Death was not on the proverbial table for the ways in which Ragnar was allowed to break her - despite that in Ragnar’s life death was not typically seen as a punishment. It was the punishment for committing crimes if proven guilty, admittedly and only was it a true punishment if one was cursed from going to Valhalla. It had happened before, once. Mostly, however, that was off limits to him because of Pump. Ragnar was a little tired of laying down to her rules, ignoring his true nature and ways for the sake of his own ambition and her ability to keep what he wanted just, infuriatingly, out of his grasp. When Diluculo spoke she held his attention if only out of custom and nothing else, but her words were laced with curiosity - something that he could relate to her about even if he was unhappy with the subject of her curiosity. He did not like her speaking about Thistle (in fact he would probably be quite unhappy if he were to find out about their meeting and flirtations). As it was, the Viking was a little confused as to how Diluculo knew that because he knew he had never told her but then figured that she probably had spoken to Thistle, if only because Ragnar could not imagine anyone else really telling what was no longer necessary. The children were Ragnar’s - why did there have to be anything more to that?
Only Thistle would feel guilt and feel like she had to explain it all of it (maybe not all of it, it seemed that she was able to keep their night of shared passion while she was still in her season their secret) to everyone who asked.
Ragnar did not advocate lying as a general rule of thumb, however, he was cunning and wasn’t afraid to craft the truth to fit his own needs. He did not ask her how she knew of Thistle’s apparent ‘treason’, and despite that she had fornicated with Crete before Ragnar (he was denying what was obvious the children were Crete’s by blood) he did not really see it as treason. In Odinn’s Cove illegitimate children were rather common among Viking men and slave women, and sometimes even, slave men and free women/shield maidens. Ragnar’s own father: Eitri had a bastard son, Ragnar’s half brother, Dagrún through a slave girl. In the following moments of her questions, no doubt meant to dig and writhe beneath his skin, Ragnar simply stared at her. In truth, he had never really thought about it and never before in the way Diluculo stated it. In the rare times he considered Thistle his superior he had always assumed it was because she had been in the Ridge longer than him, was a valuable asset as the pack’s only Healer and had worked nothing less of miracles upon them when the landslide had nearly extinguished the life of their small pack. He did not need Diluculo digging into the fact that Ragnar was not Pump’s second in command a fact that already had dug beneath his skin and perversely itched and irritated him.