There was a certain madness in his eyes. The inky savage took to the coast in a frenzy, but after an hour of searching, his rapid heart had slowed and his mind began to search for reason. Her scent was unmistakably carried by the wind - tainted in brine and salt, but still prevalent. Skellige would not have mistaken it for anything. It only made sense for the pale cunt to seek the coast. They were born to the ocean and they would die beside it. She was a Cairn. They did not wander far from their home. 

The waves sounded as they rolled to the shore quietly before being pulled back out. High tide, he observed with a thoughtful frown in the direction of the ocean. Furrowed brows creased his forehead for a moment before he lowered his muzzle to the sands and trotted forward, eyes peeled. The hunger in his gut made him short in temper and quicker to lash out. There was no logical presence in his mind. He needed to survive, not placate those around him. Though his regard for the pack wolves of the Teekon wilds was something that would certainly cause him trouble over time. 

His eyes locked on her. Instantly, his hackles rose and the fur along his spine prickled with an intense longing that he wasn't sure he could sate it. Skellige could scarcely believe it. Ksenia right before his very eyes... and without Jaglon. It was unimaginable. Fate.

Her voice reached his ears on the whisper of wind that carried it. The inky male’s chest tightened and he could feel his blood reaching a boil. She did not look any different. Her colorless figure, tinged in the salt from the ocean water, and her cold eyes. Skellige could scarcely breathe from the hatred that was rising in his gut and sitting at the back of his throat like bile.
 
It wasn’t enough that he had been banished from the islands because of his failed attempt to end her. How the pale woman had managed to find him, he didn’t know, but she had no place in the Teekon wilds. It had been made clear that Ksenia’s duties were to the Warsaw wolves. For only a fraction of a second, Skellige wondered how she had managed to slip away from their islands in search of him. After driving the thought through his mind several times, he cast it aside in anger. Drawing his dark gaze over her form, the inky Cairn wondered if Jaglon or any of the others were far behind her, or if they were waiting for him to be drawn out. Cautiously, the silver-ribbed savage took a plodding step forward; his legs quivered with the rage inside him.
 
“You should not be here,” he spat angrily at her, drawing his lips over his fangs in a show of aggression. “You’ve already taken Warsaw from me.” Would she not rest until she had taken everything else?

For a moment in time, her words actually struck him. He peered at her, his position aggressive, and listened to the lies that fell from her lips. But Skellige’s desires were enough to cloud his judgement for a moment in time. She was right in the sense that they did not belong there. They were Cairn children; they belonged to the battlegrounds of Warsaw. Ksenia truly appeared to be perturbed by both of their positions there. The inky brute took a step towards her with caution on his face. The scar that he had adorned her with caught his gaze and in a heartbeat’s time, the dark-furred Cairn shook himself and again placed distance between them. He would not be lured by her sultry words; Jaglon had already fallen to such tricks.
 
“Mother despises me, Ksenia. Her love for you is unquestionable. You were always her favorite,” he growled quietly, flattening his ears to his skull. The carnal fury that he felt in his stomach was enough to make him ill. His attempted murder of the pale woman before him had sent their mother into a fit. The banishment that he had received was only issued due to the pleas of their father. Had it not been for Bronislav, Skellige would have been killed.
 
Casting his gaze to cover the area in a sweeping motion, the dark-furred male then returned it to his sister and it simmered there. “Where are the others?” he demanded with a throaty bark. If Ksenia was there, the other Cairn children could not be far.

There was a peculiar kind of desperation to Ksenia. Skellige watched her with narrowed mahogany eyes and tight lips as she proceeded to explain to him the falls of Warsaw politics. A curling smile began to wind gently to his leathery lips. Mother did not think that her favorite pupil was fit to lead the islands? It would have been impossible to hide his elation at this news. The woman did not seem to want a distance between them, but the dark-pelted titan felt it wise. The more steps she placed in his direction, the further he seemed to want to be from her. But he was still captivated by her words for the time being. Long ears were pricked to every rise and fall of her voice.
 
“… she doesn’t think I’m fit.”
 
Suddenly, all of his aggression seemed to rise to the surface and he took a threatening step forward, snapping his teeth mere inches from her face. “Because you aren’t,” he spat. “And you still haven’t answered my question. Where are the others?” His face was stern now. The fur along his shoulders and neck seemed to rise threateningly towards the icy she-wolf. No matter the circumstances, Skellige refused to believe that Ksenia had travelled alone.

There was a breath of hesitation when the woman spoke of their siblings being home on the islands. The wraith eyed her with a skeptical expression, but held his silence for the time being. It was almost impossible for the dark wolf to believe that she had wandered in search of him without anyone else. She was a wicked and smart woman; he knew her to be diplomatic at times and a precocious fighter. The thought of besting her sat inside of him like an itch under the skin. No matter how much he scratched, it would bring him very little relief. As much as the dark brute wanted to turn and simply leave his sister behind, her words were tantalizing to him, and he wanted to hear more of what she had to say.
 
When she spoke of their mother wanting him to return, the boy felt his heart beat in a strange manner. She was drawing excitement from him at the prospect of leading their old home. The pale-eyed woman knew how to draw out the things he desired most, and her words were always sweet and sincere. The thought of her was sickening to him. Skellige knew that if he should return to Warsaw, Ksenia would be dead. The wraith knew that he did not trust her far enough to simply drop his ambitions and return to their home. She was a diplomat in the same sense that he was a tactician… and he was always watching for when he would be flanked by his opponent.
 
It was the woman’s last remark that caught Skellige off guard. His ears flattened and he canted his head to the right out of confusion. The bemused expression on his face would have appeared comical were it not for the swift transition into unbridled anger. He shook his skull from side and to side and huffed through his nares. “But why would I want to give you a life on the islands, Ksenia?” he inquired to her. A dark and throaty chuckle followed the question that had fallen from his lips. “I tried to take your life once. Why should I follow you to return it?” No, his drive and longing to rule the lands that they called home was great, but not as great as his hatred for the pale witch. If remaining in the Teekon Wilds meant that she would be refused a life on Warsaw, he would do it.
 
In the back of the beast’s mind, he drew upon a thought. Should he accomplish his goal of building a new empire on the shores of the wilds, there was a chance that he would be able to raise his army so that he could return to his home and take it by force. Should this be accomplished, he would bathe in the blood of the woman who stood before him, and he would wear her fur on his skull.

The pale witch eyed him carefully, and though he felt his skin prick at the thought of her inner dialogue, he remained silent throughout her inspection of his features. There was a hardness to him that had only intensified since his banishment; he had very little to lose and even less holding him back. Still, the curiosity that burned in his gut would not allow him to simply end his sister where she stood. It infuriated him, but forced him to hold his ground, and though he tried to swallow it… Skellige remained where he stood with rigid limbs and a cold expression.
 
Finally, and for a fraction of a moment, he caught a glimpse of the true ice queen that he had come to know as his sister. The curling of her lip and the snide comment that slid from between her vile fangs roused the hackles along his back and spine. She did not leave him time for a retaliation, though. Her comments had been made, and she turned to leave him there without so much as another word.
 
The dark light of his gaze followed her until she had disappeared from sight. Though he worried, Skellige found a peculiar determination in the arrival of Ksenia; it would bring him closer to his reign. Tossing his tail, the wraith turned his figure in the opposing direction and sauntered off toward the bay.