Feeling a lil nostalgic

Her acknowledgment of what he had done - her acceptance of it as the twisted token of desire it had been - struck a chord in Az.  It was an admission of the warped dynamics of their relationship, one the two of them had skirted around for years but never before laid bare. A blend of relief and regret swirled in his chest.

"I never asked you to be Briar, Z-" He stumbled over his mother's name. "- Or anyone else. I asked you to be mine, and to carry yourself and my name with respect. To be faithful to me, and to defend our relationship as fiercely as I do. Anything less than that is betrayal. With Sparrow, you betrayed me." And he rewarded it with a betrayal of his own, in the form of regularly spiked tea. "I wanted you to rise. I gave away an empire... to tie myself forever to a diplomat."

He watched her shrink away then, her vulnerability raw and exposed. It triggered in him the reaction of a hunter, practiced and assertive. His paw shot out aiming to catch his mate in his claws on her front, to wrap his oversized paw at the base of her neck and overtop her jugular notch. With a flex of his arm he moved to draw her back into his chest, holding her tightly. "You're not leaving," he whispered into her ear, a command rather than a request. She could try to run, but the way he'd wrapped himself around her made clear that Azure would be in pursuit - if she could even worm her way out of his arms at all. Sliding his paw up higher up her throat, Az forced her muzzle up to where he towered above her. "You are mine, and I'm not done with you yet."