It had been a while since he had sought her attention. Or perhaps it had been a while since she had sought his. Their last outing together was over a year ago now, but it somehow still felt fresh in his mind. The choice she had made not to run to her freedom. The actions that followed to make the daughter they now shared. The feel of her teeth on his skin. Garmr had wanted to seek that all over again last fall, but he had somehow managed to keep away from her. To keep away from Ainaz.


He was not a father. Garmr had never wanted to sire any of the spawn that now roamed the Islands. Instincts and apparently lack of control seemed to dictate otherwise since he had several. But just as Dior had requested Garmr’s presence for Gothic’s birth where he had stood guard over the new mother, he had done the same for the birth of Nazanin. Not next to them murmuring comforting words or touches. But a hulking shadow just out of reach with glittering eyes that threatened any to intrude or threaten them during such a vulnerable moment.


Garmr had caught Ainaz’s scent since then. Had always picked up Nazanin’s with her. The girl apparently always clung close to her mother despite the lack of threat here in the Lagoon. At least from others. Garmr had already proven what he could and would do to his daughters if the demon within him desired an outlet for the taste of blood. He could not claim his sons were any safer; it just hadn’t happened yet. Which is why he had decided to stay away from them both. As if they didn’t even exist.


But a different sort of desire had been growing in the draft. A want that wouldn’t let him be. Garmr could best describe it as a festering wound that would not heal and the ache only growing worse with time. It brought him nearer to Ainaz. To cross the path she had taken through their home just so he could breathe in her scent, finding temporary relief for brief moments at a time. Yet, as time wore on, that relief became shorter and shorter until it did nothing but make him ache worse. Garmr couldn’t stand it any longer.


Following the scent he had found in order to find some relief that did not come, Garmr knew Ainaz and Nazanin were close. Their trail lead him closer to the cove along the west side of the territory. The pretty part of the Lagoon that not many outsiders even knew existed, nor that he frequented very often.


The foliage still protected him from being spotted when Garmr finally lay eyes upon the pair. Nazanin was barely a day old when he had last saw her; and now she was a gangly yearling. Where her butt was higher than her shoulders, and her legs looked too long for her body. Still, he couldn’t help but notice how the white sabino markings seemed to glow against her dark coat. The splash of white on her face, or her snow-white legs. Someday, someone would look at her and realize how gorgeous she was. Somehow, in a way that he couldn’t understand, Garmr felt like no one in the Lagoon would be worthy of that.


Garmr felt something else stir within him. A second new feeling as he looked over to Ainaz. Her grey was more prominent than when he had last seen her. Though he knew every grey horse changed with each year, it felt like he had lost so much time. When did he start caring about time? Or even caring enough to seek another out like this? To feel something fluttering in his stomach at just the sight of them, before they had even noticed he was there? Only the thought of violence had ever given him this and it left Garmr deeply confused. Perhaps he should just go. Perhaps he should just….


No.


With green eyes hardening to hide away whatever was happening with his stomach and feelings, Garmr pushed through the rest of the vines and greenery to approach the pair as if he hadn’t been spying on them this entire time.