Hatred burned in the eyes of the wolf now, its golden pools glittering protectively as Zjeena leans into his touch, her small muzzle breathing heavily against his skin. He does not have to see her tear stained eyes to know what it was that she had left behind... to know what she had walked away from. She left her children, left a herd that for so long she had meticulously guarded and guided with all the love of a mother and a wise leader. He never doubted her love for Liland. Even as his 'prisoner' she spoke highly of the stallion that he had grown to disdain. To think that the same stallion, who spent countless encounters begging for a bargain for the one he called the love of his life, would so flippantly send her away with words of distrust and utter disgust.... he could never begin to fathom. Some called him a beast... but what Liland did to Zjeena... that was beastly.

Her sobs silence now, her breathing once more growing steady as she presses against his warmth. He can feel her tremble against him, his skin electric with pent up anger. Liland. The wolf curled its lips, ivory fangs flashing as claws dug into the earth beneath his hooves. Desperately he clings to her, his thick neck taunt as breathes in her scent and does his best to force away the imagines of sorrow in her eyes. She breathes against his skin now, her words cold fire.

He takes a step back now, his emerald green eyes transfixing upon her own dark auburn ooids. The beasts hackles rise, ready to charge off into the surf once more. The stallion, well the stallion in him was not ready to release her... not yet. "Zjeena..." he breathes. If she wanted Liland dead, Rougaru would tear the Bay stallion' world apart. He would leave him with nothing more than rocks and snow. But is that what she really wanted?

No. In her anger and fury, he knows the words are spoken without true meaning. Despite his hatred for how the stallion treated her, despite his desire to see the stallion a crumpled bloody mass at his hooves, deep down he knew that those feelings Zjeena had once carried for him were still there, regardless of how deep the stallion caused them to be buried.

Tenderly he reaches to brush aside her forelock, his broad head pressing against her own. "I will get them back... for you I will burn his world to the ground." he murmurs, blinking slowly over emerald eyes as he takes in her scent, savoring the comfort and warmth that soothed the bristling creature. "I will never let him hurt you again." he finishes, his words sure and concrete. Liland had sent Zjeena to him with a request but the way he saw it, he never exactly agreed... he had said it was up to Zjeena and that he meant. Whatever her desire, he would see it through. "You are mine and I... I will never let you go again."