The Tangle Got a secret, can you keep it

The following day she was more refreshed. Her muscles still ached and she was still a prisoner of course, and every time he looked at her or spoke to her she either flinched away from him or had a snappy, bitter retort; but he had let her live. Even after she stumbled and screwed up the hunt. 
But now it was night. 
He had lead her to a horrible place full of sparse plants, tangled trees, and jutting, splintered rocks. And in doing so had blessed her. She laid wedged under a slab of Boulder, eyes fixed on the sleeping mass of her captor. Her heart hammered in her chest and she didn't dare move or make a sound. But he released a loud snore and she braced herself. Slowly, quietly she slipped out of the hollow, trying desperately to move without waking him. 
The sharp stones shifted under her paws and she froze, whispering another fervent prayer. She made it about a hundred paces, zig zagging through the trees, her paws raw and leaving bloodstains on the stones and still she kept trying, desperate, her breath shaking with fear. She would not be safe, she knew, until she was home.

His deep, even breathing alert her of his state of sleep. He’s in a heavy slumber, twitching and moving occasionally from the dreams that pulsate through his mind. Creating sporadic pictures of old memories, old and new.

The all of a sudden he’s being dragged from unconsciousness, back into the world of the living. Unaware he’s been woken subconsciously from the noises of the agouti female escaping, hitting the bushes cracking branches of the native brush. He gazing sleepily around, the area surrounding him coated in a blue white light. For a moment he even forgets about the female–Aphrodite is her name. 

Speaking of, he needs to check on her. Simply glancing behind himself he doesn’t see anything but shadows in the little spot she had for herself into earlier. For a moment, he’s not worried. Assuming the night light plays tricks on his eyes. Standing to his full, powerful height, he approaches. Low and behold, she’s fucking gone.

A lightening bolt of anger passes through him, then he’s calm once more. Sighing heavily, he looks around for a few seconds seeing if he could see her in the immediate distance. When that bears no fruit, he shoots his leathery nose downward. On he goes, nose to the ground he easily picks up her scent, mixed with a hint of his own. Picking up a nicely paced trot, he’s confident enough to turn it into a sprint. Nose sliding down every few meters to keep on the trail.

He searches and he won’t stop until he’s found her. She’ll get tired before he does. He can track her for days if she really wants. Make her think she’s really escaped. Give her hope and rip it away so violently that she’ll be sipping and wheezing again, tearing streaming down her cheeks and body sore. Oh, he’ll find her.

She's forced to climb a pile of jagged boulders and her desperation increases. She needs to find mud, a patch of herbs, a water source, anything to hide her scent, to throw him off. A loose stone breaks free under her paw and clatters down the pile, crashing noisily into the brush below. Her stomach knots at the realization that it was likely loud enough to wake him. She scrabbles quickly the rest of the way over the ridge, another boulder breaking loose and tossing her into a pile of thorns. She whimpers softly, swallowing her pain filled cry, terrified. He's gonna kill me. He's gonna find me and kill me. The thought echoes through her head as she drags herself through the vines, the thorns shredding her skin, tearing chunks of fur out, and causing blood to stain her pelt.

He’s got a fire burning in the pit of his soul. White hot anger is beginning to settle in. The mantra that repeats like a never ending record in his mind of Don’t kill her. Don’t kill her. Don’t kill her. He can’t do that. It would be...uncivilized, he decides ultimately.

The moon shines down upon him ethereally. The glow highlighting him in a blue-white light, he stills ominously. Small ears swivel as he hears the slightest sound of rocks and debris falling from a cliff. Standing tall, head held high he scouts the area thoroughly, eyes landing on a rock formation to his left. Instantly, he sets his paws to carry him swiftly, seeing the slightest bit of movement disappearing behind a corner of stone. To the right seem t be the gnarled mess of tangled vines lines with flesh tearing thorns, sharp enough even to make the strongest succumb to the pain it bestows.

Sweeping around to the left he jumps up onto the rock formation, claws scraping against the rugged surface as he runs haphazardly along the dangerous ledges and turns. Eyes searching, flicking every which way, trying his hardest to focus on any type of movement in the dull light of the moon.

Then further away a healthy twelve meters away he watches rock crumble from the side of the ridge something sliding gown and into the unforgivable terrain beneath. Unsure if he’s following a dead lead and whatever has fallen has just led him further away from her, he risks losing the female and goes after it. 

Whilst traversing the terrain he, jumps and dodges rocks, almost being eaten alive by the bramble below as well. Rocks crumble beneath his weight and he hardly escapes a few of the attempts at the rocks bringing him down with them. Upon further inspection, eyes squinting in an attempt to right his eyesight, the male sees the unmistakable print of shout slithering through the vines. Stalking along the edge of the rocks edge, watching his step, he follows her like a deadly shadow.

