Swiftcurrent Creek where'd you learn to shoot your gun so straight

Tags for reference. Thread for @Durnehviir. Cameos also welcome if anyone wants to make it interesting/awkward... lmfao.

Oh baby won't you cry?
Show me there are some tears behind your eyes

Durnehviir.
 
Constantine exhaled her scent sharply, his eyes grazing over the path she had clearly taken not long before. Their relationship remained turbulent – not openly so, especially in front of the kids, but the quiet that had settled across them the moment he had allowed his pallid friend to join their ranks was becoming heavier by the day.
 
At first, he had felt the shun, ignoring it in hope that his fiery mate would see that he belonged only to her. Yet as the coldness grew between them, he often found Aria’s presence warmer now, and it struck a match of fear in his chest – that he was indeed the man Durnehviir was suspicious of.
 
The shadowrunner stalked after her. The movements of his stocky frame presented like a cougar would its prey, and his eyes flared bright as they caught view of her beautiful form. The pups were off somewhere, now that they were older. It was possible @Akiri was looking after them, or @Aura. He should know who had his children – but right now, his sole focus was on his one target.
 
He announced his presence with a guttural note, his features intent upon her as he began to circle her, taking in her finely sculpted crown.. the dip of her cheek to a jawline he could almost taste now.
 
It was then he made to close the distance between them, the ember in his chest igniting to a flame as his mouth would kiss along her nape, a desperate need in his touch as he sought familiarity.

She'd taken Viinturuth along with her on her patrol of the Northernmost border, and shared with him what was to be expected of him there when he came of age to defend their land. Durnehviir dismissed him after a short time, not wishing to overwhelm her firstborn with too much information, and quietly observed as he loped deeper into Swiftcurrent territory. They would revisit the lesson in the morning, she noted, and pressed on to complete her route alone when the pallid youth was out of sight.

She did not worry for her cubs as she once did, but they were rarely far from thought. They were fast on their way to adulthood and as Durnehviir ventured through the foliage that late afternoon, she considered arranging their first official hunt to commence in the coming weeks. It was something she and Constantine would need to discuss, she reminded herself with an uncomfortable twitch of her russet tail-tip.

Durnehviir had maintained distance between herself and her swarthy mate, and it seemed both were too stubborn to admit fault. She knew her treatment of him was unfair, but she'd been entirely unable to shake the discomfort of Aria's proximity nor had she made any real effort to get to know her.

Because she didn't want to admit her envy of the bond she shared with Constantine. She hated that her own connection with Constantine might pale in comparison to the one he shared with Aria.

The leading pair had mostly avoided one another, and so the crimson Frostfur had not anticipated her mate's pursuit of her. She halted to regard his arrival with a backward cant of a ginger lobe, and followed his movement with a cool stare as he made to circle her loosely. At once, her hackles lifted. She threatened to bristle, and her brow furrowed in silent judgement.

Her tail arched in a proud arc over her hindquarters, flagging dominantly as the swarthy male braved to step close to her. When he touched her, the dragoness peeled her lips back to reveal an impressive set of fangs and huffed a hot breath through her teeth toward him. They'd barely looked in one another's direction for weeks - what the hell made him believe she'd want to get cosy with him now?

He ignored the flash of her fangs – the hot breath of her fury as it brushed the small furs of his muzzle. His own rumbling response was given, his teeth now nipping hotly from the base of her ear down to her shoulder, as if to devour her. His own tail arced high – a challenge to her – as she attempted to assert dominance over him. Before, the shadowrunner would have attempted to placate his mate’s wrath, to soothe it away with his own leniency.
 
His determination that he had done no wrong was at the forefront of his mind, though, and he sidled even closer to his dragoness – the shadow looking to firmly press against her in his desire to gain her attention completely. He loosed a low growl as his muzzle made its way back to her ear, his own breath warm as it exhaled upon her red lobe. “I’m done playing games, Durnehviir.”
 
She had been his savior in the dark months before – he could not place what she had become now, and it caused the beast to rise within.

He ignored her. His blatant disregard of her display sparked a new fury in the depths of her frosty stare, and her jaws parted to unleash the dragonfire behind her teeth.

Her snarl, fierce and guttural, drowned out the low rumble of her mate's own growl. Constantine saw fit to challenge her with the flagging of his own plume, the way in which he demanded her attention by forcing himself into her personal bubble. 

He was significantly larger and more powerful than her, and Durnehviir was buffeted slightly by the press of his form against her lithe figure. But she held fast, claws digging into earth, as she rose her muzzle and writhed against him to clack her fangs forcefully to his own. "Games?" Durnehviir bit back, "the only one playing games is you."

Just a cameo :)

Aura had been with most of the pups that morning excusing Viinturuth as he was with his mother. Watching them grow and their adventures everyday made her long for the time she would have her own bunch to nuture. Most of the pups by now were growing like weeds and were able to almost be by themselves but Aura knew that until they were almost 1 it would be good to watch over them even from afar. 

As the day moved on Aura felt a bit tired from playing with the energized bunch and snuck off to nap. While heading to the outskirts of the territory to her favorite place of sleep she heard some growling and such going on. Concernced she peeped her eyes through a bush and saw Constantine and Durnheviir. It seemed like some sort of dominance challenge, but she wasn't too sure. Her eyes grew wide as it felt like she was watching a movie, maybe she needed some popcorn (or a rabbit for wolves anyway). It was like she couldn't stop staring because what would happen next? 

