Ravensblood Forest you're by my side, but are you still with me?

thank u!

she was rough, her love was rough. merrick bore it all with stoic love, neither preening in return nor shrinking while she razed him with her selfish gestures. to belong was enough; he knew the nightshade was truest to him as well, the full measure of her love buoyant beneath the jealousy of her burning gaze. 
now here he turned sharply to grab her muzzle with firm jaws; not to make himself lord and prince over astara, but to welcome her into the darkened corridors of his love once more. were they not vigilantes, and he wounded, and both led by an assuming harridan, he might have spirited his cruel-eyed bride into the weald to join hotly with her once again.
as it were, merrick merely nipped her shoulder after a moment, pressed the length of his body against her, was silent in the cold air.