Anger rolled off @Ronin in waves and she bristled as it filled the air between them. Not from anger or mounting fear, but from want. Physical need drove the hairs on her nape to prickle and stand on end. How could she be so moved by his anger? Why did she want to feel the pierce of his claws upon her skin? Anything perhaps, to keep him here and present in her life. Though she does not know why he might feel as he did, why the mention of the pride's children or the Mire readying for war would make him grind his teeth and appear so wounded.
Curious, but unable to comprehend his thoughts, the Scot remained silent. Watching him intensely and imagining so many things that she ought not to allow herself to see in her mind's eye.

Would she ever come to be ambivalent about her first husband? No, she imagined not. As the warmonger's lip trembled Sláine impulsively inched toward him, catching herself almost immediately and rooting her blue form back to the spot.

She was risking too much and she knew it.

Finally, his eyes fell upon her and her whole demeanor lifted, as if she were hopeful to see love still beneath the surface of his red and blue gaze. But Ronin is harsher than she predicted, spitting out venom that made her flinch. Cowed as if she were some weak girl who feared attack. She hated this about herself, allowing herself to be so vulnerable. But Ronin had a power over her that she could not explain. "I betray nae one." She replied, low, soft. "My heart is mine own tae torture or ruin." Her feelings were not owned by anyone.

Yet though he was angry, the dark warrior appeared to offer the Scot a choice once again. Him or Alaric. Part of Sláine rejoiced at the moment, knowing then that after all this, he would have her back, that he still longed for her as she did him. Could she do it? Could she take her world and flip it over once more?
She took a deep breath, features wilting as she met the warmonger's stare. "I want ye and I will never nae love ye, whatever ye say now." Sláine shifted her seat a little though did not stand, but ready to defend herself should she need it all the same. "But." She began. "I love him tae." Her features harden a little, waiting to be struck. "He is my family, my kin. He an' I are entwined. I live fer him, his bairns, his pride. Asking me tae live without him is asking me tae go without air, without breath."

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He would observe, his eyes drinking in the prickled fur along the nape of her neck. Bristled but not in fear or anger, he didn’t smell any fear or anger from her- only his own rage filled the winter air. No, if anything, Ronin could smell desire, though he refused to believe his nose was correct. Her frame would shift forward, as if to go nearer to him, his pupils shifting at the motion to follow it, but she would remember herself, what pain she had caused, and where she had chosen to be. The blue woman would root herself to the spot, not coming closer to him and for a moment, his tense muscles would relax – ever so slightly- with relief.

His gaze upon her would have a curious effect, she seemed almost cheerful- back to the @Sláine he knew…..but there was still something about her that he could not place that reminded him that she was not his. Not anymore. His venomous words would have her flinching, as if she expected a physical attack from her former lover. He listened as she spoke, voice soft and low. Ears fell back, his own jaws parting to remind her of who she betrayed. “You betray everyone, Slaine.” He would snap, voice echoing over the gardens. “You betray Alaric, you betray yourself.” He would rumble, it didn’t matter that she tortured her heart- well it did but that was not the argument he was making. “This doesn’t just torture or break you.” Anger touched his vocals as he spoke, did she not consider their children? Her King? Him?

A deep breath was taken- by both of them. For him, it was to calm his angered nerves, he had not approached her to yell at her. Her expression would wilt as her eyes locked onto his, she didn’t have to speak for him to know the choice she made. Yet, she would speak it anyway, at first there was a flicker of hope- she wanted him. She still loved him. But. he would listen with a growing coldness to his expression and posture. Her own featured would harden as she continued, and he understood why as the words flowed from her lips. He was family, not Ronin. His children, not Ronin’s. His pride, the one Ronin had helped build and protect. Yet, it would be the last words that solidified something in Ronin, the final straw so to speak.

