Ankyra Sound a blackout oath i swore and meant but couldn't conjure up again

Raleska saw -- but could not decipher -- the glitter in the male's gaze. He was a stranger, and her understanding of him was woefully slim. All she knew was once, they had been ready to rip each other's throats out... and not so long ago, she had nearly had her life ended by Dacio and Opalia not that far from here. If it had not been for her packmates..

The memory she had fought so hard to ignore roared to the surface; Raleska's eyes flashed in dull terorr.

For every step Tux took forward, Raleska took a shaky one back. Her body was wound tighter than she ever remembered it being. Her hocks dug into the sand, and she was aware of the wind at her back. She was too tired for this. There was just too much to hold onto, too much to hold together -- her breath was becoming more and more raspy, yet for all of her rapid breathing she felt as if she had gotten no air at all. Her heart was pounding, her head swimming, and her legs seemed afire with strange palpitations. "Why sh--" punctuated by her shortness of breath -- "ould I --" another gasping breath -- "believe you?"