The wolf is watching her. Golden yellow eyes of the predator gleaming beneath the brilliant emerald gleam of his own gaze. Beneath the silken sheen of his chocolate coat, the gray beast’s coat bristles as tension builds itself in every fiber of his muscles. He had waited for this day for a long, long time. Oh how the beast longed to touch her painted skin and trace the curves of her womanly figure with his own lips. Hunger burned in his loins, a hunger that was unquenching even now. The delight that shown in his fierce gaze now is nothing compared to the quickened patter of his heart.

Titania.

Like the goddess of darkness, like the princess of the stars she moves with authority and command even in the moment when her world shatters. Titania… the lost piece of his broken and cracked menagerie. Even she had a place in his soul regardless of the hatred that fumed beneath her dark eyes now.

It still floors him to imagine that Vanya would be willing to toss her proverbial friend under the bus. Perhaps yet another example of how seriously she had taken to her role as queen of paradise. It was no secret that she wished to displace Monster, and despite the loyal warmth that burned through him at the thought of the glorious brown and blue eyed viper that had so long stood at his side, even he would be lying if he did not admit that the darker parts of him considered the possibilities. Vanya wanted to be regaled and revered in the way that his name echoed across the islands. He had no doubt that she hoped to build up her own notoriety in the wake of his image and for that he was okay with. However, for her to willingly give up the mare that had offered her safe passage from Paradise when she had been at her lowest… now that took a ruthless queen. A drappa who knew what she wanted and let nothing get in her way.

Perhaps the reasonable part of him should be terrified by the realization of how easily she had turned on Titiania. Perhaps he should have reevaluated his own ties to the seal bay overo ballerina. However the voice of reason is silenced in this moment by the hungry and possessive wolf. The starlit mare was finally within his grasp and there was nothing that she could do about it now.

It was amusing for the beast, to watch the realization wash over the dark face of the starlit mare. White rims her eyes at the moment when reality set in and she found herself finally understanding exactly what is was that his words meant. Betrayal.

Within seconds, she transforms again. Once more the fierce creature he had risen to face countless times before resurfaces and with an explosion of power she lunges towards him in a fury. ‘Where is she? Give her to me!’ the words fall desperate and commanding from her lips as though the beautiful mare grasped for the last straws of reality that she could cling to. Amusement gleams in the flash of the wolf’s teeth as he shifts his weight to meet her forward thrust with the point of his own shoulder. A cynical laughter rumbles in his breast as the stallion snakes his neck forward to rake his blunt teeth over the curve of her withers. ”She hides from you…. Titania.” he hisses, jerking his head from her reach as she lunges towards his scarred lips. Once more the cynical laugh echoes in his lungs as the stallion shifts the weight of his body to press his shoulder into her own, using his weight as leverage to force her backwards into the dense underbrush. ”Give yourself to me. Let the withered beast within you free and join me… join us.” he murmurs, once more the smile sliding across his lips as his multifaceted eyes glitter in the shadow. ”Be mine and maybe I will bring her to you.”

It is a false hope to be sure but it is the only one that has continued to bring her lurking around the borders of paradise just beyond his reach for all these years. Where she hid his child. Where did his Cress go? He did not know, but once he found a way to rein in the fierce mother, he would resume his search for the missing offspring. He would have them, he would hoard them to his side as he did all his children and sparsely extend them across the islands when he felt them ready as he had done with Medusa and with Drogon. Even this one, the child that swelled her belly now. He would make it his own.

Vanya offers her a way out, an offer that is not completely blind to the wolf but one with which he must admittedly agree to. After all, she had brought his treasured night goddess home for him. The least he could do was refrain from molesting her in front of him and save the pent up lust for Vanya. It was only fair. Almost reluctantly he takes a step backwards, drawing distance a few paces between himself and the white blanketed woman. Fluted ears swivel forward amid the knotted tangle of his cream and caramel colored mane as he once more turns his roaming gaze over her. ”Yes… perhaps that is best….” he muses, a wicked smirk on his whiskered lips. ”I would hate to see you harm yourself or our unborn child.”