He watched her in silence, chewing on the torrent of words that wanted to be spat at her. After several long moments he would finally part clenched jaws, “then breathe without me.” Cold, empty words. The warmonger would shift, now it was his turn to prepare for an assault. “Iona want’s to live with me once I’m settled. When I am, I will come for her.” There was no question, as he had intended. If she wanted to raise Alaric’s children, so be it. He would make sure that Iona was ready for the world that she would soon face- without Slaines help.

“Leave, Sláine. Don’t come back.”

They had come to this, battling with words like swords. It breaks her further and she is moved to tearfulness, though the tears themselves refrain from cascading down her cheeks. Moistened gaze searches his, knowing that her honesty would be met poorly. How could she say such horrid things to him? When what she longed for was to tremble under his kisses and the heat of his body? But these feelings were unfair and were wounding him as much as her words.
She cannot keep trying to pull him close with a look or words when she has chosen another. It was cruel and selfish. The need to self destruct so strong in her that she can barely recognise herself anymore.
Her honesty is too much, given too freely to the man who least wants to hear it. Slaine had only hoped to explain to him why she had chosen Alaric. Ronin had left when their relationship was still new and flourishing, when he should never have left at all. Alaric had never left her, he had been the one constant and familiar figure she could lean on.
"It is easy to lay blame." She replied to the accusation of the betrayal that her thoughts and feelings cause. "But I hae been here. I didnae go anywhere. Ye left. And ye didnae come back! I waited and I didnae feel I could live with the grief o' thinking ye were dead and th' only way I could even begin to exist again was with Alaric. Then ye come back an' I hae to turn my life over again and lose another man I love?" She huffed, breathless, upset. If she were a man, no one would hold her to such high and impossible standards.
@Ronin's coldness in his dismissal of her was a knife in her chest. Whilst she still looked to him, still lost deep in the depths of her feelings for him, he turns from her as easily as that. Warning her away and with a wish to take her daughter with him.
"If she wants to be with ye. Then fine." She said with a sigh. "But dae nae think ye can set her against me. I hae raised her. Alone, remember." It did not surprise her that Iona wanted to leave the swamp. Slaine had coddled her, kept her safe, too safe perhaps. She had tried to shield her daughter from the dangers of the world that had claimed all of the others. Did Ronin somehow think Slaine had done wrong? Slaine had remained stable, present in the swamp and climbing ever high in its standing which benefited both their children who were now princesses. What more had Ronin wanted Slaine to do? She had been and was still, a good mother.
Angry, bitter. Slaine stood up, giving the male a last look before setting her blue paws into the snow. "I love ye, Ronin. Ye can hate me but I willnae never nae love ye." She was sure now that his heart would grow cold to her. But she waited until she was several meters away before the tears fell.

- attempted exit-

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How could they have come to this? Steeled gaze would note the tears in her eyes and for a moment, he would consider letting down his guards, in leaning forward to offer a reassuring nudge. He didn’t want this. Yet, as she had said before, they couldn’t turn from this path they were on. Lips would twitch as she spoke, saying it was easy to lay blame. Continuing to point out his flaws, where he had fucked up and it would ignite him, his anger flashing in his eyes as she spat the accusations at him, wounding him, but it was a pain he barely felt through the fire that burned in his veins. I did come back! I went to get my family, Slaine. To help the Mire! You couldn’t wait a few months longer than what was expected before forgetting me?! His voice would shout, rolling over the gardens in a booming voice. How dare she put the blame on him. I didn’t know, Slaine. I came back and you just profess your love for him after how you greeted me, after leading me to our collapsed and broken den?! You made me believe we were fine… leading me there, only to tell me the truth. He growled, shaking his head. You never should have led me into the Mire, you should have told me at the border, in front of him. His lips curled upward, revealing more of his elongated canines. I trusted you, Slaine. His words were but a whisper. There, he’d said it. The root of all of his anger. He had trusted her, and if she felt she had betrayed no one else, she could not deny that she had betrayed him.

