The cold air didn't just bite, it felt like a thousand needles piercing through Eris's thin excuse of a dress. However, the chill of the night was nothing compared to the suffocating intensity of Roy's eyes on her body, it felt like she was standing completely stark naked and all her secrets laid bare before her amidst his watchful gaze.
He stood like a beautifully carved stone statue, never uttering a word. The sun setting behind his back cast a warm glow upon his figure and exaggerated his already substantial shadow across the slow covered ground.
Roy's mind was a tempest. He looked down at the tiny, fragile bundle of the infant, the first cub he had ever scented in its human form, and then back to the trembling woman before him.
The thought that she might have been claimed, used, and then abandoned by some nameless, cowardly male who left her to defend for herself made his heart clench tightly in his chest. For her to go to great lengths to flee into a Shrine and leave a barely newborn cub behind demonstrated to him how desperate she had been.
Roy made a low, dangerous growl vibrate in his chest. The idea that another male had tasted her, only to leave her to face an invasion alone, made Roy's predatory instincts flare with a possessive heat that surprised even him.
Then, his eyes caught the light.
The last rays of sunlight, harsh and unforgiving, illuminated the angry swelling beneath Eris's right eye. The bruise was deepening, it was a stark contrast against her skin, like a dark plum stain on a on her porcelain skin.
Roy's grip didn't tighten around her wrist, but the air around him seemed to thicken with a lethal pressure. "Who?" he hissed, the word a jagged edge of a blade. "Who laid a hand on you, Eris?"
Eris felt herself backing into a corner, all the hairs behind her neck stood up. Though there were no walls behind her, only the endless, frozen forest, she felt like she had been trapped.
Her heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She couldn't tell him it was Timo. She couldn't tell him that her own brother, the once proud prince of a broken tribe, had struck her in a fit of fevered shame. To Roy, it would only look like more evidence of her "useless" kin.
"It was... an accident," she stammered, her teeth beginning to chatter. The adrenaline that had carried her out of the Shrine was fading, leaving her at the mercy of the winter chill. A violent shiver racked her small frame, and she felt her knees threaten to buckle.
Roy let out a heavy, frustrated sigh. Without a word, he released her wrists and reached for the heavy fur-lined cloak fastened at his shoulders. With a fluid, practiced motion, he unbuckled the leather bindings and draped the massive garment over Eris.
The weight of it nearly pulled her down, but the warmth was instantaneous. The cloak was still warm, hot even, from his body, and as she pulled it tight around her shoulders, the scent of him hit her like a physical blow. It was an intoxicating mix of cedarwood, rain-damp earth, and a musky, masculine heat that was uniquely him.
To her horror, Eris felt a traitorous flush spread across her chest, not from shame, but from a sudden, sharp ache of arousal that made her toes curl in her thin slippers. Warmth pooled at her lower belly and to her horror, she felt her nipples stiffen beneath the thin covering of her dress. She looked down, feeling shy and overwhelmed by the sudden intimacy of wearing his scent.
"Regardless of whose blood runs through his veins," Roy began, his voice dropping to a resonant, somber rumble. He carefully reached out and transitioned the bundle, the sleeping, warm weight of Uri, into Eris's trembling arms. "Now that I have been the first to scent him and touch him in his soft form, the law of the Claw Kingdom is clear. I have claimed him as mine, both the cub and the you, Eris. I will care for him as if he were born of my own seed."
Eris clutched Uri to her chest, her eyes wide. "You can't... he isn't..."
"He is," Roy countered, his tone brook no argument.
Seeing her moment of distraction, Eris tried to take a tentative step backward. Her eyes darted toward the Shrine gates, only a few yards away. If she could just reach the threshold, the Goddess's protection might just-
A massive hand shot out, catching her waist. Before she could even gasp, Roy lifted her off her feet. He pulled her flush against the hard, leather-clad expanse of his chest. Eris was trapped between his strength and the bundle of her nephew, her breath hitching as she felt the raw power in his arms.
"Don't," he warned, his purple eyes glowing with a predatory light.
He turned his head slightly toward one of the silent soldiers standing in the shadows. "Bryant. Go into the Shrine. Collect the Princess's items. If the healers interfere, remind them that I have not entered their walls, but I am reclaiming what belongs to the King."
"No!" Eris gasped, struggling feebly against his hold. "Roy, you gave your word!"
Roy leaned down, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear, sending a fresh wave of electricity down her spine.
"I gave my word that you would be safe under my watch, Eris. I never said I wouldn't wait for you to run straight into my arms." He straightened, his gaze fixed on the dark horizon toward the capital. "The time for games and sanctuaries is over. We are leaving tonight. We begin the journey to the main city of the Claw Kingdom immediately."
Eris looked back at the Shrine, the only home she had left, as Roy began motioning to the soldiers to shift into their beast forms, ready to travel. She was wrapped in his scent, holding the future of her tribe in her arms, and being carried away by the very man who intended to break her.
"But my brother...Timo needs me," she whispered, a final, desperate plea.
Roy stopped, looking down at her with a look of grim finality. "Your brother is a ghost, Eris. He looks like be barely breathes, but you? You are very much alive. And I intend to keep it that way."
As the soldiers began to shift, thier beast forms towering over those who have yet to draw their primal power forth. Those in soft forms assisting by tying packs and other luggage on to their backs. A long haunting howl sounded from the direction of the keep, a sound Eris didn't recognise but Roy knew all too well.
Roy's jaw tightened. "Hurry," he commanded. "It seems like if we delay any further, we will be having some unwanted company."