wolf within his back that did not choose to be their. Nor so long as he deigned to possess Azariah in any way that was not the woman's choosing. Her change in expression is not lost on him. In fact, he flashes a grin. Just as she had touched a nerve, so too had he it would seem.

"What makes you think the boy wanted to be there to begin with?" he retorted, "A boy who stays of his own choosing now, but would he have stayed if he hadn't been forced to begin with?" A low growl rumbled in his chest, echoing her own. Arturio wasn't going to step closer. Yet. The situation did not warrant it, yet. But her threat was not unnoticed. "To think the boy helpless feeds into a false dichotomy, that his options were to stay because he is told to, or stay because he wants to. Yet taking him as young as he was, your demon you cling so loyally to, placed something there that created it. An illusion of choice, where the options are not wholly in his best interest," he said. Some of it was speculation, but some of it was accurate.

Arturio did not feign his grin. She was, if nothing else, loyal and intelligent. "And a demon he will always be, but demons come from somewhere, don't they? Not every creature that follows a demon is one themselves; perhaps a wayward souls given promises that they only get a taste of but never see fulfilled just to keep them close," he mused in turn. The alabaster male merely inclined his head slightly to Natiya's observation. True, he was trying to get near those close to Blackthorne. He might not had succeeded the way he intended, yet here he was speaking with one of them.

It cause him to raised a brow. "And yet, here you and I are," he said with a small wave of his paw towards the fields around them, "That is where your demon and I differ. He craves power, while I do not. He actively seeks it, yet it comes to me. Just because I no longer hold Asteraia does not make me without my reach or hold." One thing he could say for sure in watching Natiya, she genuinely believed what she said. There was no twisting of words to get her way or get what she wanted. That much, he was willing to respect out of her, no matter her association with Blackthorne.

"Why don't you ask him yourself. Or does he not trust you with why he hates me so?" he said, his face now rather placid. "Think about someone you care about that isn't blood, and what you would do for them. A friend, perhaps, who genuinely cares for your well-being and you theirs. Now, imagine a complete stranger demands their time and submission through no other reason than they are soul-bound. Do you stand up for your friend, or do you walk away with your tail between your legs because someone felt entitled? Think about that when you ask him what happened that day in your old home."

The end was intentional. It was an acknowledgement that he knew where they had come from, and that there was much more to things than whatever Blackthorne might have filled her head with. "But as much as you desire information for him, because I know that's why you stayed. Tell him King Arthur will be coming for him. It won't be tomorrow, probably not even this year. But I will be coming, either with an army at my back or to settle things between just me and him," the White Knight said firmly and with finality. He had taken much from her words, and he had given her just enough to make her think. Well, a little more considering she would figure out where he was headed given the wind and their current location. When Blackthorne came, as he would sooner or later, Arturio would be waiting.