The Beastkeeper's Bride

30: A Ravensfield Returned

30: A Ravensfield Returned

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Pray tell, what detained you?" Rogane asked slyly, his brow raised once he noticed Blayne and Millie descending the stairs that led to the opulent entrance foyer of the ballroom they were to enter.

"Disastrously late," Addilyn Holt bemoaned, fussing with her own skirts before she came forward and took his wife from his arm to give her a once over. Noting the irreparable creases in Millie's skirts and the heightened colour in her cheeks, Addilyn threw Blayne a condemning look. "Fashionably late is to be expected, however... this far exceeds the patience of our guests. I suspect you are both to blame."

Blayne grinned, unrepentant. He would not be hold accountable for adoring his wife, for making her tremble in his arms with a simple thrust... or even a thought. Knowing that but moments before he found his exquisite release deeply embedded within her... a primal indulgence surged through him. Emotions such as this were muted in this world, and his kind had adhered to it for as long as they needed to, but something was rampaging through him currently, pummelling his sensibilities with a visceral, intrinsic need for his wife- for Millie, for her alone and always her- and he could not, would not, be ashamed of it. "We were preoccupied with an important matter," he explained smoothly, even as he found her waist with his fingers and lingered there, dwelling on the soft fabric of the gown she had chosen to wear.

Millie cocked her head to the side and gave him a discerning look, but there was very little emotion conveyed- she had shuttered herself the moment she had exited their chambers.

He did not like it, but he could understand why she chose to do so. She was so implacably magnificent he could scarcely conceive that she was his- this human woman. She had power and wealth, an attitude that could cut glass and energy to put an athlete to shame, a fervour that burned so deep and true after all she had been through- yet she favoured him with her love, with her affection... Blayne was honoured. And if he had held prejudice to humankind before, he was tempted to reconsider these afflictions after the kindness his wife had shown him, the benevolence and understanding she was administering in her actions this evening.

However, his unease was at an all-time high. It went without saying that he knew he was bound to Millie, that he would lay down his life for her, but the life he was now part of- the balls, the lavishness, the words spoken that didn't mean the same as they were heard- it was trying on his patience. It was taxing on his nature. His skin itched, his mind baulked, especially at his political role- the false smiles, the outward portrayal of insouciance. These elements went against his nature and Blayne was stumbling and hesitant to adopt it as his own. The past sennight had ensured his days had been filled with tutelage pertaining to his new role, informing him of how to walk, eat and behave, especially if he were to encounter a human of a particular status.

Status meant very little to a beastkeeper. Actions and honourable deeds, however, could ensure a lifetime of loyalty and respect.

But he only need stare at his wife to remember what his purpose was, what had drawn him to her in the first place all those days ago in Holt's drawing room. It felt like a lifetime ago as he brought Millie to the fore of his memory, her beauty captured in dim sunlight and her short tail of hair bobbing animatedly with her eager actions as she conversed with him for the first time.

Her fingers curled into the crook of his arm, regaining his inward attention, and she held his arm as if it were her sole anchor to all that was real and true.

Addilyn was nattering endlessly in Millie's ear, yet she considered the intricately carved wood of the door before her as if the other woman were not even beside her- a statuesque replica of immovability- and she did not consider him, her entire being focused solely on what she needed to do, on what she needed to be.