The anticipation grew taught between them in those few moments until she sprang forwards, like a rubber band snapping free, and he waited a heartbeat to see where her momentum was taking her before reacting. As soon as she began to turn, he leapt forwards to meet her, their feet scrambling for purchase on the soggy snow-ridden ground, little grace or delicacy in any of their movements. She slipped, but when he put pressure on her, she recovered, so that was acceptable. He was trying to turn her into a fighter, not a damn ballerina.
It was a sublime way of distracting the both of them from the very same problem, and indeed Craw knew that a brawl was far more satisfying than any rut, in terms of the act itself - the twisting and lunging and feints and intoxicating thrill of overpowering another creature was shared with both acts, but this was somehow more primal, even more base, more raw. It wasn't the mounting of females which had Craw foaming at the mouth, but the legacy which came afterwards. The
immortality.
Together the willow wolves jousted and shunted and shoved each other, pushing each other into the dirt and leaping back up until both were running on empty tanks, sides heaving from splendid exhaustion. He could feel the comfortable heat in his muscles, feel the pounding in his chest, and knew that she much be feeling at least half again. But she was getting better.
Satisfied, the pair made the journey back to the willows.