“I see you, dear!” He yells to her. “Stop moving.” He orders with the hint of growl in his tone. “Let me come get you and I won’t kill you.” He coos back.

It hurts. Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts. 
and still she tries to force her way through, desperate and frustrated. She will not die here. She will not die this way. He will not kill her. And neither will a rock, a plant, or anything else that she may encounter. 
And then her heart seizes and she gives a horrified whimper. She can hear him, struggling to climb the ridge, and she prays for a rock to hit him, for him to fall in the brambles, for a vine to snatch his neck up and throttle him. She lays completely still, pressing herself flat against the earth like a rabbit caught exposed, breath shallow and panicked, heart beating so hard she can feel it hammer on her ribs. 
At first he doesn't see her. And then he calls down to her, deceptively sweet, but the growl indicating his fury. He stands over her like Thanatos himself and she recoils, eyes wide with horror. 

And then she stills. There is only one way she can save her own life. He is bigger, faster, stronger than her. 
but he is not smarter. And so she lies, as smoothly as possible, keeping the terrified waver in her voice. 
"P-please...I'm sorry...I was trying to find water...I'm so thirsty and it's been two days..." She sounds as utterly pathetic as possible.

Standing tall and confident, shouldered squared off, tail held proudly curled onto his back, he grins devilishly. The moon behind his head illuminating behind his head like a fucked up, hell ridden halo. The moon crowns him ominously, the light shielding his toothy grin from her view.

He shakes his head side to side back to her. “You thought I’d throttle you if you woke me up for water? How silly of you.” He comments caustically. “Now, come back.” He growls. Then so horribly soft he says his next words almost smooth enough she could hardly hear. “I’m not going to hurt you dear. Badly anyway.” He adds spitefully at the end.

She lets him gloat, knowing that for now, the attempt has been thwarted. 
but she can convince him to take her to water. 
Her minds wheel spin, and she realizes that his pride is easy to manipulate. 
She takes a step forward, hesitant, hearing just how dangerous his voice is. 
It was obvious she would be killed if she continues to resist. Another step, a thorn slicing her cheek in a grotesque mirror of his wound. 
"You're a monster. Look what you've already done to me. Why...of course I think you'll hurt me for the smallest thing. Please....either kill me or let me go..." 
She has to play this game slowly, raise the charade slowly. Too quick and he'll see through it. Too slow and he'll tire of her. She flinches at his threat and scoots forward slowly, the forward half of her body eventually being freed. 
When the rest of her is out she slinks towards him, eyes nervous, body held tense with fear.

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.

Of three things she was absolutely certain. One, that he was a monster. Two, that she hated him with everything in her. And Three, that she was going to have to kill him to escape. 
She is not surprised by the selfishness of his answer to her plea. "And what do you intend to do with me? Just keep dragging me around? Hope I'll eventually fall in love with you, be your happy little consort and raise your pups?" She snorted derisively as he towered over her, attempting to dominate her. She trembled but stared stubbornly up at him, again finding her strength. He would learn she was not easily broken. Not anymore. Not after what happened on the beach. 
As he summons her she smiles softly, 
Take her to water. Yes. 
Take her to see how far she has to go to wash away the scent, to find mud to conceal herself, to cross and recross. To send a message.

They begin walking, his heavy paws carrying him down and over the rock face. He side eyes her when she obliges and walks next to him. Then he sneers at her question with a bitter laugh, a few canines showing as he curls one side of his lip. “No. Unless that’s what you want?” 

He knows he’ll need to have a litter of pups sooner or later to continue on with the pack, yet after what recently happened, he’s not sure if he could just yet. 

He stares back at her, brow raised and mouth almost shaped into a frown. He was waiting for her response. “If so, then I’ll keep you ‘till your next heat.” He growls back.

She's stricken. All of this sobbing, crying, breaking apart this winter after her heat had driven her nearly mad, her body absorbing what would have been her family. 
Surely she had courted similarly unsavory males- Asmodeus and Santiago. She smiled softly at the thought of him wrestling with their son, ear tag flopping about. A future doomed to never happen. 
But with him..no she couldn't bear it. If he somehow got her Pregnant, it would tear her to pieces. She would take the herbs her mother had taught her, and leave his children in a bloody pile in his den. But who did she want pups with? 

