Noctisardor Bypass ☾ nás'k

her nose at his jaw, her breath warm on the thick fur of his neck… her words shaping oath and want and choice—
they pulled him forward, not back.
slowly, he lowered his head, bringing his brow to hers in a gesture older than any pack they had ever known. his breath mingled with hers, steady and deep, as if he were anchoring not only himself, but her—claim meeting claim in the hush of the valley.
when he spoke, it was rough, quiet, truth-shaped:
i choose you.
the vow was simple. unadorned. all he had ever given to anything worth keeping.
he pressed closer, the dark length of him curving to her pale side, a shadow embracing its moon. his voice rumbled again, lower now, edged with something like reverence:
mate.
the word fit him like a mantle—heavy, earned, irrevocable.
he touched her cheek with the broad line of his muzzle, sealing the bond in silence before lifting his gaze to the valley below. it stretched wide and untouched, waiting for a future neither of them had dared imagine.
darukaal is gone, he said, but there was no sorrow in it—only certainty. we build anew.
a breath.
a vision.
a beginning.
new name. new blood. your shadow, your man… i make this land ours.
he turned back to her, eyes catching moonlight, softened only for her.
you have me, he murmured—
a promise, a pledge, and a claim.
as i have you.