all equally shallow

His mind turned with prospects and ideas. The man found himself taking frequent journeys, back and forth between the Everfrost and the Ripperwood. Something pulling him to both places, tearing him which way and that- threatening to rip him right in half. There were benefits to both.

The Ripperwood: His mate, his betrothed- Acheri. Whom of which he loved dearly, they understood one another completely and agreed on so many things. They would rule there together, in their rightful place on the top.

The Everfrost: The queen of black ice. Like an elusive ghost that he constantly felt the need to pursue. He could barely stand to be within her air without feeling the primal need to breath it all in.

The man sighed a frustrated sigh. He felt vulnerable and he hated that vulnerability. Under his breath he cursed himself and his primal desires- they always seemed to ruin good things.

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Viviene had made a rather fine, mhm, home of the mountains though in one place she did not stay for long, wandering from packlands to unclaimed territory, back and forth, it was all very simple to her; though she did not prefer it, really, having spent all her life amongst wolves she could call her own. None here were hers, a reason she reminded herself of liberally. The heights were a place she crossed often, passing through flowers and wide rocks that made up the hills, hunting the pikas and the stray hare that rarely thought a wolf would make easy work of catching them. The star blessed, however, hadn't come across others among these lands, relatively absent of most creatures one could communicate with.

 

When she noticed the ebony wolf stark amongst the swathes of green and stone, it should have been known something was... different.

 

If she were anyone else, she would have known to steer clear, to step away and let him traverse. Viviene missed company. A fault, really. Never bred for the lonely life of wandering. So her ears pricked high, she came to a stop, and said to him, a soft smile on her maw, "You  huntin' too I reckon?"

---

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The man's head swung on a swivel in the direction of a female voice. He hoped that more members, flushing under the wing of him and Shadowcast would further solidify not only his claim, but his loyalty. With so many wolves needing direction and leadership, he would be less likely to flee to the Everfrost and play in the mess he had created.

Yet this was no worthy rogue or recruit. No, before him was the scourge of his eye. The once surprise and eagerness of his expression contorted into something evil. He stared for a second too long, orange eyes fiery with contempt.

Then he had an idea.

And the look washed away.

Something of deceit and a cruel lie. Instead, his face was pleasant and inviting. A smile that, on the surface was welcoming and genuine, yet beneath it was merely forced.

"In fact, I am." He had a way with his speaking that could easily suggest an ulterior motive. The man's paws turned on a dime and started moving closer, subtly enough as they only moved when he spoke. "Are you from around here?" His head leaned forward and he eyeballed her in a charming way, still smiling. "Got any tips?"

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Viviene had never been the one to pass judgment, especially not so quickly, but there was something in the way the man moved that brought a chill to her spine; it all lay in his voice, the way his words didn't match the lilt, the way he advanced as he spoke—it left her feeling none unlike a doe at the focus of a starving pack. She didn't recede. Not bred to but made to see the sapling throes of something ill and moving to subvert them, ease them. Stamp the fire out before it spread. Yet... Yet...

 

She let her smile fade slowly but not falter. "Not from here, no, but I've - uh - been around, learned the best huntin' grounds and whatnot," she said, offering a wag of her tail, ears flicking back. Appeasement. "If I wasn't so busy I'd show you. If we cross paths again... maybe then?" Viviene proposed, voice soft, never one to leave so soon but unwelcomed. Or maybe she no longer welcomed him, slight regret for being so eager. "'Cause it seems we're both goin' our own ways."

 

She hoped.

---

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"Oh noo..!" He threw his head in a dramatic and dismissive way. "I've got plenty of time! I don't mind the diversion." The man had come even closer, now within a few feet. He took the opportunity to sniff at her. Trying to kill two birds with one stone. Where was she from? Who did she belong to? Are there more of... them?

"I usually hunt more north so, I'm not familiar with the prey here." A lie. He had hunt her many-a-time. In fact, it was easy to say, it was among his favorite places to hunt. Yet as he continued to speak, he only grew closer. The friendly smile on his face was uneasy. He didn't smile with his eyes.