Surya. The sweet, headstrong warrior she had been smitten with from the beginning. Her heart squeezed and she realised she would never let him go when she was reunited with him. 
But if he intended to keep her...
No. She wouldn't abandon her pack.  
"A whole year....you realise I have a family? A pack? Duties. Something you likely know nothing about. They will come looking for me. They probably already are." She answered boldly. She wasn't afraid of him. Not anymore. Somewhere deep inside her she was becoming colder, sharper. She knew it was the presence of her goddess, and smiled softly at the comforting thought.

As his heavy paws carry him, he glances over to her. Golden eyes seem to glow in the dim light of the moonlight. Just above them it sits, full and round in all of its pale glory, surrounded by dancing stars. The temperature hadn’t been horribly cold that night, rather if Donovan hadn’t been he way that he is, it could’ve been romantic even. Yet, the setting is already set; first impressions have settled and he remains nothing but a fowl, soulless, monstrosity of a man to the young she-wolf that walks adjacent to him.

His mind is twisted–he knows this. What he’s done to her is unforgivable and surely unforgettable. Doomed to be her rapist and tormentor for the remainder of her life. He’s never let himself stoop low enough to do that to a woman. Yet, his mind–mailable due to the loss of his pack–can’t seem to really apologize yet. The anger he feels from that dog–Sasha–is still branded in his heart and soul, what she did to him and his pack was also unforgivable. What’s worse is that she did it while she bared his pups. His first litter. Ones he’ll probably never see again. The pups that will most likely grow to help her two legged masters do the same to other packs.

He doesn’t want to entertain the idea any longer he decides. So he shifts his gaze away from the agouti wolf, looking out ahead of them, refusing to meet her eye–deep down ashamed of what he’s done. He believes it makes him a horrid leader, knowing that he’s done that.

So, with his mind so full of thought, he decides not to entertain the conversation by not answering her. Or not answering to her first question.

“I’m sure they will.” He hums thoughtfully.

The smell of moss and fish leading them closer to a smaller stream. The lazy river of water is finally within sight.

She is a healer. 
it is her duty to repair not only bodies but minds as well, and she can tell when someone is troubled. 
She forced herself to swallow down the urge to care, to ask what makes him go so quiet whenever she mentioned pack or family. 
The brute carried himself like an alpha but in the flow of things that didn't mean much- he could simply be full of himself.
Instead she stares firmly ahead. She wonders if Aiolos was around this area. Had he come this far up the coast, close enough for her to possibly pass on a message? 
She sees the water and gives a cry of relief surging forward and collapsing into the water. 
She buries herself in the water, desperate to rid herself of the imagined filth. 
Eyes wide, blank, lost in memories of the previous night's torment. 
The feeling of dirty is inescapable and she bites back a sob, determined not to let him see her fall apart.

Unknown to the water they approach, he’s still in a world of his own as he sees the female rush forward. His muscles twitch in instinctual urge to chase after her, automatically assuming she’s trying to run off and escape his presence once more. 

His eyes shoot to the girl as she romps along the grass to the stream ahead. Deep enough to hug most of her body at her height but would only cover up to his elbow-shoulder area. The water dances and curls around her body and droplets splash around tinted a sickly blue by the moon along with her fur. His glowing orbs ease along her smaller form as she bathes. Then she just stands there–unmoving and he too holds his breath wondering what’s wrong for a moment. Then as it hits him, he realizes she’s reliving what he’s done to her, how he’s violated her, the horrible words he spoke.

He clutches his pride to his chest, careful not to let go. Yet, he finds himself loosening his grip as he watches her lose herself to her demons once more. A sob choking past her lips so quietly he can’t hear it, but he can see it on her face and that makes it so much worse. He stands there, muscles twitches for a different reason–to sidle over and comfort her. He doesn’t though. He stands there, averting his eyes even though his ears still listen intently for any more sounds.

She eventually is so emotionally drained the Memories fade. She flops down into the water, hunting like she knows how to do. She waits and a small bluegill finally finds its way into her jaws- it's not much but she snaps it down quickly. She refuses to accept any food he may offer her, so this may be the only food she gets for days. Then, she turns to him, surprised to see his averted gaze. 
"Would you like some fish?" She asked softly.

Her scarlet voice brings his mind back from the odd purgatory of memories that he often finds himself. Turning himself to face her he shakes his head. “No thanks. You caught it, you deserve to keep it.” He says quietly, beginning to saunter over to the river.

His paws hit the water and the cool liquid surrounds him up to his elbow. His chin tucks and the plume of his neck frames his face handsomely. His eyes shoot all throughout the water, keeping horribly still until he snaps downwards, mouth open with the intent to catch the fish that swims by his arm. After breaching the water, his teeth latch onto the medium sized fish of the mysterious kind and he pulls his head from the stream. Fish in mouth, he saunters back to shore only briefly lying his eyes onto the female beside him before flopping his body down to eat his fish. Teeth crunching down the animal viciously, he hadn’t known how hungry he was due to all his attention being on the she-wolf, making sure she doesn’t run away.

