The beast within never sleeps, but it had been a long time since it thrashed with such vitriol against its restraints. Fell’s heart thunders with fury as he rises from a half-kneel, his jaw and front right leg a mess of pain. He had underestimated the Inlet’s pup, and his foreleg and face would pay the price, but he was too angry to feel it now.

Kohelet passes him, following the still-fresh trail of the painted stallion and their daughter. Embarrassment feeds his anger like gasoline, and he stirs into motion, his teeth gritting against the ragged snarl that threatens to escape him. It had pissed him off the first time he had come for Úna, but Fell had hardly taken him seriously. He assumed it was some game of Parvati’s, maybe a tone-deaf joke.

Clearly, he was wrong, and it showed he was getting soft.

Fell lopes lopsidedly after his lover, hooked ears twitching at her bellow for Parvati. An angry Kohelet is a rare creature, and her brazen fury sends a well-deserved shiver down the black stallion’s spine.

If I’m useless, he thinks, at least she’s got things covered.

Ahead, Koh halts, and Fell rushes to her side, ears pinned and tail lashing. He is lathered, eyes rolling with frenzied fury, his right foreleg ablaze, ready to twist and sprain and tear each of his remaining good legs if it means he can throttle the mongrel who took his daughter.

FELL

stallion. 16hh. black. marwari x. Rougaru x visurix.