He watched quietly as she moved forward, the slight limp reminding her that their search would have to be concluded for the day. When she placed her paw in his, he held it very gently, and looked at her in surprise. “To live a life with you in it. To watch you become the wolf you were supposed to be before your pack suppressed you. “ Her knowledge and outlook of the world was delightful, and he would help that flame grow. To catch kisses in dark corners… Heat touched his cheeks and he pushed the thought away. His paw that held hers steady and gentle despite his thoughts.

He thought of the sounds she had made when he had nipped her neck and back. It was going to be… a very long journey to work on learning to live with her without... partaking. He placed his free paw over hers, cupping it between them. “Let’s get you back to the Armada, so Ollie can look at your paw.” He said, and so this dark cave didn’t tempt them any further down this path.

"Basilisk Fatalis"

How gentle he was, how soft.

To watch her become who she was meant to be? Or revel in a half-life spent with love denied like Sirius and his beloved Deathbelle? Were they doomed to repeat the story of his grandfather? Or destined to break the chains of curses past? Or would he allow her to break such a curse with his heir? Will she never get to feel those delightful sensations again? Or never even truly experience a lover's embrace?

Her eyes flicked dolefully between his, and she chewed her lip over the strings she tied together of historic stories replaying themselves. Of a road, he laid out before her potentially devoid of love since he wished to deny her freedom and keep her all to himself, but never yet indulge.

He placed his other paw over theirs and bid them home. Away from the temptations of the private caves and back into the embrace of the Armada. She nodded, and let him help her home, much subdued.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

She didn’t respond to his statement, and while he desperately wished to know what thoughts were going on behind those beautiful golden eyes, he didn’t push. He knew that the situation wasn’t ideal, and he was the one in power here. It was his will that kept her locked to his side, his and his alone.

He released her paw with some reluctance, and slowly led the way back out of the mines. Retracing their steps through the darkness. He kept close to her, keeping an eye on her movements to ensure she was managing okay despite the sprain. His wants and the consequences spiralling through his thoughts for some time.

It wasn’t until they came to the exit that he sighed. “I’ll return to look for him once I’ve got you back to Ollie.” He told her. He wouldn’t have her wandering the unclaimed territories alone. His possessiveness as in full swing, and it was all to easy that someone less savoury would come upon her on the trek across the plain back home. "I am unsullied before you, my Liege"...

"Basilisk Fatalis"

Her mind that delighted him so was afire with spider web weavings of meanings, solutions, politics, paths, and partnerships. So rampant and active it was she forgot to respond to him. Processing processing processing, find a solution, find anything, find something! Grasp... anything...

Her limp was barely perceptible when they reached the exit and he mentioned coming back to look for Charlie once she was safely back with Ollie. Oh, Ollie just loved playing her babysitter. She knew from their meeting down in Auster how close the Syndicate was, she knew Bas would never let her out of her sight away from the Armada borders. She wouldn't argue with him.

She finally realized she never replied to him about navigating their situation together and the end he hoped to achieve.

She looked out into the fields covered in snow, her eyes of molten liquid gold watching something in the inner distance of her mind and not the landscape. She stopped in the opening, half in and half out of the caves. A lick of wind picked up a few strands of her pale fur and fluttered them about.

"You must keep Hazel first." She said to the wind, knowing she was closing her own cage. She closed her eyes against the brightness of the snow, pushing a tear of abject sorrow through her long desert lashes and down her cheek.

"You must keep Hazel and Spider, and your future with Hazel, above all, before me." She wouldn't look at him, couldn't. Her heart fluttered against her ribs like a wild bird in a cage.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

The look he gave her was one of frustration, and he didn’t speak for a moment. Just looked at the fiery toned woman and listened to the wind that whistled around them. The situation was awful. He hadn’t known a heart could split so easily in two. His desires were mixed, and the life he offered wasn’t an easy one for either of them to walk through.