She blinks, surprised.
"Why are you so kind to me? After...after what you did? After you've threatened me, tried to break me?" 
she remembers the game she is supposed to be playing and reconsiders. Pausing, making herself doe eyed and vulnerable looking she stares up at him. 
"If you had met me under better circumstances I might like you. I might have even let you court me- though you could be less full of yourself." 

The female is surprised to see him so tranquil, when really he’s got a storm brewing inside him. The contents inside are just about to spill over the edge and he has no idea what to do about it. He’s never felt like this before. He’s seen loss, death of all kinds, rape, and torture. Yet, it’s never been something this great to him. The loss of his pack has broken him, or is trying to break him. Whatever it may be, the line is very thin and he’s got a foot on each side.

He meets her eyes when he peers up from eating his fish. Deciding to keep his answer silent until he had sat down to eat. She’s asks him why? Why has he tortured her so? Why is he actually showing consideration when only moments before he threatens her life and only days before he had defiled her. He has only one answer for her: regret. Regret for everything; his pack, the dog that betrayed them–bearing his pups, never for him to see, his inability to fight back against the humans, then lastly, his inability to control the fiery feeling of loss and anger burning like molten hot lava within him. It is the kind that made him do what he’s done to her. Yes, he is a ruthless leader and has to thoughts about killing or plundering. Yet rape seems like something worse. He has no sympathy for others, but when he did it it felt to wrong. 

So finally he answers her, voice gruff  and deep, just barely above a whisper. “I regret what I’ve done to you.” He admits straight faced, shattering the glass inside him–shattering his pride into millions of pieces he’ll have a hard time recollecting later.

As she stares up to him, her beautiful cerulean eyes sparkling in the night. He wants to laugh bitterly. “Maybe in a different life then, dear.” He hums going back to eating his fish. Trying to recede into his hardened shell once more. Attempting to regain his pride after his too truthful admission. He’s wounded and he hope she can’t see it.

Damn her. Damn her nature and her vulnerability. Damn her compassion. 
It was impossible for a heart like hers to hold hate. Anger, pain, fear, even resentment. But not hate. 
And here he was having the audacity to think he has the right to her sympathy?? She bristled with an anger she never realized she could carry. 
"How dare you." She hisses, voice low and full of venom. "How dare you....thinking you have the right to my sympathy, my compassion. The only reason I've stopped fighting for now is that it's pointless. I..." Tears of pain and anger welled up against her will. 
"I used to believe every wolf deserved compassion, a second chance, love, a family. But I...I can't...I'm not sure I can believe that now." 
She looked away, heartbroken. He had taken the innocence from her and left her damaged. 
"I just can't help but wonder what could happen to you to make you capable of such a terrible act."

Not gonna lie, I shed like a tear or two writing this haha.

At her first hiss of How dare you. he looks to her, brows furrowing as she spits back in his face because he shared he feels. It’s too late now, he can’t take it back. He wants to. Yet he cannot and she continues her venomous lecture. Soon enough tears start to stream from her eyes, causing them to look so glossy and fake in the moons dim light.

As she goes that fire within him swells and swells, eventually he stands, a savage snarl on his face from her words. Then when she looks away and speaks her last sentence he snaps.

He shakes a dangerous step forward. “You wanna know what happened to me?” He says eyes wide and dead set on her own ominously. The golden orbs hold a swirl of emotions, most of all being saddened pain and anger.

In a quick almost painless motion, he knocks her down and stands on top of her. Arms on each side caging her in once more. His teeth bare and if one looks close enough it might look like his own eyes could be getting wet and glassy. “Only a week prior to getting here my whole fucking family got slaughtered by humans. The bitch who carried my pups had been a fucking spy for them and blew the whistle on us. She led them straight to our location and I watched all of them get obliterated.” He growls it all down into her face, venom imbedded in every word. “Then they tranquilize me and send me to a place completely unknown? After all that? What the fuck do you expect of me?” He says the last sentence in a whisper, tears now fully formed in his eyes. He pauses, everything seems to hit him at once.

He hasn’t cried since he was a pup. In all his years of leading; in all his years of seeing shit that should make even the most emotionally inept shed a few tears; he cries now, over this. He lowers his shoulders and tucks his head in, resting his forehead on her chest and sobs. Liquid falls from his eyes and into her fur. As he shakes his head. He doesn’t her to see him like this. Usually so strong and full of pride. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you, but I can’t take it back. I can’t take what happened to my family back, I can’t take back that fact that I won’t ever see my first litter or maybe the fact that they’ll grow to do the same shit as their bitch mother did.” 

