Finally taking flight

Seeing how her expression seemed the light up when she turned to face him made that lingering attraction from the night before sneak back into his mind, making him feel as if he could feel her lips on his again. He noticed how her expression seemed to shift and darken after his question about how she had slept and it made him curious what had crossed her mind. He thought about asking, but he wondered if perhaps it was better to not bring up things that were troubling her. At least not right now. There had been so much of their time together so far that had been dedicated to darkness and grief. He wanted to make her first day as a member of the pack a pleasant one.

He smiled again when she agreed to his plans and he gave a small nod toward the castle and replied, "Lets go then." The slight longing in her gaze didn't slip past him, but he forced himself to ignore it. He respected the restraint she had showed the previous night and he hoped that he might be able to follow that lead. It was something that he had clearly lacked in the past and it had only landed him in one bad relationship and situation after another. He felt like his attraction was obvious and he hadn't done well in hiding it, but he wanted more. He couldn't just continue to give into his lusts and hope to get a better result. It felt like he was thinking clearly for the first time in a very, very long time and he wondered how much credit he needed to give to the woman in front of him for that.

He led her back into the castle, leading her first to the main meeting hall since it was the space closest to the main doors. "This is where we hold our meetings, feasts, gatherings, the like. We've held a feast each season, though we haven't gotten a chance to have one for Summer just yet." He paused, looking at the empty space in front of them thoughtfully, remembering how the tables had been filled with food each time Resin had called them together here, how wonderful it had been to see them all together for a joyous occasion. Even though he had been going through his own turmoils at the last feast, it had been heartwarming to see Resin officially give Tamsyn and their children a family name here. Perhaps that was one of the places where he was going to feel Resin's absence the strongest.

"I was thinking... and I'd like your thoughts on it, but..." He turned his gaze down her hers as he spoke, curious to see what her opinion would be. "I would like to dedicate our Summer feast to Resin. She was our founder, a friend to all of us... I feel like she deserves that much. Each of the feasts has had a bit of a theme to them. The Snowfall Feast, the Feast of Rebirth... I thought about maybe going simple, calling it the Carpathius Feast since that's the name she shared with her mate and their children, but I don't know... What do you think?"

Ulric Adravendi