Moonspear hopes and dreams, they will collide

Ah, last year.

He didn't care to make a repeat of that, though his gaze could not help but meander off to some distant point as she spoke. It was almost averted out of respect for her, knowing that what she now shared with him was a vulnerability he had not thought her possessive of, but not quite incapable of. He was no fool to know that her father's actions had wounded her in an indescribable way, just as he was no fool to know how deeply a broken heart stirred a deep rift in more than one mind.

And when he felt her gaze upon him, he met it.

"I have never strayed from you," he said gently, "and had I wanted to, I would have a long time ago. I have no desire to abandon this, or our children, for a whim." He was more than the sum of his parts, more than his father and certainly more than hers by whatever convoluted blood tied them together. He felt certain that if he had wanted to, the opportunity would have been too great to resist. Though on the other side of that coin, it had been a whim that had drawn to her to him in the first place...

His brows furrowed.

"It angers me that your father left that impression upon you." He meant it in the broadest sense; he knew that she did not single him out, or her brother. He knew that the fears that she had were very real and understandable. And he knew how he could wander, how he could charm and lead and try all he wanted, but inevitably; "I have always come back to you. It would take a great force to change that."