Ira watched as she turned to face him, brazenly holding her gaze, though feeling a creeping unease chill his heart as if it had been pierced by a dagger of ice as he saw the hollowness and realized, with his heart skipping a beat, that there was no reorganization in her eyes. Though it was concern that held him still even as she ghosted forward a step, there was also a edge of fear - though it was not a fear of Jinx so much as it was the fear that he had - despite his best efforts - allowed her to get close to him unintentionally and that what he feared most in the world was happening before him. Again. That she - all he had allowed himself in this world, his most coveted and beloved secret - no longer wanted him, or as it currently appeared, knew him. The moment was fleeting (despite that it felt like a lifetime) and she seemed to recognize him and relief flooded in concern and fear’s hollow wake.
Jinx informed it was a cougar - though Ira knew it to be the cougar, likely the one Bones had boasted about during their meeting, and the word was accompanied by an ill fitting giggle, even if it did not hold mirth. Icy eyes narrowed in a sudden burst of rage that no one had thought to find him and inform him that Jinx had been injured. Cowards, his mind hissed maliciously, and a discontented growl rumbled in Ira’s chest. He had even spoken to Bones about it and she had never once mentioned someone being injured as Jinx had. How dare they, his mental voice was accusing and full of scorn, distrust, wrath, and beneath all that pain. It pained him, aching in his hardened heart to see Jinx so…broken. She explained further that they attacked a cougar, but was laughing about it as if she found it humorous.
Ira did not laugh with her - for he did not find it humorous, and deep down he suspected she really didn’t either; and in the next moment Jinx had altered once more and was serious when she spoke again. A small stab of jealousy resounded in his chest when she mentioned that a cougar would take all that he held important if he attacked it, for Ira had taken that to mean that she was referring to herself and the loss of her pups and assuming that he was not important to her (though she had not specifically mentioned herself and he was running off assumptions). He might not have liked the idea of them, but he had not wanted to see them dead; and certainly not this way. “They will pay for what has happened,” Ira vowed darkly, boldly moving towards her. It may not be until years later but vengeance would be taken if it was what Jinx desired. In that moment, Ira recognized and accepted that he would move heaven and hell for her, if she asked. “Tell me what I can do.” The youth pleaded in a murmur, wanting to comfort her, to prove to her that she had not lost him, that he would be with her always, or until she no longer wanted him around.