The rose-colored mare recognizes the mischievous smile and the cocky glitter in the painted stallion’s eyes as her words snap into the small space between them. A feral noise lingers deep within her breast at the unspoken words in his grin. A response that, if the roles were reversed, would surely have fallen from her lips. And oh how she would have loved that, not killing him mind you, as much as she spit the words and similar promises to his face, the fact that she refused to admit was somewhere deep down, Khar was attached to Khyber.

Not attached in the sort of him being a sperm donor for her daughter, but an attachment that went beyond her understanding. An attachment that went beyond everything she had ever been taught.

She liked him.

The thought leaves a sour taste in her mouth, and yet the quickened staccato of her heartbeat does not lie. The fire, the venom, the quickness of his wit… all of it wrapped into a delicious package of warm eyes and solid muscles. It went beyond a partner in the height of fall and into something far deeper and foreign to her.

And she hated him for it.
Perhaps that is why when her brow lands it’s hit on his sensitive lips, or maybe it starts when Khyber’s eyes darken. Either way, Khar’pern feels herself rising to the challenge that hangs unspoken between them. A new thrill dances deep within her as silvery gaze glitters, and the cocky smile transfers onto her ashen labrums. It may have been a superficial, menial victory; but it was a victory nonetheless. It fueled her incentive to test her luck.

This time, when the huntress snakes her jaws out towards the stallion’s russet flesh, the seasoned warrior is prepared. His thickly muscled neck arches, preventing her searching jaws from gaining access to the vulnerable flesh of his throat. (Not that she would attack to kill, it just needed to appear that way). No one ever said that attraction was a beautiful thing, did they?

She was so focused on that small victory and growing that small amount of thrill she felt at the emotions dancing behind his darkened eyes that Khar’pern forgot the very first lesson she had ever been taught….. Always protect yourself.

A gasp leaves her lungs, small but audible as the point of his shoulder connects with her ribs, catching the sensitive line of muscles between the bones and even without a glance, she knows it will be a few days that she feels the results. Twin harks flit backward, disappearing beneath the curling tendrils of her obsidian mane as instinctively she juts her jaw forward, nostrils flaring to refill the expelled air in her lungs. It is in that moment that she feels it.

Touch.

The whiskers that line his pink lips tickle her skin, causing her body to shudder uncontrollably. Heat floods her body, enticed to life by the overwhelming essence of him that envelops her at the nearness of his solid frame. Hunger dances behind her silver gaze as she stills, her body rigid and stiff before the threat that lay before her like a knife to her throat. It would only take a few moments, maybe a bit longer really, for his blunt teeth and sharp incisors to pierce her flesh. A few good shakes could tear into her thin skin and open up her throat. A few moments and she would fall, suffocating and desperate for air that never managed to reach her. A few hours and the only life that remained would be the cooling crimson blood that pooled beneath her fallen and prone body.

In this moment, he is the victor.

Even as his heated words breathe against her skin, she finds herself desiring to let him win if only it meant to feel his touch for a moment longer.

”You talk to much…” she growls, arching her own neck towards him, pressing her throat against his seeking lips. Hungry to fuel the flames that threaten to eat her alive….

Khar'pern

The jungle is dark but full of diamonds;