Hopefully they wouldn't know she was there spying on their business.

He would not push her too much – his weight pressed in to her caused her to shift, and he stilled, though the fire in his eyes did not dwindle. She snarled at him, her teeth gnashing toward him, clipping him to the muzzle and drawing a hint of blood. His tongue laced out like a viper, cleaning the small wound as his lips continued their own terrible snarl – pulled back to reveal the shine of his ivory canines. In his own fury, the presence of one of their comrades went unnoticed.
 
Her claim drew a derisive snort from him. He tempered himself, not willing to strike against his mate, and so the shadowrunner removed his touch from her, feeling the cold of the air whip between them, as if a signal from the mother goddess of what the outcome of this could be. “You’re mad because my best friend lives in our home,” he challenged, his voice resounding his anger. “You don’t trust me.” It had meant to be a question – but it remained a statement now, and his eyes held her own gaze forcefully, willing her to speak those words.
 
Their relationship had begun with unbidden desire with passion – it only seemed fitting they would fight with such as well.

Her canine pierced his muzzle with the clack of their fangs, and the metallic aroma of fresh blood flooded her flared nostrils. It had not been Durnehviir's intention to wound him, but in her building rage she was not prepared to apologise for it.

Constantine stoically withstood the sting, bore his teeth and withdrew from her side. A bitter gust whipped between them, as cold and unforgiving as the angry champagne of the Alphess' fierce glare. She followed Constantine's movement with her eyes and rose her proud crown to allow her gaze to lock with the fire of his as he made a very bold observation.

Her tail-tip twitched. An ear flickered.

He was not wrong, but he wasn't right either.

"I don't trust her," came the dragoness' confession and mused, not around you. Over the weeks that her thoughts dwelled on the mystery surrounding her mate's pallid companion, of bottling her insecurities and her fear of being second best, Durnehviir had willed herself to believe that - if given the choice - Constantine would never put her first.

And her world could never revolve around Aria.

last post from Constantine in this thread unless he's pulled back/stopped!

He stared at her – for the fire the rolled from her eyes was backed with the hiss of her words – that she didn’t trust Aria.
 
His jaw clenched as his tail lashed. For as bold as he was before with his words, he grew silent in that moment, staring at her, wondering if perhaps they had rushed their courtship too quickly. If Durnehviir’s jealousy could rise to such heights, he found himself wondering what else her temper could quicken to.
 
Finally: “You don’t have to trust her. You’re supposed to trust me,” he ground out, the embers of his eyes drifting away from her now, his brows furrowed with the darkening thought that she didn’t – and she had been punishing him for it for weeks. “And now I don’t trust you.” The words were cold, and pulling back, the shadowrunner turned his sizable form, prowling to the borders. “I’m going on a scouting trip,” was what he offered her, his tone deadpanning. It was then he came upon @Aura, blinking in surprise as realization dawned on him that she had witnessed them. Unable to bring himself to care, the regal began to make his way to the borders.

She remembered his confession to her all those months ago, when she'd questioned his relationship with the January dove. She remembered the discomfort in the pit of her belly when she asked, the unmistakable glint in the amber of his gaze. She remembered that Constantine had loved Aria.

And yet, after all they'd been through over the past year, he'd never once breathed those words for Durnehviir.

Her jaw clenched as her mate announced that he did not trust her, and immediately tears pricked the corners of each eye. The dragoness heald her breath, her muscles slackening beneath the weight of her turmoil, and she felt as though her chest was being constricted. "You love her," she exhaled, loud enough for him to hear as he turned his back on her. She'd known all along that he loved Aria, whether she returned those feelings or not.

"But you have never said that you love me."

Her tearful words were like a slap – the tear of his being as he struggled with the desire to console the free reign of emotion he had brought upon her while also needing to put distance between them as he considered everything that had transpired. The latter won – his ears gave a flick of recognition to her words, and they haunted him with each step he took until he came upon Aria, closer to the borders.
 
He gruffly requested her to go with him, striding across the borders and to the direction of the taiga, each step he taking his mind wracked over his time with his mate – dissecting their relationship piece by piece, believing fully to have showed her that he loved her.
 
Mostly, he had to focus on that, rather than the voice of teary emotion he had heard before his departure.

Constantine regarded her words with silence, responding only with a twitch of a dark lobe. She was certain that he might turn back and reach for her, at the very least look at her, but he did not. The swarthy Alpha pressed on, and Durnehviir crumbled in defeat.

Then go, the devil on her shoulder willed her to call out, and don't bother coming back!

Instead, with her body trembling, the dragoness sank to the ground and watched through a haze of tears as her mate vanished among the foliage. Only when he was out of sight did she allow her grief to spill forth in the sobs that racked her frame.

She didn't know how long she lay there, but when her frustration dissipated to leave only the rawness of her sorrow, Durnehviir gathered herself to pursue Constantine's trail. At the borders she paused, testing the air and confirming that he had not gone alone.

The flame of her fury reignited, the russet Frostfur stalked toward the Emberwood to think over what felt like yet another betrayal.