He leaned down, and kissed her forehead, between her soft white ears. “You are mine, and I look after my own. If you unweave all the complicated strands and dig to the heart of the matter, it’s that. You are mine, and I’ll protect you.” He told her, and gently pushed her with an encouraging paw so they were moving again. Across the plains, and towards the Armada. The newly revealed and complicated truths between them.

"Basilisk Fatalis"

A soft kiss was placed on her head, she took two steps into the snow.
"Son of a Sphinx! How dare you!" A different fire, one she'd shot at him before, but this was more desperate than angry, "I'm trying to make it easier for you!" She wanted to take advantage of the distance between them and the pack just now, hot tears streamed down and the wind bit at them.
"You want to live a life with me in it? To watch me bloom into who I was supposed to be while you deny me the ground in which to do so? I'm fighting to unweave the strands and you tangle them up again! The heart of the matter! The heart is Hazel, the heart is you!" She didn't know what she was getting at, she was just fury and anger and despair and all the emotions. It boiled over and made her ears ring against the cold, her eyes blind. Her paw was a mild annoyance to the ringing in her head. She tossed her head back and forth.
"Promise me! Promise me Basilsk that you will not let me get between you and her! You will not let me become some wedge for her to hate me!" She collapsed again, unable to hold these emotions and stand, more quietly now, she pleaded with him, "You won't let her kill me, you won't let her chase me out. I love-" she buried her face into the cold snow, a relief to her burning face.


"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

Basilisk did not expect the fire of her response. The placid girl responded instantly, pulling away and turning on him. She was so small, so fragile in the snow before him. He lowered himself down on his hunches, bringing himself closer to her level, his tail swaying back and forth behind him. He looked less like a chastised wolf, and more like one with their eyes on prey and waiting for their moment to strike.

She continued to yell and rage, showing a passion and a fire she had largely hidden before now. The heat in his eyes grew a little more as he watched her. She ended her tirade with the demand of a promise, and he watched her for a long moment. Watched her drive her face into the snow, the edges of a sentence not finished standing between them. He sat there, silent, predatory. “I can make only one of those promises. You will not die, nor leave.”

"Basilisk Fatalis"

Was that all she wanted? She choked on a sob into the ground. She just wanted to feel safe. This development had thrown her sense of comfort to the wind and she felt like she was back on her boat, unsure if she would ever make it home, or make it to shore alive. One rogue splash away from capsizing.

She pulled her face from the snow and looked up at him, even though he was crouched she still had to look up at him. His face was angry and predatory, how dare she demand promises from him. Throw a fit like a child who didn't want to return home from the playground.

She clenched the biting snow with her paws and looked down at them in shame. This wasn't something she could figure out just by thinking it through. This wasn't in any of her books. This wasn't navigated in any way before that she knew. This was completely new and it terrified her more than ignited her curiosity. At least for now.

"Will you hold me or smack me?" She asked of the ground in front of her, sniffing back her tears of shame. Maybe if she came back from the caves with a limp and a fresh scar no one would be the wiser.


"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

“Which would you like more? I could go either way.” He asked back at her, not exactly making light of the situation, as attempting to distract her from the clear turmoil going through her mind. He stalked forward through the snow until he was right beside her, and he wrapped two behemoth paws around her and dragged her back to him. Tucking her into his chest, where his heart was. He rested his chin against the back of her head, and rocked her lightly, like a mother would a crying child. His arms wrapped around, holding her with the gentleness her little body deserved.

“I’m sorry, Ignita. I really am. I know I’m digging this hole deeper and deeper, and making a mess of things.” he sighed into her fur. He didn’t know if they’d ever figure out how to untangle this and life fulfilling lives.

"Basilisk Fatalis"

She shook her head in dismay at his question back at her. He chose to reach out to her despite the potential to smack her. She let him gather her up in his mighty protective paws. There, there she felt like the world didn't matter. Here, under his protective chin, she could feel his breath fill his lungs and his heart beat steadily in his chest. The gentle rocking made her melt into his fur like a sticky syrup. Despite her shame and turmoil, she prayed to the heavens for the world to just stop here.

