Stavanger Bay so lay with me in your thinnest dress

The forest nymph disappeared from them to fetch her herbs, and Skellige followed her departing figure with the dark of his gaze until she had vanished in the depths of the wood. Once the girl was out of their sight, it seemed as though Leo had found her voice. She reprimanded him in a flash of her tongue and quickly followed it with an inquiry on Deirdre’s status.
 
The movement of his body was almost involuntary as he darted forward and snapped his yellowed canines mere inches from her face. The fur along his neck and spine bristled with rage and there was a burning fire in the depths of his ruddy mahogany eyes. It required every ounce of his self-control to prevent himself from digging his teeth into her neck and tearing away at her flesh. Leokadia had always been a transparent figure and had frequently spoken her mind, no matter the repercussions. On the subject of Deirdre, it would not stand. “She is not a free woman,” he hissed through bared fangs. As for his feelings on the girl – it was a more complicated subject.
 
Skellige was not a creature who had ever truly experienced love. He had heard fanciful tales of the emotion, but was certain that it had never crossed his path. There was a desire toward the green-eyed beauty. She had found a way to capture a piece of him that he did not believe would ever be returned. If that was love, then perhaps he did feel it… he just did not know how to express it in a manner that was acceptable. There was, without doubt, a possessiveness for the girl that he had not expected.
 
“Her name is Deirdre Mayfair and she has promised herself to me,” he spoke in a voice that was far more level than it had been previously. The fur along his back was still ruffled, but he allowed for his racing heart to slow dramatically. The witch of the wood was his and nothing would change that.