She would speak of their daughter and he would snort. You coddled her, you taught her nothing. You may have fed her and kept her safe, but you taught her nothing. You chained her to the mire as Alaric does his other women. He growled it out, knowing exactly what button he pushed. Alaric only chained his whores, like Erna, but she had chained their daughter. Preventing her from truly living. At least Mirari had died after seeing the world. She had lived, as short as her life was, she had still lived. The woman would rise and so would he, his posture stiff with tension, ears twitched at her words. Yet, as she tried to turn and leave he would move, coiled muscles finally releasing the tension as he sprang forward and then turned in front of her, blocking her exit, though he wasn't sure why he bothered. She'd made her choice, not once but twice. Yet, there he was, seething with anger but unable to let her leave.

The warmonger would move again, this time approaching her. His paws would stop when he was in front of her, head lowered so that his skull was level with her own. I trusted you. He would whisper again. Past tense, he did not trust her now, not after ripping his heart in half the way she had.


@Sláine

Words cross the battlefield, landing blows and weakening her defenses. She should have waited for him and he should have never left. But to suggest she would forget him, a hurt growl seeped through her lips and he must have seen the look that crossed her face and demeanour. "Forget ye?! If ye are sae forgettable then why dae I torture myself this way?" Why would she choose to live the delicious pain of their union again and again rather than let it fade away? Better to have her memories of him than nothing at all.
As for the den, she had no answer other than the truth. "I didnae ken about th' den." She admitted, ears lowering. "I was overwhelmed by yer return and I couldnae tell ye infront of Alaric what we haed become. I couldn't take ye tae my new den..." It had been a wretched series of events, one she could have not bee prepared for.
She had betrayed Ronin, and though she has her own version of events there was no denying that his return had made her an adulterer. A word she had not known before entering Amaryllis.
He goes too far when he speaks of Iona, criticising her mothering and comparing their child to Alaric's lovers. "Nephthys seems free enough." She retorted through the shock that Ronin would go so far, to hurt her so much, and it is evident across her face before she turns from him. Paws making deep prints in the snow as she tried to leave. Still unable to depart without professing her love, as pathetic as it was.
But though he had been the one to dismiss her, the warrior follows and then blocks her way. The lioness lifts her head defensively, ready but reluctant to engage with him in combat as her shoulders tense and she stops on the spot.
Sapphire eyes hold onto @Ronin as he neared, closer still until his head lowers to her level and his words drip out, heartbreakingly.
The impulse was too great, she could not help but push her nose toward him. Risking life and limb to attempt to brush her soft lips against his own. If it connected, it would last only a few agonising seconds before she would retract. "Ye deserved better."

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They would stab each other with words, accusing one another and point out the others faults. She remained soft, level but Ronin was burning with anger, it rolled off of him in heavy waves. He had every right to hate her, to be angry with her. He had left, but he’d never broken a promise to her- why would he start by simply never returning? Her hurt growl would cut him, but he would not let that pain show, instead he simply stared at her, listening. You forgot me enough, Slaine. He would force out, sure she loved him, but she had allowed another into her heart when he’d promised to return to her. She couldn’t even wait til the end of the year.

He listened to her truth of the den and scoffed. She didn’t know? She would say she couldn’t tell him in front of Alaric and his eyes would roll. She could have. So wrapped up in your new lover that you never walked by our den? He would growl, not believing her. If you wanted to torture yourself so much, why didn’t you go there? He shook his head, it didn’t make sense to him. Nothing that she had done made sense to him.

He would growl a warning as she spoke of Nephthys, eyes flashing with something dangerous. You don’t know her, Slaine. He rumbled, refusing to say what he knew to be true- Alaric didn’t tether what he knew would never leave and Nephthys was not going anywhere. Not while her ghosts haunted her. He could see the hurt written on her face and it would cause him to sigh. Standing opposite her, so close that they could easily touch, he let his anger start to simmer, to cool and slow. Her scent helped to soothe him just as much as it angered him. His emotions battled with each other as they regarded each other. Her defensive lift of her skull would anger him further, did she really think he was going to hurt her? Even with his temper flaring, he still cared too much for her to strike her. Who knew, maybe in the future that would change.

