It's a Seeker's Game

Caedes's predatory gaze remained fixed on Mariah, drinking in every nuance of her reaction with hunger. Her defiance only fueled his desire all the more, but therein also came a conflict. Her willpower, her endurance, oh he was so fixated on it. Spellbound by it. But at the same time the brute wished to conquer that spirit in this moment alone, to make her give in to him. But that was something he wanted to happen willingly.

As Mariah challenged him with her words, a smirk tugged at the corners of Caedes's lips, amused by her audacity and yet intoxicated by her honesty. It was becoming a common occurrence. “What can I say? I might crave that cruelty, among other things.” He countered, his voice a low rumble that echoed with a dangerous allure. Mariah was making a habit of refusing to give in to him, her tenacity was so strong, so unyielding.. It was the very thing that appealed to him the most about her. She was a paradoxical creature of strength and delicacy, and his thoughts of her couldn’t have been more maddening. Would she let him touch her? Let him caress her lithe body, trace the sharp dips and curves her feeble figure possessed? He was hard pressed to not let his eyes wander away from her face, instead choosing to follow the intricate markings that complimented her defiantly silver gaze.

She would dare to try and say that this desire he felt, that he was sure she felt, would just ebb away. Fickle? He’s never been fickle before in his life, much less been so absorbed in another soul in his life. Did she think he hunted down women left and right, without rhyme or reason? His face set in an intense stare, willing her to understand his motives — the way she haunted him. How he knew if he did not manage to keep her by his side, he would never recover again? "Desire also knows no bounds, no limitations. It thrives on the forbidden, the taboo. Isn’t that appealing?" Caedes’s words hung in the air like a seductive promise, daring her to succumb to the allure of their shared dark impulses.

He longed for her to speak the words he so desperately wanted to hear, but even as she said them they were laced with a sharp contradiction. “Then have me on my knees, but not for a mere singular, fleeting moment. No.” With each step closer, Caedes could sense Mariah's resolve waver, the thin veil of her composure threatening to unravel in the face of his relentless pursuit. “Until the world burns down to ash and rubble all around us.” He was entirely serious, unwilling to consider another course of action at all.

Caedes held back his anger at her deflection, her insinuation that he could find another means of sateing his desires. "You speak of peace," He mused, his voice dripping with irony, "But now that I have met you, known you, touched you, I will never know peace again. You’ve stripped me of my sanity." His words were a whispered temptation, laced with a potent mixture of seduction and danger.

Leaning in closer, Caedes could feel the heat of Mariah's breath against his skin, the charge of their proximity sending shivers down his spine. But he pressed on. "This is what you’ve done to me. And I would wager,” A pause, heavy and sinful as he leered down at her beautiful face. “I have done the same to you… So, you may resist for now, you may pretend you can forget," He murmured, his voice a low, terribly longing rumble as his skull dipped downwards to meet her flesh and fur. His lips, his fangs trailing down the side of her neck in gentle, covetous kisses. A reminder. "But you’ll find that I am relentless. I can remind you as many times as needed of that fact. So why can you not give me what I want? I only ask for you." He said, though whether it was a promise or a threat remained to be seen depending on her reply.