Meadow

’Find her!’ the words had been whispered with vengeance and fury. Heat had burned against his ears as Titania pressed close to him, the sweet perfume thick and intoxicating. Hunger flashed in his emerald eyes as he had reached for her, desperate to feel the silken hairs of her star dotted coat beneath his touch. How he had wanted her, lusted for her from the first moment that his eyes fell upon her. Yet like that day in the Thicket, the darkling mare draws away from him before his lips can ever find its purchase. Like always, she left him longing desperately for more. ’Bring her to me…’ the command had been clear and one that he could not force the wolf to ignore. He knew that he should tell her to kiss it, or let her take the pound of flesh from his own bones. Vanya had taken her role as queen to heart when he relented and before he left, they had come to something akin to amicable love. It was nowhere near the same passion of fire that he felt for Monster or Zjeena, which was perhaps part of the reason he had denied her for so long, but it was loyalty in as much as he knew how to be. The wolf never hoped to find another mate like his queens of fire and ice, but Vanya had conformed herself to the position quite nicely. Did she really deserve what Titania proposed? Was he willing to become the star dreamer’s huntsman? Of course he was.

He had not thought twice about it, only about the feel of Titania’s lips against his skin and the way her hot breath caused his blood to race. He had taken to the warm ocean waters without a second thought. ’....the main island… the commons…’ the sweet honey soaked venom of her words whispered into his mind. That was where she had last been seen. How ironic.

Rougaru did not doubt for one moment that Vanya would remain somewhere close to the commons. The beauty had always been desperate for the attention of stallions and what better place than where the stallions congregated? Searching for her next victim it would seem the wolf hissed in his ear. For some reason, a flare of jealousy rears its ugly head at the thought of another touching her. But then, if Titania wanted her, perhaps she deserved whatever fate the starlit mare had envisioned for her. Regardless, he was on a mission and one he was determined to see through.

Her trail was not hard to pick up. Hell he had been chasing after it for years himself. The sweet aroma of her heat burned itself into his eager nostrils causing them to quiver with excitement. This reunion promised to bring with it all sorts of fireworks.

Saucer-like hooves tramped down the well worn pathways, pausing here and there as he stopped to sniff a blade of grass or broken twig. Vanya had indeed passed through here. Confusion knit his brow together as the trail led further and further away from the commons and towards the open meadows. Not her usual haunts. Something must have happened. The thought was rather amusing and if he were not in a rush to complete his task, no doubt Rougaru would have spent a few moments himself roaming the commons dwelling on the thoughts. However, the image of Titania and the fire behind her dark eyes is enough to keep him pushing forward.

It does not take him long to locate her. As he pushed beneath the final veil of hanging branches and stepped into the bright sunlight that filtered over the meadow, he finds her. Like a beacon of light she shines, her chocolate and white coat glistening in the afternoon sun. So was her style. A smile tugs the corner of his ashen lips upward as he watches her for a moment, admiring the supple curve of her dark hip as she pivots in a dancing circle. Her long dark tail flags behind her, like the cape of some royal princess. The arch of her throat resurfaces long buried memories of a time when his lips had caressed the skin there and inhaled her fragrance with hungry lust. Their meetings then had been filled with passion and fire, something that now, as he strode towards her, he realized he missed.

Dark ears pin tight against his skull as the wolf snakes his head out in warning to nearby stallions. He had no intentions of losing her again like he had the day the damned gray stallion stole her right from beneath his nose. Multifaceted eyes of jade glitter as a coy smile tugs the corners of his whiskered lips upwards into a smile. ”Give me up for dead already my queen” he asks, making a point to drag the last word out a bit longer than necessary. Dark lashes blink against the bright sunlight as long cream and caramel colored tail flicks idly against his hocks. Curiously, he tilts his large head, the thick mantle of his drying forelock settling easily over the ridge of his brow. Perhaps that was the draw he felt for Titania, her devotion to Rille even in the pale stallion’s absence had been intriguing. From what Rougaru knew, there was not much reason for such loyalty, but, then again, he was never there in those intimate moments between the two. He only hoped that somehow, he could chisel his way beneath the layers of stone that guarded her soul. At least he had made himself memorable enough for her to want him around.

Pushing away the thoughts of the starlight woman, emerald eyes once more find the alluring eyes of Vanya. A hungry grin ghosts across his lips as he stretches his muscular neck towards her, ”I have been searching for you.” he murmurs, his voice a hushed whisper. Let her believe it, believe the words of a lover and the lust filled eyes that match. He would not admit that the lust belonged to the desert queen and that his hunger now was to gain her favor. If it took betraying the mare he had worked so hard to obtain then so be it. Her loyalty was a fickle thing anyway.