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</span></span>​</div><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"><span style="font-size: 12px">While she tried to cover her modesty, he didn't bother. What was the point? He was just as comfortable wearing nothing as he was wearing an expensive suit or pajamas. Really, the breeze rolling in from the ocean in front of them was soothing to his overheated flesh. Regardless of how he'd been as a wolf in the midst of the circle... here, without an audience, he was calm and collected. There was no hint of the previous aggression she'd seen when he tried to dominate her in front of the others, no superiority complex to mottle their conversation... at least so it seemed. He still carried himself with a sense of power and reign among the wolves that was bred into his skeletal structure, pumped into his veins and kept his heart beating. <br/>
<br/>
The closer he came, the more he looked at her and assessed the changes from that night. The way she carried herself, the way her body had changed and strengthened... but he knew better than to think it was merely because of her affliction. Stepping over the sand that sank beneath his feet, he turned his head to look at her. No amount of moonlight could lighten his dark eyes, making them almost black in the night. He stopped a few feet away from her as she turned around, his arms lifting to cross over her his chest. "If it's any consolation, you weren't who we were coming for. You were in the way," he informed her, matter-of-factly with just as much lacking emotion as his eyes settled on hers. While the aggression had left, they didn't lack in intensity. Perhaps it was simply the brooding set of brows that amplified the effect.<br/>
<br/>
His jaw shifted and tensed when she spoke of Angie, and there was a flicker of emotion to finally rise in his eyes. His head tilted as she chewed him out for her, and he remained silent. Even if the air around them grew thicker with tension, spiking when she made the assumption the girl wasn't free. "She's here by her choosing, not captivity. She comes and goes as she pleases, with protection. Don't speak of something you know anything about, especially about her. You don't know what she's been through," he rumbled lowly, a guttural sound that reverberated through his chest and bubbled up his throat. "Especially by a <i>hunter</i>," he hissed softly, as if it was a word that disgusted him. "You'll do well not to mention which side you're on with them. Don't be surprised," he snorted. "It's written all over your face. Your hatred of us... for me... for what you are. You resist and deny it," he sighed. "How a wolf shifts says a lot about them," he looked her over but it was by no means a sexual gesture, but assessing, calculated. "Yours said plenty about you." <br/>
<br/>
Her low hitting jabs of him being <i>bigger </i>had his eyes rolling shut with the flare of nostrils to keep himself calm, even if annoyance boiled to the surface of tense muscle. Peeling his eyes open slowly, he stared at her. "I get the job done, it's not about size." He arched a brow. "It's about power and ability," he informed her with his double entendre, a flicker of a tight and forced smile crossing his face. "You call me an animal like it's a bad thing," his brows lifted, his head tilting with a flicker of amusement on his face. "Why fight humans when we're not humans? Why fight humans when they don't use human means? Your kind revel in their modern technology of fire arms, and other means to give them a boost... we have our own ways of boosting our abilities. Don't make us out to be the only ones who can be barbaric, or are you forgetting the millions of humans who prove to be bigger monsters than us? We have to survive in your world, just as much as you have to survive in ours." The way he said <i>you... </i>he seemed to neglect to include her in the category of a wolf, but in his eyes... a wolf who denies themselves aren't much of wolves. Wolves are proud creatures, and she abolished the very thought of being included. <br/>
<br/>
More emotion flickered through those dark eyes. "We're monsters for protecting our own kind, for avenging the deaths of brothers. Yet..." He looked her over with disgust. "When a hunter tracks down an innocent animal, slaughters them in front of a small girl and a loving wife... it's heroism," he scowled. "Don't fool yourself, your kind are just as much animals as us," he hissed, his arms lowering from their crossed position but it was all he could get out when she reeled back and sent a flying fist for his jaw. His head turned with the blow, taking one step back with the weight behind it as it seemed to stun him for a moment. Looking to the side, his jaw shifted as the ache of the impact spread but he remained collected... even if a part of him wanted to reach into her stomach to break her spine. Yet, besides knowing it was no use in trying, he understood. Regardless of how he viewed her kind, he'd killed her father. Turning his eyes to look at her, one brow rising as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Here I was trying to be civil. Who's the animal now?" He hummed, his arm snapping out quickly in the means to clamp around her throat. Quickly, his foot struck out and swung around to sweep hers out from under her. If she didn't stop him or get out of it, he'd be trying to follow the fall of her weight to pin her to the ground by a steel press of his palm beneath the hollow of her throat, holding.. but not strangling or choking as he knelt over her with a snarl tearing from between his teeth. "If you're looking to avenge your father, fine. I understand. Your timing couldn't be worse, but.. if you're going to try, don't insult me by some underhanded pathetic excuse. Calculate, do it right. Walking into a festival of more than two dozen wolves is a sure way to get yourself killed in the process. Don't be stupid," he looked her over with a scowl. "If you're going to do it... do it right. Earn your vengeance," he leaned down to her, those dark eyes intense as a flicker of a smile crossed his face. "Because I can promise you won't get another chance if you fuck it up," he whispered. </span></span>