Noctisardor Bypass bedauert

Oh, how she hated the sound of his tongue.

How once the way he had said her name grated at her nerves! At some point, Wylla stopped correcting him and found a fondness in it, but that still didn't extend to the harsh grit of his language, even in his softest tones. She didn't like to hear it in her daughter's voice, either; something about that language simply did not appeal to Wylla, but that didn't mean there wasn't some beauty in it.

Time stood still for her for an instant when he translated it, then fell silent, eyes expectant upon her. Her heart beat hard in her chest. For Phaedra, she could have said, and meant it entirely. But that was not what Mahler wanted to hear, and might only undo what they were beginning to rebuild. It was Wylla's way to kick the foundation stones and watch everything crumble and then wonder who was to blame, but she didn't want that for this. The spark in his eye, noticed in the fraction of a second before he looked away.

She could not deny that she would have taken him that day she found him and begged him to come with her, but that would not have been for a good reason. Manipulation, then, and Wylla was many things, but she was above that now. She remembered, too, the raw strength in him dropping Stag to the ground and how, at the time, she had felt the clench of desire in her belly at the sight of it, but she was out of her mind then, and too angry, besides. And now, she was unwell, but she sensed it in him all the same and was surprised that she felt it, too, rather than the indignant disbelief that now, of all times, he would look at her that way. They could not, not now.

What if, she said, licking her lips nervously, for all her wants aside, despite wanting to fall into him and forget all the past happened, she still had her toes poised against that stone, what if it happens again? She trusted he would know to what she referred, though did herself no favours with being vague. No sense making any sort of promise if she would again be treated poorly by packmates, and again forsaken by him.