Stavanger Bay everyone, step aside; this is the last warning

As Skellige’s claim on the bay territory began to solidify, a warring tangle of confidence and insecurity had taken up residence within Szymon’s breast — it taunted the monster that normally lay dormant and filled his tortured heart with a bottomless hunger. He would not be satisfied bowing and scraping before his siblings in this new and untamed land — he could not allow rank to jeopardize his affection for the witch doctor — and yet, he knew that wherever Skellige placed him on the hierarchical ladder, he would willingly remain. The Leviathan had control of every wolf who followed him; his control was absolute. Szymon was no exception to this rule, but he knew that something within him had expanded and changed — he was stronger now.

The sound of Doe’s familiar footfalls, light and airy as a seabird’s, caught his attention and his heart in one swift motion — and the monster that clamored and rattled its cage settled down to sleep. “Doe,” he crooned to her, his throat thick with words he never would have been able to say with the urgency and fluency he needed. I missed you, I missed you, I missed you — I told somebody that you were my Chosen One today. Did you know that? Do you know you’re mine? He craned his neck to preen at the base of her satellite dish ears, a shuddering sigh allowing all the tension to ripple from his body. He didn’t know until she was here and safe within his embrace that he’d been waiting for her so ardently. “Doe,” he growled helplessly, preening his fangs through her fur, his scabbed right foreleg reaching up to crest her shoulders as he rocked back onto his haunches. For a moment he brought his left foreleg up as well to wrap her in a wolfish hug but he did not want to weigh her down overly much and reluctantly let her go.

He could not relinquish the physical contact — the refreshing feel of her pelage twining with his own — and continued to groom her, his lips and tongue cresting her neck and shoulders, his fangs gently tattooing her upright ear. “M-Missed you,” he uttered senselessly, involuntarily, crooning to her, humming to her of julep and mint and timing being everything, promising her that she’d give in to him.