The Beastkeeper's Bride

13: Strangers No More

13: Strangers No More

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The words shifted over her skin like a tangible caress and she fought off the urge to hug herself against the unnerving sensation. You believe this? But she knew the answer, she felt the answer before he had even uttered it.

"Yes."

Uttered unhesitatingly in that deeply gentle cadence of his voice and Millie's thoughts became a confused rush of turmoil once more. Her inability to shut off her mind from his bothered her more than it seemed to bother him and she wasn't sure how she felt about being entirely on display for him to peruse as he pleased.

"You are confused, grieving, and married to a stranger," Blayne pointed out calmly. "My kind are relatively unknown to humans, and to you, Millie. I would never expect you to change your perceptions so suddenly, which is why it is perhaps better this channel is open between us to better understand the other."

She could have married a tyrant of a man, she realised, or she could have married someone bendable to her will, that would have signed the records and probably left her side for more pleasant pursuits, yet she had bound herself to Blayne. Deeply patient, kindly spoken, and apparently utterly devoted to her, even though they were intrinsically different and she her intentions of marrying were hardly honorable. The dim light in the forest held little effect to dampen his presence as he stood towering over her, his long hair knotted with a black strip of leather to the crown of his head and his expression sincerely tender and understanding while she processed everything she had learnt thus far, and most prominently the news that her husband was exceptionally possessive.

The universe could have done a lot worse for her, she mused as her gaze dropped yet again to the expanse of muscled torso bared to her. He belonged here, she realised, in the elements. The forest exemplified his beauty, his proud shoulders and easy stance. The city, the politics of her station- an absurd image of him entering the House of Lords with nary a shirt on his back entered her mind, his tail swinging back and forth with fluid grace.

"We have a few days yet to figure out our roles to each other," he told her suddenly, drawing her out of her contemplations with a guilty start.

I have to return to Ravensfield... with you and a marriage certificate, or this has been all for naught. When her eyes found his she noted the darkening of his mahogany gaze and his discomfort was as easy to read as her own prevalent thoughts right then. Then she tilted her head to the side, her lips quirked in amusement suddenly. You are a duke, my lord. Shall I begin to address you accordingly?

He raised a brow at her wryly. Before he could respond outwardly, a barrage of thoughts struck her at once. We are striking a few new barriers with our union, it seems. The first Other and human marriage, and the first faeborn to join the ranks of nobility. It is going to be an interesting journey for us, Blayne... and I am not convinced it will be a pleasant one.

"If the challenge is yours to bear, then so it is mine," he said with quiet affirmation, and her heart thawed even more to him with his next words. "I may not have all the answers, or I may not know what to expect, but we are bound together and I will continue to stand by your side as your husband, as your ally and your equal, while we endure it all."

She was besieged by emotion and she could only nod her head mutely, feeling wholly inadequate and selfish compared to him. Her marriage was compelled by her necessity to see her duty through with little consideration for his own purpose, and as she discovered more about him and his role, Millie was beginning to realise how self-centred her world was. You must think terribly of my kind, of humans, and I suppose I am no example by which to lead by, she told him morosely.