Abbadōn

With the two girls being able to explore more at the entrance of the den and the small area around it, Abbadon had shifted her schedule, she would hunt at night when the girls were asleep, and in the day time, she would hang around the den, watching over her children with caution. She also found herself watching them with awe, she'd never truly thought about having cubs, especially so young but she was in love with her two girls now, even if she parented alone.


Quietly she snuck from her makeshift den, squeezing out of the smaller entrance before looking around and moving towards one of her caches, she would take a moment to eat, then she would move back towards the den, she would lounge outside, a few feet away, eyes closed, not sleeping, just relaxing in a rare moment of being by herself, she could hear her daughter inside, lightly snoring and shuffling in their sleep. It felt peaceful, and for once she let her guard down.

@Cassius ♔

code by corvus || art by cyberglitch99

How long had it been since last he saw her? A month? Two? More? He certainly hadn't been keeping track. Nor had he cared to venture out in search of her. Cassius was fairly confident in assuming that their paths would cross again some day.

Funny how that day just so happened to be now.

She had run away from him. Thought she could hide their creation from the world. Yet she had picked the most foolish of spots. When all the great wide forever was laid out before her, she had chosen to set up camp right next door to the Brook.

Well. Aren't you a sight. The beast drawls slowly, emerging from the shadows, nostrils flaring to the scent he was now all too familiar with.

Cubs.

And now Cassius was far from the most intelligent of creatures. Yet even he could put two and two together.

His cubs.

@Abaddōn

She should have never let her guard down, she should have been smarter, her peace is interrupted by a voice she'd thought she wouldnt hear for quite some time, her eyes open as he appears from the brush and she immediately stands, placing her body between the cubs and their father, eyeing him carefully.

"Cassius..."

She clears her throat and pins her ears back, tail twitching behind her, she keeps her voice down, not wanting to wake the girls, "It's been sometime..." She can tell by the way in inhales the scents, by the flare of his nostrils that he can smell the girls, "They're yours " She quickly speaks, watching him carefully, she had to keep them hidden, they had to be protected, she was a rogue lioness, they were always unsafe, always in danger if anyone knew about them.

He so easily tracks the way in which she attempts to block him. He had experienced Icefang doing the same yet the Pale Queen had been more forthcoming about it. Fiercer. Always giving Cassius enough pause to reconsider whether or not testing her patience was worth it.

But this woman? This small, weak, pathetic woman standing before him?

Indeed it has been.

The lion moves to step around her; his growl a deep warning. One would hope she remembered what he was. Remembered what he was capable of.

Are they now? The question coming across as genuinely curious yet his expression told a different story.

Displeasure.

You still smell like a rogue. Did you plan to simply raise them forever in squalor? The beast sneers. Out in this hovel while the rest of their supposed family sat as royalty.

Out here all alone? All alone indeed. Not even the foul odor of her mother lingered. Had she not told her? Anyone? Did not a single soul know that she was out here? That they were out here?

Vulnerable.

So deliciously vulnerable. Presented here just for him with only this woman to protect them. A woman who could not even protect herself.

Cassius continues forward, tail lashing, eyes narrowed upon the tiny den.

They were so close. Tiny little lives that frankly should not exist. His story for the Dieudonne was air tight. Solid. But this? But them?

They were nothing more than a loose end.

@Abaddōn

Abbadōn

Dread sinks to the bottom of her stomach like a lead weight, he steps around her and gives a warning growl, causing her to shiver, she whirls around, anxious, eyes widened, heart thrumming so fast she fears it will pop.


Yes. But they don't know it!"

She seeks to place herself between him and her children once again, closer this time, chest almost touching his, her gaze pleading, his question causes her to pause, I-I-I didn't know where to go .." She admits, though she sees the displeasure in his eyes and she shrinks a bit, ears pinning back, What was I to do..."

Her eyes dart back towards the den as he moves forward, eyes locked onto the place where her two children slept. Maternal instinct is a son of a bitch, hand and hand with stupidity.

Don't! Please!"

She leaps infront of him again, defensively standing between, her eyes watering, but her lips finally pull back into a snarl, tail beginning to lash as she protects her children, her eyes are pleading with him, she would give him anything, she would do anything.

@Cassius ♔

code by corvus || art by cyberglitch99

Tragic. Eyes rolling as she tried to step in front of him again. Instead of hiding like a coward, maybe you should have come to the Brook? But not for any sort of happy reunion. So that he could have ended this sooner. The cubs may not know, but who else did? What did the little brats look like? Him? Could strangers take one look at them and know? No. He couldn't have that. And there were only so many cubs he could pass off as Velasco before he was having his own. Cubs of his uncle that looked nothing like the cubs Freja had had.

She leaps back in front of his once more and Cassius half roars the snarl he throws into her face. Or what?! The woman attempts to display aggression but it does little to put the man off course. What do you possibly think you could do to stop me? Fight him off? Like her mother had tried to fight him off? Had she forgotten already how that encounter had looked? Forgotten how it had tasted?

What will you do? Steadily he leans in closer, face hovering dangerously close, fangs bare and glistening with the only threat he truly needed. What will you give?

What were her rats worth?

