In the single heart beat it takes before Druna replies, Garmr feels a threadling of doubt. Everything he had, everything he was, could be taken away from him at any moment. His rank, his title, his earnings and misdeeds meaning nothing if someone else sat on the throne. For someone who had not wanted to be Boss, he felt no desire to give it up, despite how much easier his life would be. Yet when she answers, a wash of relief floods through him. No matter what, there was at least one thing he wouldn’t lose.


Although Garmr had mastered his facial expressions long ago, and thus far his green eyes had remained gleaming and unreadable, a brief glimmer of something else was there. Not fear, nor rage, or regret. Perhaps not even the relief that swamped him. It was too mixed to have just one name, but if not staring into those monstrous eyes, it would be missed entirely. Gone so quickly, it would be questionable if it was even there.


“As if such a weak answer was truly what I wanted to hear.” He sneered at her, reaching over to brush his lip along the delicate curve of her throat. How easy it would be to latch his teeth onto it and crush it, keeping her from taking another breath, and facing slow death where she would crumple at his feet. “If you didn’t carry such precious cargo, perhaps I would kill you. Just to end my torment of your existence.”


Garmr was not usually so foul with Druna, and he pulled his touch away from her throat only to lightly tug at her mane, as if that would soften his words any. The beast wasn’t supposed to care. He had chased children just to enjoy their screams. He had bloodied mares for just existing and done even worse to stallions. Yet somehow, in all her hot-blooded Salem fury, Druna still stood. Unafraid of him despite how easily he could make her delicate body snap.


“You….” He started, his voice almost a whisper, and the tone a strange sort of soft. Yet as soon as it escaped him, Garmr’s ears flattened against his poll and he reached over to place an unapologetic bite upon her shoulder, knowing it was uncalled for, but he did it anyways. “Leave me be.” Garmr growled.