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It was the perceivable sadness that clouded the air full of tension that had Cyprian slowing down on the jabs. They were from opposite sides of the same coin, monsters who believed they had their rights, their morals; unable to understand the other side. "Are they truly family if they don't accept you at your worst, in all your flaws and imperfections?" His voice was low, a whisper muddied by confusion as his brows knitted together. His eyes ticked between hers as if he was searching for some understanding in them. The way she spoke of them; the loss and grief that she most clearly felt... but <i>why? </i>She cared for a family who would rather see her dead than accept her change wasn't her fault... <i>They would sooner tear her down than find the one who did it... How is this 'family'? </i>Her vengeance to redeem her father's death was something he could fathom, wholly and truly, but the <i>Hunters... </i>they were barbaric to him. The name in itself left his skin prickling like the soft brush of a cactus, threatening to sting. The entire ordeal on her side seemed to stump him. If they had any concern for her switching to enemy lines... they would be the ones with the hands on her back to push her over the edge. At least, the attempt of putting himself in her shoes, that was his conclusion. It was what he would do. <br/>
<br/>
Loyalty was a useless trait when it was one sided.<br/>
<br/>
His curiosity of her, her kind, it bloomed radiantly as he laid beneath her. He struggled to understand her train of thought. The longer he laid beneath her, the more he came to the realization that she was a complex puzzle. He had no interest in learning the inner workings of Hunters... he knew all too greatly the price of their knowledge. He knew what they were capable of, the destruction of lives they seemed all too proud to tear apart. He wasn't ignorant enough to believe his kind were innocent in the same, but to him... it was nature. Instinct. As wolves in nature hunted weaker prey to survive, the Wolves hunted humans to survive. He didn't expect them to just <i>take </i>it, to not band together to try to stop them... It was simply how the world continued to go around. However, his views on the <i>nature </i>of it all perished, turned to ash and was reborn in a different light when they left a girl fatherless, a wife a widow. Needlessly, at that. If anything, there were far more deserving predators than the man they mowed down, and he could've accepted the humans turning against the threat and eliminating it. Angry, but understanding. <br/>
<br/>
"I have no doubt that you would be able to wound me, mortally, perhaps," he admitted, staring up at her fearlessly. "Killing me would be more difficult than I think you truly know.." There was no hint of him doubting her intelligence, or belittling it. There was something he knew that she didn't, and he didn't seem interested in telling her in this way. Not now. It was something that he felt she had to learn the hard way, by experiencing it. "And not through any disillusioned idea that you wouldn't want to," he amended in an offhanded manner. His chin lifted slowly, the faintest cock of his head to the side. "You would be an Observer, not a member. I can't promise you will be accepted by the others, but with my word, you'll be unharmed. Interrupting the festival isn't going to have gotten you any favors from the other wolves," he snorted. But something told him that her being ostracized for it wouldn't be the first time. <br/>
<br/>
With the exchange of honesty, his fearless nature seemed unrelenting under the prospect of more Hunters. "It wouldn't be the first, and undoubtedly the last time, we have a run in with Hunters." His lips had thinned with the statement, a touchy subject, but one he pushed through. "We have our protocols for such... invasions." There was a tactic in their location, and his hotel was the centerfold by surrounding wolves and locals who knew of them, protected them as if they were an endangered breed on a reservation. Arcadia was a magical cohabitation of humans and wolves. While not all believed in their kind, they knew of the legends of King Lycaon. Much like Salem, Massachusetts and their Witches, Arcadia had their own festivals centered with the themes of Wolves. The humans who did know of them, however, often worked with them. A mutual understanding. Protection on both sides, eyes watching to warn them of the invasion of those seeking to harm them. Newcomers in the city who were suspicious. All the while, Cyprian and his Clan kept the streets clean of undesirable denizens. The crime rates of the streets had been lowered significantly and there was hardly a face in the area Cyprian didn't recognize, if not know the names of. <br/>
<br/>
It was nearly impossible to not snicker at her accusation. "As ill as you think of me, I want you to see both sides. You're blinded by the family who turned their backs on you, but there's more to us than ruthless killing machines. If you still don't like what you see, then so be it." One of his shoulders shifted against the sand, rolling and smudging it under his skin. There was an audible sigh that had started to bleed out of his lips until the faintest metallic click had made it hitch. A mere pause, but she knew far quicker than he what it was. Alert as he was, he'd stilled as it was more her change of expression that clued him in to it being a prelude to danger. Her request forced his lips to thin as he felt the pressure of her legs tighten on his. "Unless you're trying to still get me killed," he murmured, but there was no time to argue. The roll was near effortless for him, once his hands had lifted to catch her waist. His core clenched to further define the slender length of muscle that was his abdomen as his shoulders lifted and his torso twisted to roll her onto her back, using her momentum to roll with her. The quick reposition left him between her thighs, locked in by her legs. His elbows left indents in the sand, holding up his weight. The lift of her head was met by the slow decline of his to catch her words more easily, and he wasn't daft enough to start shifting eyes suspiciously when she spoke. From a distance, it may have simply looked as if it was a change of pace. From aggressive, heated to intimate. He snickered as his head lowered further when it was evidently clear just what her plan had been, his head turned to spread heated breath over her ear. "Then stop seeming so rigid," he hissed into her ear. "Hardly going to be believable if it looks as if you're straining not to kill the man on top of you, pretend I'm not someone you loathe for just a few moments," he whispered to her, all the while, his arm had lifted from the sand and drew back, his fingers curling around the back of her thigh to hold it there. If there was one thing about Cyprian, he was good at putting on a show. After all, it was the one thing he'd grown accustomed to over his long lifespan. <br/>
