Dragoncrest Cliffs Close your eyes and sleep,

he expects her to yield.

she does not. and yunxu knows he should not stay, if he wants his search to continue without more wounds to nurse.

but his lost sisters may well be beneath the cliffs, somewhere beyond her on this rocky bluff. he is here for a purpose.

he will not be denied it.

the fin of his thoughts rises back over the water. his lips catch on his teeth, hackles rising into quills of squid ink and seafoam. he is caught stubbornly on the edge between watching and action, but there is the part of him –

she is not his parent or his respected elder. this land is claimed by no pack. the sea is yunxu’s as much as it is hers and there are places he has yet to search and with the other man bearing down, the careful part yields easy to the rest.

the sea is in his blood. the ocean is as unforgiving as its predators and the children it raises. they crash together

his teeth cut over her shoulder

the salt-and-iron of new blood rises in the air.

the young shark rises eyes glittering, the calm emptiness of his stare at odds with the growl built heavy in the back of his throat and growing and he comes around her side teeth bared, jaws open grasping for the salt-spiked line of her hind leg