Life and death.
An endless cycle.
And now they were irrevocably connected by it.
Connected to each other.
Sin shifted to man and carried the stag back to their waterfall on his wide shoulders. Zai could have done it too, but not nearly as easily as the Beast did with his liger strength.
The fucker knew it too, for he threw Zai a sideways smirk as he walked, as if to say:
Me, strong. Hear me roar.
He’d even puffed out his chest and flexed his biceps like a flamboyant ass. A peacock trying to impress its mate.
Zai merely rolled his eyes and looked away, not even a smidgeon impressed.
But he couldn’t stop the reluctant smile that pulled at the corners of his lips. So, he hid it from the insufferable feline by turning his face.
When they arrived back at their makeshift camp, it was Zai who skinned and gutted the stag, quartered and spit it. He threw one leg at Sin, who shifted into liger and chomped down immediately, tearing flesh from bone, bloodying his maw.
Not that Zai was one to speak on the matter, but the Beast could use a lesson in proper manners. Surely chewing with one’s mouth open and making all those wet, smacking noises weren’t absolutely necessary for the enjoyment of one’s food.
Such behavior would never have been tolerated in the Dark Queen’s court. Dark Ones prided themselves on discipline despite their bloodthirsty natures; refinement, despite their instinctual wildness.
Because of their sense of superiority, deserved or not, they always looked down on other creatures.
Pure Ones were too weak. Elementals were too controlled. Humans were too dumb. And animal spirits…
They were toomuch.
Too loud. Too wild. Too strong. Too intense.
They would always be animal first, human second.
Zai inwardly shook his head.
This was what happened when he spent too much time with another person. They always annoyed him after a while.
Even so, as much as the liger irritated him, he found the male’s…charms…strangely endearing.
He must have been hit in the head one too many times. That was the only explanation for this insanity. Hopefully, he hadn’t sustained permanent damage.
Zai made a fire and roasted the other leg. He had no issues with raw food, but he preferred the flame-roasted flavor and the melted fat, making the meat juicy and tender.
Together, they ate and drank their fill in companionable silence. If the liger had any thoughts, he wasn’t transmitting them to Zai. And Zai’s mind was silent as well.
He reveled in the quiet woods. In the dark, soothing solitude.
Yet, this time, he wasn’t alone.
Why do you have the traitor’s mark, Dark One?
And…the quiet was broken.
Zai knew it was too good to be true. He enjoyed it while it lasted, however. Strangely, he didn’t mind the liger’s bid to communicate now.
“I killed a fellow Hunter. Then, I turned on the Queen.”