@Abaddōn

Abbadōn

Abbadon felt her blood boil at his eye roll, and the suggestion that she should have come to the Brook, she was not stupid, she knew for the safety of her children, they were safer outside of those damned borders than in it. Yellow dual-toned eyes burn bright as she stands off with him, her ears pinned tightly against her skull, she would be a liar if she said she didn't feel any fear while facing off with this brutish male, but she stood her ground.

The girl freezes as he roars and snarls his words in her face, she flinches just slightly as spittle mists her face, but she does not waiver, she stands between this beast and the children he'd carelessly created with her.

What could she do? Honestly? She knew it would be a losing battle, but fuck if she wouldn't give it her all, the piebald girl lets out a shaky breath, knowing the girls would be awake now, how could they not be? Claws dig deep into the ground beneath her, her limbs are just barely shaking, from fear or adrenaline, which is unknown to her.

He comes in closer, their faces dangerously close causing her to swallow the lump in her throat, she lifts her chin up, not bowing to him, she would not submit to letting him kill their children. Whatever you want @Cassius ♔, we created them, they are your blood, your lineage. I will not make a fool of you, no one will know but you and I. " She speaks with a pleading softness, before giving her offer, "I will give myself to you, for whatever it is you need to get your frustrations out, beat me, fuck me, maim me. I will make sure this never happens again, you have my word...""

code by corvus || art by cyberglitch99

Perhaps if he were any other well rounded and even tempered individual, her pleas would have moved something. Done something. Swayed him. Yet Cassius is none of those things. He is violence and rage and all things unholy. All her bargaining does is serve to piss him off more. She was so Gods damned pathetic. And the mere thought of this wretch raising his children...

(But.)

The Darkling's face goes lax. His eyes near gentle as he looks down upon her distraught yet determined face. Shhh. He offers with a soothing extension of his palm to her cheek. Forgive me. Forgive me and my too short fuse. War lingers close by and to know you were out here alone without my protection... He allows his whispered words, laced in both fear and pain, to die off. Allowed the suggestion to linger between them. If enemies knew. It would not be him she need worry about. Which in all actually was the truth. If the Dieudonne knew, they would not stop at just his head.

It hurt. More than I could ever describe to you. To know you would not trust a father with his own children. To see them safe. He had drawn closer, nose pressed into the side of her neck, her face now with his claws on one end and his teeth on the other. But neither sought to strike out. Neither sought to do harm. What are their names? The question given with a lilting plea of his own. Let me know them. It said.

@Abaddōn

Abbadōn

Abbadon can feel his rage building, she can see it in his eyes, hear it in the way he snarled in her face, and she could swear she felt it in the tension between their bodies, she watched his body, taking a look at every twitch that she perceived in her peripherals.

Like a switch, something changes, she immediately notices it and feels suspicious at just how quickly he's changed his tune, her eyes watch him with wariness. She is still tense as his paw comes up to gently palm her cheek, her own paw had lifted slightly, and she pressed it into his mane, fingers tangling with his white hair, he shushes her calmly, almost caringly, he goes on to ask her to forgive him, explaining a tale about upcoming war, how he was just worried, how he couldn't stand to think of them...of her out here. She swallows the lump in her throat, she does not trust this, but she cannot help herself, the masochist in her begs her to play into his little games.

She closed her eyes for a second, if she just pretended that this wasn't some trick, she could almost agree with him....

If he were not Cassius, she would believe him.

He comes closer, telling her just how much it hurt him, I-I'm sorry, Cassius..." She whispers as his face is pressed into her throat, she swallows, tilting her chin up just a bit, she knew the dangers, but she could not stop the urge to allow him to play her like a puppet. His claws were so dangerously pressed into her cheek, but had not punctured her skin yet, his teeth were not even a breath away from her neck, though she wondered if he would kill her now? "I did not want to cause you any headache, I did not want to ruin your image to anyone... I would never betray you Cassius..." She speaks quietly, breath shaky, whether because he was pressed against her so intimately, the fear that her cubs were in danger, or the fact that she is in assumed danger.

She shudders softly as he asks their names, her body relaxing in his hold as her paw clutches his mane gently, her other paw had rose and was pressed into his chest, almost touching his shoulder. "Salome and Kamaria..."

@Cassius ♔

code by corvus || art by cyberglitch99

With his nose still in her neck, he listens to her babble. How she was sorry. How she did not want to cause him any headache. But she had. And no matter which direction she had gone, she would have remained a burden. A hindrance to him and all his plans. No matter how hard she tried to convince him that no one would have known, she was a woman who crumbled so easily. If not him, then someone else would have broken her down. So easily would it have been for them to pry the truth from her beaten bloodied lips.

Salome. He whispered, a fluttering of soft kisses now trailing up the column of her throat to her jawline. Kamaria. And that was it. Just two. Two more daughters that could provide him with nothing but more offspring later down the road. Useless at this point. The next generations were already solidified.

However. Perhaps one wouldn't hurt. One to take back and betroth to Icefang's bastard son Ashland. And then perhaps the boy would be of proper use as a sperm bank for more X'uekai.

Very well. Cassius hums, lips hovering so bear to her own. Now he ends their embrace right before he could taste those lips. Kamaria will be coming with me.

Not a request or a demand. His face stretching into a sickening grin. It was a finality that she had no way of resisting against. A judge banging his gavel. The ink dried on parchment. The law set and unchanging.

He seeks to shove her away. To force her to the ground so that he may once again step around her.

Cassius v ?
For @Kamaria

@Abaddōn