@phantombs:
He hadn't carved into her, no, but had cruelly rended. In fact, plundered he had. He'd gnawed in ferocious, fangs drank deep where her sinew throbs, and wherever they gouged, He declared it home – even inside her ribs. Even into her heart, weeping and hemmorhaging want. Yes, that's the verbiage: she surrendered. He won. Still, infatuated with the midnight moon, she struggled, scrabbled, and crawled back onto her feet. Why? She approaches, puttering through the autumn-gold woods. He leans there watching. She whispers soft – tender as though all, all her nipping hurts, is forgiven. Huh. Incredible. "Me," his voice, deep but pinched, rumbles. "Who else would call for you at a time like this? Here? Where nothing but the stars could see us?" Come here. It's been a while. He licks his lips, famished, and inhales hard, weak – subdued, how strange! – and hungry. The tree steadying his legs dully moans. "Look at me." Now! "Who else would I let look at me like this?"
His voice echoes cavernously somewhere deep inside her, someplace she can’t reach, yet its tremble spreads all the way to her fingertips. Something about it feels wrong. Golden lashes flutter to cast away the veil of magic that had brought her there, allowing her to see Him clearly for the first time since arriving and the sight is shocking. When they first met, seeing Him wearing Cường had been despairing, almost offensive. But now she’s witnessed the exit wound of his presence. Now she better understands that He is an intrinsic part of the man she loves, and is, by extension, a part of her, too. And before she can catch herself, the concern has already settled in while she wonders how he can still look absolutely regal while so clearly haggard. The invisible bracelet of fang marks now pulses hot as she comes closer, the hand it adorns tentatively reaching out to brush the sunken shadow under his sharp cheek despite herself. “Are you okay..?” A whisper. Her immediate concern will always be what happens to Cường if the Wolf King goes hungry? But a part of her hates seeing Him so weakened too.