Her movements would cause him to shift, arching his neck so his skull tipped in such a way that his lips were not easy for her to find, instead they would kiss the ridge of his muzzle. His eyes would close, enjoying the touch, even going so far as to move his skull to offer an affectionate nuzzle before he took a sharp step back. Ears pinning at her words. He deserved better. Maybe. He would rumble, grudgingly.You deserve better than a man that fucks every woman in his pride. He would counter her logic. She deserved more than that. Or at least, you did. He shrugged, maybe she liked it better this way. Mismatched gaze would calm, looking at the woman as if he regarded a stranger. You aren’t the wife that I left, Slaine. Whatever happened in my absence you’ve been cowed and shackled in your own way. Whatever had happened in his absence, this motherly, frightened woman was not the Scot that he had fallen for, that woman would not have betrayed him in this way.

There is no answers she can give that would not hurt him more. She had left their den to fall into disrepair because she had been injured in a fight and then omce she was recovered had been distracted by the duties placed upon her. Taking the mantle of Sovereign after Alaric had chosen almost everyone and anyone else that he could trust. It is easy to assume that Slaine was blind, that she walked foolishly into a romance with the Mire King not quite understanding him or what he was.
The truth was, Slaine perhaps knew better than almost any what Alaric could do or even would do. She had been beside him for quite some time after all.
But just as Nephthys was seemingly unable or unwilling to resist him, so too was Slaine.
Yet her obsession for Alaric had not extinguished the feelings she held for Ronin. So even as he hurts her with words and accusations, she soaks it in. Grateful, ashamed, wanton. She knows they cannot go on like this, hashing out their rights and wrongs, she knows that at some point he will move on from her. But Slaine is uncertain that she would ever move on from him.
She is silent then, until the foolishness of her heart brings her lips to his muzzle, desperate for him and yet knowing she must say goodbye. Electricity jumps through her as his masculine mouth nuzzled into her and she returns it fervantly. Shock and elation coursing through her veins as she is almost lost to the sensation of him. If he had taken it further, she may not have been able to resist letting him.
The tenderness and love evaporates in mere seconds as he wrenched suddenly free of her, gathering control when she could not. He stepped back and left her cold and raw, panting and looking on at him.
@Ronin's words deliver their final blow. Insulting her relationship and pulling down all the qualities within her that made her a good queen and a good mother.
Slaine blinked, torn between remembering his touch only a moment before and the harshness of his speech.
Her lips flicker, peeling back a little as the hurt bubbles beneath. "Whatever ye think Alaric may be. He wouldnae speak this way tae me. I am changed by pain an' I am shackled only because I burn fer him like I hae never known." There. Let her words hurt him in return. Though her face is not so resolute.

She moved to step around him, attempting to make her exit and put an end to the never ceasing cycle of pain that she is both cause and recipient of.

-attempt to exit-

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He is unwavering, unsympathetic to her pain as she stands across from him showing him just how deep his words cut her. Perhaps later the warmonger would regret his words and the pain he was causing her but in the moment he did not and they weren’t even the cruelest that he could have spoken. There were many things that his anger infused tongue wished to spit at her, but he still held some respect for the woman, yes love to, and it stayed the words before they could leave his jaws. It did not stop them from reflecting as emotions across his countenance, however.

Her lips would flicker, peeling back ever so slightly in pain from the words he spoke about how cowed and shackled she was beneath her king. He remained motionless, expression steeling to a stoic façade as he listened to her. Alaric would never speak to her in such a way she would say and for a moment, he said nothing. No, he would beat you instead. As he did Erna. He rumbled lowly, she was better than that. She would speak of burning for him and then she would move to step to the side, her words cut him. Breaking him. Burn then. He would growl out as she passed him. Ronin would move as well, back the way he had came. He had no reason to be in this place anymore, he and his sister would move on soon and he’d never have to look at the wretched gardens or the memories they held again.

-exit unless stopped-