The Tangle Got a secret, can you keep it

With an eagerness he can’t quite place he watches her struggle out of the thorny bushes that has enough surely done a number on her. Specifically the cut that mirrors the on he has on his own cheek–it makes a horrid grin split his maw in two. Yet he takes it down a few notches as her broken, bloody self climbs from the tangled mass. She approaches, ocean eyes sparkling with fear and pain in the rays of the clear night sky.

Finally he answers her as she comes closer. Meeting her in the middle, he towers over her, his gaze careless until a light smiles breaks his hardened surfaces. “I’m not going to kill you.” Then he cocks his head, with a brow raised cockily right in her face. “And I’m not letting you go.” He finishes sweetly with a lick of his flat tongue to her bloodied cheek.

Then almost instantaneously, his smile fades. The sweet persona he usually offers giving way to someone worse. Coming closer, his ears point skyward, he opens his stance in a dominating position. He fully expects her to submit to him. To roll over on her back and display the soft innards of her stomach to him.

“Play the game to win, not to lose, darling.” Is all he says before, giving her one last dangerous glance. He turns padding back to the direction they came. “Now let’s get you water.” He hums, as if he never said or did anything menacing only moments before. “Come, walk beside me.” He orders calmly.