And just when one would think he would keep going, to get so dangerously close that one would have to run, he turned. The beginnings of a circling. Like a shark or an orca whale, the same way wolves surround an elk.
He bit his tongue before opening his mouth to speak again. "Couldn't a pretty gal like you spare just a few moments to help out a silly wanderer?" Erebus loathed the idea of calling her pretty or dishing out any sort of compliment, let alone calling himself silly as if he didn't know exactly what he was doing.

It was all worth the effort.

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Viviene flinched at his voice, the stranger's words sick in their feigned sweetness, it made her stomach churn. She licked her lips, haunches sinking low to the ground. All she wanted was for him to leave. "Uh, I feel... You know, there's somewhere I have to be," she told him, ears fanning out to the sides of her head, that smile never fading. "When I come back through, I'll be happy to... help you, yeah?"

 

But he persisted and, this time, she whined. The stranger drew himself close, so that she swore she felt his breath hot on her fur, and then he turned, rounding her in such a way she shivered at. "I've someone waitin' on me," she told him, a lie as it was; she was alone, utterly. No one would be looking for her if she was suddenly snuffed nor would anyone lay elsewhere to return to if she needed aid, once a pack-wolf, she knew she stunk of it now—nothing, no one. "Meet me here again, why don't you? I'd love to show you the prey that's... that's- yeah, but they're impatient, I really should go."

 

If only it was so easy. Viviene fed instinct, fear, something deep-seated and brewed during her time with the only wolf she was fine to have left behind; he made her passive, pliable, ensured she knew what irked him lest it become her problem. The only difference? In some way, she loved the wolf of nothing, it kept her rooted, that desperation for him to hold ire at anyone but her. If the stranger hated her for going against... what, this script? Okay, that was fine.

 

With another tightening pull of her lips, a shuddering smile, she slipped up and back through the gaps he had to leave to encircle her. She breathed.

 

And then Viviene ran, the growl of a breath he puffed almost painful, spurring forward, away.

---

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The fear she sweat was palpable- he could almost taste it. He bathed in it, even. Like some sort of drug or kick- the spice of life.

When her unease finally rose her up, and she turned to no longer face him, he let out a wicked laugh. Oh what fun! What joy! He could easily see why his grandmother enjoyed this game so! It was such glee to chase such a pathetic creature, all for the merriment of it. A sport! A game! Externally, one might have thought they were friends at play.

Well, such a game is no fun if he did not participate!
"Don't run! I only want to rip you limb from limb!" He played with her still, a snarl in the voice now- the same voice that was once unsettlingly friendly and false.

The man would snap his teeth at her back legs, not wanting to pounce on her outright. Yet instead hoping to make her trip and tumble when he grabbed them, a tactic he used all the same on running deer.

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Fuck was all she thought as she ran.

 

Between them, she was smaller, lighter, by all means she sought to treat him none unlike a bear, dodge and go.

 

But Viviene had seen deer that surely thought the same; that they were swifter, that they could outwit her... and she'd tasted their blood, tore their abdomens open, and feasted on the organs which spilled from them, lapped at their flesh.

 

A deer was she as he nipped and snapped at her heels; instinct won, she jerked from her stride to tear back the leg he narrowly bit—a stride that'd surely have saw her away—and then, at once, the world fell, she with it. A whirling blur as her body smacked and rolled, body clipping small rocks and kicking up moss and grass.

 

She didn't have so much as a second to rise before he broke their distance.

---

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The jaws of the beast opened wide to swallow her whole. He aimed to snap and make purchase on the fur of her neck, hoping to ensure her struggle end soon. He didn't want to kill her, no. But harm her still, he would.
Vicious set of teeth still gnashing, regardless, at her skin.
The man set to wrap around her like a snake, proving her escape effortless and futile. To catch a bird was no easy task, but catch a bird he did. The sweet dove at the business end of a hungry cat- to pluck every feather was his goal.

He would quench his desires now- on this wretched child of the sun- for the hope that his indecisiveness would leave him. That lust would no longer fuel his actions. To use this woman as a tool- for this woman was only but a tool to him. Perhaps it was a budding need to create offspring, or perhaps the red moon still controlled and stirred his heart to violence. Either way, this woman would be blessed to have his blood in her womb.

"She should be thankful."

Wicked beasts do wicked things, and a wicked beast he was. Wretched and cruel. He saw not the evilness of his crime, though it may damn him to hell.

-fade-

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