There have been many mares that he has met and grown a sort of attachment with in his lifetime. Monster had been the first to capture his roaming gaze on the wondrous islands when they had been essentially new and unknown to him. She had been as fierce then as she was now, her venom and sharp words as vicious as the bites or kicks that often accompanied them. She was born to be a queen with the fire that both quenched his thirst and left him parched for more. She was his jungle viper and always she made herself first. But she was never alone.

Zjeena had come next. The small Fjord mare had been cold as ice towards him when first introduced through the jealous and often overly zealous attempts of her stallion at the time. He had taken her on a whim, intent to only instill in Liland that he was a superior stallion and nothing more. However, as the days turned to weeks, and weeks into months, time together with Zjeena and her twins found in him a familiarity with the tawny mare that he could not easily dismiss. Where Monster was fire that burned with the fierceness of an enferno, Zjeena was ice in her stoic grace and ethereal presence. She commanded attention simply by being exactly who she was. And he had loved her fiercely for it.

Even now the thoughts of Zjeena and her loss sting his soul, however the nearness of the fragile silver mare pressed so close against him had a way of knitting the tattered edges of his aching soul. Sure there had been others whom he had treasured dearly that no longer were with him. Calypso had come and gone like a summer squall over the ocean. One moment she was sharing the precious birth of their daughter and the next, gone with his beautiful girl to chase after the painted Jabari. That itself brought a whole next string of sorrowful emotions that he dare not venture upon. Though his interaction with her had been brief, Titania still haunted his mind like the northern star flickering ever constant on clear night skies. Even Vanya, with all her defiance and hatred of him, had managed to worm her way into his subconscious thoughts that often plagued him as to where she now roamed, for she did her best to keep clear of Atlantis since their meeting with Wasp in the Peaks. Each one, a piece to the wolf that seemed nothing more than the jumbled longings of a herd stallion, fit so perfectly into place in his mind.

He did not even know her name, aside from the sweet “dove” that often fell from his lips in the lack of knowledge, yet still he felt the overwhelming urge to protect her and hold her close as he often did for Zjeena when Liland threatened to tear her heart apart. Instinctively he curls around her as she presses against his skin, comforted by the warmth of her embrace and the unspoken emotions that lingered behind the simple touch. She mumbles her apology and Rougaru cannot help the soft shushing noise that lingered on his lips. Thinking of what had befallen her, of what that damned monster had dared to do, was enough to boil his blood and cause the wolf to bristle with anger and unshed rage. She whispers against him and Rougaru draws away long enough to let his multifaceted eyes meet her own. There is reassurance there, a gleam of something different, something unnamed and feral but infinite in its decision all the same. ”You did nothing wrong little dove… you did nothing wrong.”

He could tell by the reluctance in which she gazed at the sleeping filly, that those words would perhaps never truly gather in her mind, but he felt the need to say them regardless. It was not her fault. If only he had known. If only he could know…

my love… so simply pulled from his own tongue. So natural it seemed to come and yet he cannot miss the draw of her breath or the moment of shock that glistens in her dark eyes. My love. It had come natural almost, the words gentle and reassuring and yet he meant them with all the strength of his body. He would love her and protect her for as long as she allowed him. He asks if she would name the small golden filly with him, that in some manner, the name itself would tie the girl to him tighter than any ties of blood that might bind her to the rogue stallion. He hoped that she would say yes, truthfully, he expected it. He did not however expect her next words.

Surprise lifts his ears amid the tangle of cream and caramel colored tresses as his emerald eyes gaze upon her own with true curiosity. She drops her gaze away from him. As she speaks, he softens and the warmth in his soul grows in intensity. He wants to press her tight against him, to murmur soft nothings into her ear and promise that she will never feel the need to fear again and yet the wolf stops him. She needed to do this herself.
Intently she listens to her timid voice, listens as strength wages a constant war in her heart. A name. Rae. The name felt like a weight lifted from his own soul as tentatively he reached forward to brush a straying strand of her silvery white forelock from her brow. ”Rae…”<.b> he repeated, letting the name linger upon his tongue like a fresh spring surrounded by desert. For the first time since Zjeena’s departure, Rougaru began to feel like the part in him that had been broken was beginning to mend. She asks for his approval, her eyes searching and almost desperate in its need. A tender smile tugs the corners of his whiskered lips upwards as he blows a warm breath against her cheek. ”Rae fits you beautifully…. You are the ray of light after a long night of darkness.” he murmurs, his broad chocolate frame leaning ever so softly into her own silver white form.