Re: Axel: Rae & Fen
She had no extraneous sensation, no half-state betwixt woman and wolf - or any other creature, come to that. Rae had instinct. Instinct attuned to a particular frequency, but she had no intention of telling him that. Arguably, he already knew. Fen - his name was in her mouth, she knew it without knowing it - looked away and it was practically a white flag. Rae, who looked not remotely fidgety, was already relaxed.
She was not, of course, seeking allies in the specific sense of corralling soldiers on a board. That would be committal and Rae was deeply, truly non-committal. But she needn't say it aloud. She could read the gesture perfectly well and Rae's smile played over her lips briefly before he moved the chess-pieces on. Did she remember? She'd known he wasn't present, obviously. Rae had her own reasons for loathing a man who wasn't a man, who was more and consequentially not enough.
"Appetites are meant to be slaked, darling, so long as the consequence isn't that the extent of them is known." But she needn't guess at what kept him pinned here. Rae could, without a snippet of the currents that ran just under the surface to carry her there. No, it was obvious enough, even if he kept it tucked under his tongue. It was the prickle and rise to the suggestion of following Nel about.
She laughed. She couldn't help it, and she heard it over the cheerful chaos of the rink. Rae could contain her mirth, she simply didn't choose to. "Darling, if you're set on world-ending in order not to be dragged back, I'm not going to stop you. Just don't try to end me."