<br/>
Her instructional whispers only began to brew a plan, and his nose crinkled slightly. "I hardly think looking around for someone is going to seem less suspicious," he murmured. Though, it was her final statement that had his head turning more to look at the side of her face. "... Then as much as you're going to hate this, I guess you're just going to have to trust me for the time being," he whispered to her, the corner of his mouth quirking briefly before his head lowered, shoulder shifting to further obscure the view of her. His spine shifted with his weight, rolling slightly as if they were perhaps just two frisky people swept into a liquor induced beach rendezvous in the middle of the night. "I know this land more than I know myself," he admitted softly. "Look above your head, the beach curves. Do you see the formation that comes out towards the sea? We need to get around it, the beach gets thinner but it's able to be walked. Once we get around it, we can slip into the woods. But we have to move," he whispered to her. "I'm going to get up, you do the same but stay out of their view. Pretend we've had a few drinks, and going home," he hissed to her. "<i>Now.</i>" The order was tense from the risk of the moment, a strange surge of adrenaline pumping through his veins as the hair on the back of his neck stood at attention to the danger in the air. It prickled his senses, amplifying them. <br/>
<br/>
His arm shifted beneath her back, sliding between her skin and the sand. In the same motion that he sat up, pushing himself to his knees, he kept her against him. His head remained lowered as he sat back some, his other hand now free as it raked through her hair in a feigned moment of intimacy. His lips brushed against the ridge of jaw bone before her ear. "Stand." The moment he said it, he shifted her legs to untangle from him as he climbed to his own feet. Intuitive, he shifted his position to obscure her form from the East, standing too close to not be collateral for any bullet that would try to pierce her. His hands came out to hers, and should she take them, he'd pull her to her feet and into his side. He'd sway slightly on his feet, his arm hooking around her back as if a man who simply couldn't keep his hands from her. Lowering his head as he pressed his hand to the small of her back, he fixed her more tightly into his side. "Not too fast," he told her, turning slightly so he could walk, but his arm adjusted to lace diagonally over her back. Nearly the whole time, his shoulder obscured her face, never giving a clear shot as he kept his pace steady. He guided her off to the side, to the more compact sand from the gently lapping waves of the ocean. A stroll in the water, that was all. "I hope you're one to keep your word," he murmured, those dark eyes lowering slowly to peer down his cheekbones at her. So far, it seemed to have been working. <br/>
<br/>
The further along the beach they walked, the more he weaseled his way between her and the east where the sniper roosted. When the line of shot seemed to be nearer to her back, he reeled her in for a moment of intimacy, as if the time passed had simply been too long. Shifting her closer to walk in front of him, his hands moving to her hips. The sight of a man and woman strolling so casually in the nude along the beach, Cyprian made it seem normal. An every day occurrence, or at least frequently enough to not be worried about others seeing them. Though, perhaps that could've been due to the late hours. As long as the beach appeared, it didn't take long for them to reach the bend. The cliff-like formation that came out towards the sea was the prime opportunity for a shift in position, though, shifting her to his other side had to be done more subtly. The curve of the beach wasn't a long one, and it took all he had not to burst into a run. But maintaining their casual stroll, his muscles itched for the call of the forest. The camouflage, the trees to hide them. "We're almost there," he whispered to her finally. "When we turn the corner, keep the fuck up," he hissed at her, his muscles already tensing as they came around the bend, his senses alert. The last portion of beach seemed to take forever, a minute that lasted an eternity. <br/>
<br/>
Once they were clear of view completely, he looked to her. "*Now*." His intimate hold on her ceased as quickly as he'd caught on, and he started for the woods. As he'd promised, the less dramatic cliff was more of a steep slope that broke into the treeline at the top. The beach ended in the nook on that side, so the only real way to go was up. He took off, all lithe and dense muscle working with his mind as he knew where to go. Where to place his feet to climb most efficiently up the slope. About halfway up, when the slope got steeper, he paused and reached back to curl strong fingers around her arm to give her a boost up toward the top. "Hope you haven't exhausted yourself too much," he snickered, considering her strained change and the tussle they'd just had. Only once she was ahead of him did he continue on, giving her a push where the time seemed right. Over the ledge, it was all woods, and he wasted no time in charging into the treeline. </span></span>