Something had changed. A blade sang through the air and there was something different in the man's eye now, and the roar within Kaena changed pitch, from violence and sheer rage to desperation. She saw him, fleeing and running, his back to her now. “No!” She was in the air, reared back on her hind legs, yanking and pulling against the sudden weight at her shoulders, writhing to break the grasp on her shoulders. In a moment he was gone, his fleeing hindquarters disappearing into the shadows. A desperate sort of sound escaped the hybrid's throat and she hit the ground, the weight gone from her scruff. She whirled around, and for a too-long, terrible moment it almost seemed as if she would turn on Halo, her burning eye regarding the younger canine with that predatory flame still burning brightly there.
Presently, it dimmed, disappointment and shame for not having taken him then and there filtering through the scarred woman. Her head dropped, and she did not respond to the younger canine's words. She was almost tired now, her energy spent and channeled into that momentary burst of rage, and now she was at a loss as to what to do—flame was devouring Inferni's territory, and all Kaena had thought about was the blood she was owed. Lifting her one-eyed gaze, she noticed for the first time the bleeding Dahlian wolf, trapped in one of the coyote traps—had he fallen there himself, or had Haku put him there? Neither would have surprised the cloud-colored woman.
Her gaze was drawn to the brilliant glow on Inferni's horizon, and wordlessly she looked back at Halo, questioning, wondering—what now?