Thyme smiled into Brie's hair, and did as she asked, tossing his phone across the room and adjusting to get more comfortable. She was warmer than usual. He suppressed his worry for the moment. She was comfortable, and could no doubt use some sleep.<br/><br/><br/>Hunger. That was it, that was the only thing in Ghost's mind, an all-consuming void that longed for more. He could feel the Wolf gorging itself on corpse after corpse, but the hunger never abated. It was familiar, this feeling. It happened every year, it was nothing new, but still Ghost felt fear at the size of the Wolf's appetite. Or his appetite, since it was him. He was the hulking white-furred beast that could devour an entire ecosystem if he let himself. He was the Wolf, and the Wolf was him.<br/>There was something liberating about the Hunt. There was nothing in his head save the hunger, and it was actually kind of relaxing. His mind was usually full of plans and concerns and, gods help him, finances. During the Hunt, there was none of that. Just the hunger, and the exertion. And his mate.<br/>The White Wolf froze. His mate. He could smell his mate. The rational part of him, miniscule though it was, said she was far too close to him right now. The Hunt was too dangerous for her to be near. The other, more primal part of him could smell the males near her, and it growled. She was<span style="font-style: italic">his</span>! He decided then and there that there would be no more food, no more feeding until they were dealt with and he could feed on their corpses.<br/><br/>When the first of them died, it was almost too fast for the eye to follow. The Hunt Team had noticed Ghost had left the path he was on, but hadn't been able to find where he went. The carnage he'd been leaving just...stopped. Then one of the men was missing the top half of his body, and the rest of the team was sprayed with blood, and each of them could<span style="font-style: italic">feel</span>the Wolf growling. A few of them winced at the sickening crunching that echoed not long after.<br/>The second one died slower, because he was a little bit faster than his comrade. The Wolf leapt out of the treeline, charging the man, who attempted to jump to one side of the hulking mass. Almost lazily, the Wolf threw out a viciously clawed hand, and ripped the man's innards out. He didn't feed on this one. No, his Mate was too close for him to get distracted. Instead, he made another leap to put himself between his Mate and the rest of them. Male or not, they would all die for the transgression of being hear her. She was<span style="font-style: italic">his!</span>