Tempting My Trouble

She felt herself hold her breath while she waited to see if her attempt to calm him down would have any effect. Her eyes searched his face as his eyes closed. Seeing him tremble like he did pulled at her heart and her expression softened to only show the concern and sympathy that lingered on her mind. Any sort of doubt that had been on her mind previously was completely gone. The feeling that this is what she was meant for settled securely over her just as his foreleg reached out and pulled her against him. She relaxed into his grip with a relieved sigh. Her gaze shifted to look at the back of the den as his movement to pull her into another embrace made her paws fall from his face, landing around his neck instead. She held herself up by her forelegs around his neck to keep from falling backward completely.

For a moment the relief was overwhelming and she let herself close her eyes and lean her head onto the thickest part of his neck. She wasn't afraid for her own wellbeing... she was afraid for his. She wanted to help him so desperately, but this was all uncharted territory. The sound of his breathing, now more even and free of the constant, haunting growl, soothed her and the closeness of his body against hers helped to pull her away from her own doubtful thoughts. She had won this time.

When he began to pull away from her so rebalanced herself and eased her forepaws back onto the ground, bracing herself on his shoulder for a moment till she was sure she wouldn't fall over. She looked to him and was about to speak but she noticed his gaze was already turned down toward the dagger again. Part of her had hoped he would relax for a moment to let everything settle back into place, but he had his mind set. She remained where she was and watched as he picked up the knife and turned back toward her, his focused turned down toward her paws. She could only assume what he wanted since he was still completely silent, but it wasn't hard to put together what was happening since they had just spoken of the blood oath before now.

Her ears flicked toward and her brows pulled together with concern when she saw him slice open a place on his foreleg and she saw the blood rolling freely from his skin. It took all of her self control to not immediately rush to get her herbs to take care of the bleeding and seal up the wound. She knew how much this meant to him and as illogical as it felt she quietly remained there and watched as he dug a small hole into the earth between them, placing his paw there while the dirt around his paw began to grow dark with his blood.

With a sense of duty she lifted her right foreleg and turned it to open up the inside of the limb to him. Her ears turned back while her eyes rested on his face and waited in anticipation for the cut of the knife. It was in this moment that her trust and her heart became entirely his. Any chance for her to leave was gone now with this oath. She knew that full well and yet she still sat there with a solemn, certain expression on her face. "Your Demon Mother... Your mate... for the rest of my days," she said softly before he cut into her skin, a small smile twitching at her lips.

Once the ritual knife broke the skin along her ankle she grit her teeth as the initial sting and pain caught her off guard. For a moment she watched the blood well up around the wound and begin to run down over her paw pads and drip onto the ground. In her life she had been fortunate in the fact that she had never really had any wounds to speak of. Perhaps a bruise here or there from a clumsy accident and maybe a scratch from the few spars she had been in. With the exception of some bite marks Elias had left on her scruff so long ago, she really had no scars or previous wounds to speak to. It was an unusual sight for her to see blood running from her own leg. It took her a second to pull her mind back to the present and lift her gaze away from the cut to look at Elias instead to follow his lead.

"Talk"