Lupus in Fabula

Mature rating for gratuitous amounts of violence and gore.

The time had finally come. A half decade's worth of perseverance, pain, and rage had led Kane down this path, but at long last, the day he'd waited for, worked for, had at long last arrived. He'd caught the wolf's scent south of the Bent Canyon during a hunt and followed it through the dense oak forest and the arid badlands in southern Auster. It was there that he'd caught his first glimpse of his nemesis. The hulking black wolf as large as a boulder plodded the dry and craggy wastelands, lumbering along without a care in the world. Kane scouted the area a few more days after that first sighting just to confirm he'd actually seen what he thought he saw and that it wasn't a trick of his mind. But it wasn't. The massive primal dire wolf had made the southern part of the continent his home. He recognized the familiar scars on the brute's face and neck, leftover mementos from his long-dead fiancée. This was the wolf that had destroyed his future, tried to kill him, and been the target of his hateful vengeance for most of his life.

There was a strong temptation to simply charge in after the wolf; after all, he was older now, and Kane had the advantage of surprise. Only thoughts of Tamsyn halted Kane's enraged brashness. If he went into the fight alone and was killed, she'd be left all alone once more, heartbroken for a second time in her life. He couldn't do that to her. Besides, he'd promised her to let her help him kill the big fucker and he wouldn't break his vow to his new mate. It frustrated him to let the wolf go every time he caw him, but he knew he had to for now. Kane had waited five years for this moment. He could wait a little bit longer.

Despite having tracked the wolf to the southern territories, Kane hadn't been able to follow the deadly predator to where it was denning without giving away his presence. He knew it had to be somewhere at the far end of Auster and he had to be closing in with the frequency at which he found the giant dire again and again. Finally, on a particularly gray and rainy day, Kane decided to take the vengeance he so rightfully deserved. He gathered up his knife from the room he shared with Tamsyn, filling up the hollowed stone blade with his poison composed of wolfs and and lavender extract, slipping the leather sheath and strap around his chest before heading to find his mate. She wanted to come along and he would let her. Once he found the smaller black fae with the white feathers in her fur, he nudged her with his shoulder and motioned for her to follow with a jerk of his head, explaining on the way what was going on. Tamsyn would understand the importance of urgency in this matter.

Kane led the hunt south around the coast of Auster, then up to the Dragon’s Blood Grove. With the rain, finding the scent trail of his quarry was difficult, but not impossible. When he got a faint trail, Kane led the two wolves south, the scent getting stronger until it disappeared into the thicket of the bamboo grove. Kane gazed up at the veritable labyrinth of bamboo, a dread clenching at his pounding heart. So this was where the giant dire had been hiding all this time… This hunt suddenly became infinitely more dangerous as the hunting grounds became a veritable maze of ambush points. Kane’s expression darkened, and he rounded to face Tamsyn, looking at his beloved mate with a growing worry for her safety. He could still picture Tiva’s savaged and mangled body as clear as the day he’d lost her. The thought of anyone doing that to his Tamsyn…

"Tamsyn, this is it. I… I don’t know how things will go once we head in there. I’ll let you make your own choice, but… I don’t think you should follow me in there. This has become more dangerous than I expected, and I can’t ask you to put your life in danger for my revenge. If you want to remain out here, you may." Kane waited for Tamsyn’s response. Ultimately, this could go very, very wrong for the both of them. But he would not tell her what to do. The decision had to be hers.

"Kaneonuskatew"