Finally he becomes quiet, or quieter. Standing over the agouti females body and sobbing into her chest like a newborn pup. He’s never let himself stoop so low and he doesn’t know how to handle it. Usually he tucks his emotions away and forgets about them. This is proof that if you do that, it’ll only get worse.

Fear strikes her as he knocks her over and for a moment she's afraid he's gone too far, pushed too hard. She gives a startled Yelp and sheds a tear at the thought of Surya coming across her mangled remains. She didn't want to be found. Not like that. 
But he doesn't kill her. Instead he pours his heart out, breaking apart in front of her, mourning the family and pack that he lost. Humans. But wasn't that always the case? Wasn't their greed always a wolf's undoing? 
She feels a wetness on fur and for a moment thinks he has bitten her- but she feels no pain. Her eyes widen in realization that he's crying. Sobbing against her breast like a pup needing it's mother. The cold water of the stream flows around her hindquarters, soaking her, but she ignores it. Instead, almost robotically, she finds herself grooming him. Comforting him. 
"I can't forgive you. Not yet." She answers softly. "But you can start by making a choice. If you continue to take your pain out on others, and destroy others lives, you are no better than your former mate." 
She wriggles out from underneath him, still laying prone. "I grew up very far away from here. In a land called Greece. It was me, my mama and papa, and my two sisters. We were hungry a lot, and the pen we were kept in was dirty. Humans paid to look at us. My sister's got sick. A skin disease. I got it too. And one day humans came and took us away. They put me and my mother in cages. I never saw my papa again." She sighed, eyes downcast. "I was brought to a strange land, with strange wolves that spoke strange languages. The pens were bigger, and we were given food and medicine. But Mama just got sicker. One day they took her away and she never came back." She was surprised at herself, spilling her whole story like this. "I spent a year with those wolves. Haymitch, Hazenthelea, Morgana, Blackstar, RiverFern. FearClaw. They because my pack. And then humans struck again. They cut the fence and shot stinging things at us, burning part of the facility down. Blackstar and Morgana were recaptured. RiverFern was hit by a car. FearClaw was killed while trying to get us food. Haymitch was part dog, and looked enough like one he found some humans to love him. Hazenthelea just vanished one day." It surprised her that nearly a year later she still remembered their names and faces. "I wandered alone for months. Eating garbage and fishing. Stealing food from humans. And then I found here." 

When the words I can’t forgive you. come from her he’s not surprised. He raped her for gods sake. He expects her to resent him for the rest of his life, he tries welcoming it. Replaying like a mantra in his mind–She doesn’t matter, you shouldn’t care about anyone but your pack mates. Yet, he really is sorry for what he’s done. There is no way to prove it. Or maybe his pride just won’t let him.

So he shakes his head once more, and finally untucks himself from her breast as she speaks to him about her old pack. His head and neck are level with his back as he gazes down to her, even his usually curled tail droops by his hindquarters. Finding it in him to finally meet her eyes he listens. Once she speaks her last word he steps off of her, back turned towards her. He can’t stop the waterfall of thoughts threading themselves in and out of his head.

“I am hardly a leader without a pack.” Is all he can muster up to say. The words more of a growl than anything. Dipping his head to wipe the tear stains off his cheeks on his arms and shaking off his body.

She is relieved when he moves off of her, a final bitter comment uttered. 
"Then join a pack. Learn humility. Learn to lead the right way. Because you are no king. No god. Not even an alpha. You are a child, angry and hurt." She rises to her paws and shakes out her pelt, spraying water in all directions. "Now it is late, dawn will be here soon and I didn't sleep well." She huffs, picking her way through the terrain again. 
When they got back to their Sleeping place she made a note of the path they took, being sure to leave deep paw prints. She could step back into them and her scent would- hopefully- be untraceable. 
But at the last minute, rather than curl back up under her boulder she sighed, wedging herself beside him in his little hollow.

At the bitter words that come from her he faces her once more a snarl on his lips. Teeth bared and lips wrinkled he almost wants to take back everything he’s said. He wants to sink his jaws into her neck and shake until he disconnects the two. He doesn’t though because she has a right to be this way towards him. He deserves it after all. He holds his tongue and follows her to the place they’ve called their den the past few days.

When they get there he lies down still only slightly angry at the female backlash, he eyes her down when she curls up next to him. He knows she doesn’t do it because she feels a certain way, she does it for her own benefit. Why wouldn’t she? Not caring about the thought any more, he reluctantly closers his drooping eyes and falls into a restless sleep.