She placed her head and one of her arms over his arm, grasping desperately to take hold of it.
"I keep trying to find a way to make it work. But it will only once everyone at the table becomes comfortable with a whole lot of things really quickly, and of course that'll never happen. And I can't, I just can't solve it." She's never had a problem she couldn't solve and desperately wanted to.

Someone's going to get hurt. They're all going to get hurt. And she was the only one out of them all to know everyone potentially involved. She buried her face into his chest again. He could never know how she felt about his heir. Hazel could never know how Bas and Ignita felt about each other. Ignita had to hold these strings together somehow and knew one day it'd all fall apart, and it'll be all her fault.

There, the outcome. It was bleak but it was something she could at least prepare herself for. Bas could hold on to his hope that things will all work out. But she'll know how it all works out, and she can brace herself for it when it does.

Finally, a breath. She inhaled his musk deeply and steadied herself.
"All right. I'm ready." She started to push herself away to make their journey back home, resolved to be defeated in the end.
"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

He looked down at the helpless little wolf in his arms and was almost overcome with the desire to kiss her. To imagine the surprise on her face, and perhaps the little sound that might escape her. He felt his breathing quicken, and he closed his eyes. Trying to reign in his body’s desires.

“Mmmm.” He said agreebly, feeling the word vibrate through his chin against her. He didn’t try to speak, a little afraid of what might come out. She seemed to gather herself with a breath, and moved to break free. He didn’t release his hold, trapping her against him. Holding the power, holding her. Knowing that at that moment, he was the one in charge. Everything was on him, it was his choice in what he did and really, she had no say in it. There was an allure to that power, and he perhaps felt a small inkling into how his father felt. Why Azure had held his strength over them, and left them begging for the scraps of his approval. He let out a slow breath, breathing in the scent of her. His, his, his. he kept her trapped in his arms, wondering what she would do.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

So wrapped up in her own head again she didn't notice him shifting gears. When she went to get up he held her there and her brow furrowed in confusion until she realized the quickening of his heart and the catch in his breath. His scent shifted ever so slightly over the smell of the land and snow. They were out in the open snow.

She squirmed against him, maybe she could weasel her way around his mighty arms. A comfort and a cage. She lifted her head over his arm again, shaking her head,
"No, Bas, not-not here. We're out in the open..." She said quietly. A pleading hitch to her tone. Would he force it? Under the sky where any could wander by?

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

He gave a soft chuckle as he felt her wiggle in his grip. Not afraid, not frantic, just worried about what others might think. She was so willing, it would only take a well placed kiss and he knew he would scent her desire again. He let out a soft sigh, holding her against his chest, and nipped the back of her neck once. Reminding her who she belonged to. Body, and soul.

He released his grip on her and let her down gently on the snow. “Alright, let’s get your paw seen to before we can get distracted.” He suggested, letting the wind blow through his coat and chase away any scents as he herded her across the plain.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Was it only her worry that others would see them? Or did she use the excuse to deny him, to hold herself back, to help him navigate the forbidden desires within them? How long could she deny him or distract him before he partook against his own will? Wasn't that his will? To hold himself at bay for as long as possible?

She braced herself against him as he held her to his chest. She sighed as well and bit her lip as he nipped the back of her neck, sending shudders down her spine. No! She can't encourage him!

He released her and she scrambled back. Her nose scrunched in silent pain for a flashing moment as she used her sprained paw against the ground too forcefully. She then grabbed her goggles from the snow, that had slipped from her head when she extricated herself from him, and slung them around her neck.

She was resolved. She was resolved to hold these strings together until they broke. Resolved to remind him of his duty to Hazel, resolved to deny him and push him back as much as she conceivably could.

"Let's go." She said with purpose. They wouldn't get distracted if she had any say in the matter.

"Speech"