Through the years, there had been an assortment of pretty faces to capture the beast's attention, all in their own strikingly unique ways. It was a vicious streak of vile greed that drove him to hoard the doves as he did and to lay claim to their barren wombs whenever opportunity allowed. He enjoyed having them close at hand to enjoy their companionship and to admire their striking, feminine figures at will, especially after long grueling hours spent patrolling the rolling hills of the Dale. Their numbers and diversity along with the addition of his strong bloodline to their foals would strengthen his herd into a formidable force in comparison to those bands which other lesser stallions managed to assemble. He would have the grandest herd of them all, filled with the most precious treasures that he could find.

The dusky-amber coated fae before him now was perhaps the most exotic and certainly one of the most taboo treasures of them all that he would collect, and he did not intend to see her depart anytime soon now that she was here, shadowed by a promising looking filly of his own blood. He'd been oddly bewildered by the youth's giggly show of affection towards him and reacted by pulling his muzzle back slightly in mild surprise when she buffeted him. He'd been momentarily unsure of how to react, but regarded his daughter with an ounce more of intrigue and hint of genuine fatherly pride tugging a faint smile to his ashy lips. Rhaego responded simply with a perk of his ears and a whuff of warm breath across Baylor's face before he'd moved on to address Talien and circle appraisingly around the two. It wasn't until he'd come back around to stand proudly at their heads and expressed his intent to keep the two of them here in his home, that he noted the change in Talien. Her demeanor shifted in the instant that his commanding words settled in the air between them. The sudden sharpness of her crystal-blue gaze hardening into a fierce glare upon him brought a prickle of tension through the burly stallion's frame. He seemed to straighten and tense subconsciously in preparation, his muscled body picking up on the unspoken cues and adjusting almost automatically as he would have in any other confrontation for the inevitable launch of an attack on him. Though it was evident that he had consciously picked up on the cues as well, for he returned her gaze with a equally fierce stare. Did she dare defy him? After the stories that she had surely heard from her herdmates? Rhaego held her gaze in those fleeting seconds, unflinching and refusing to look away until she does, because after all this is his land and he's the one in charge. He wasn't about to shy away at anything she'd do.

Perhaps a blessing in disguise, the tension building between them abruptly shattered with the furious and seething voice that coming at them.... at him. As Talien's attention is torn away, he too, turns to the source of the commotion. Aileen. The zealous little forest nymph marched towards them with a fury that, to Rhaego, was totally foreign to her. He is briefly aware in the back of his mind of Talien speaking in a low tone beside him, but though he heard her, her words do not register in his mind as Aileen's do.

How could he? How could he what? What had he done? The mealy dun stallion is utterly beguiled at first, both perplexed and intrigued to see Aileen show such fierce emotion that he's never recalled seeing before. Certainly he respected the fiery spunk in the pretty Appaloosa, it'd been the one thing that enraptured him from the beginning - her willingness to speak her mind and to stand up for what she believed in, even if it was to him. She'd always been reasonable about it though and somehow still just respectful enough that he'd tolerated her standing up to him as she was sometimes apt to do. Yet, this... this was something new. Different.

The gravity of this realization was slow to settle in the Swedish beast's thoughts... because this was so unlike Aileen. Rhaego sidles around to face her better, ebony-tipped lobes flattening into the mass of thick duo-toned mane atop his skull as he eyed the furious dryad, a tight mask of irritation and confusion across his masculine features at her demanding words. He listened to her though despite the gnawing temper that flared in response to hers, urging him to cut the shouted tirade short - yet Aileen had earned a great deal of his respect in the years he had known her and this made him reluctant to do so, not without giving her the opportunity to make clear what it was that he had indeed done. Because she had always been reasonable, right? It was with considerable effort that the brute discerned at least the rough idea of what he had done, according to Aileen. The stallion meets her irate gaze with irritation and an ounce of still bewildered confusion, the simmering of his own barely contained temper swirling like molten lava within the very pit of his being and through the depths of his dark brown eyes. Aileen thought he had dallied in searching for her and retrieving her from Brannis? The jealousy in her manner was becoming clearer to him and with that, he cast a swift peek to Talien and Baylor... lingering on Baylor for a second longer in broody contemplation and distant new understanding, before he focused again on Aileen, eyes narrowing at her assumptions. "Betray you?" The throaty words grated roughly in the restrained irritation he held in check, his tone one of mild disbelief. "I -" The sentence died as abruptly as it began and he fumed visibly, uncertain what he was about to snap back, but thinking better of it regardless. "You are here, are you not?" His deep, rumbling voice was defensive in the wake of his flustered stumble, and he took care in choosing his words more carefully, lest he say something totally undesired. "I have a herd... to rebuild." The stallion bit out with emphasis, frustration making his manner curt and sharp. What did she want him to say... to admit? That he had almost completely abandoned the Dale in his tireless search for her? The thought of such an admission made Rhaego's stomach roil with unease, but surely she had noted the quietness of their home upon their return or noted how travel-weary he was upon arriving in Brannis. Surely.

The brute's ears remained pressed flat into his mane but his expression hardens in surprise when she laughs. Laughed! He almost didn't believe that she had but the mocking tone that her usually sweet voice adopted had him bristling in response, sensing that she was not yet done. A fury grew within him with the pitch of her voice, escalating a little more with each fuming breath of Aileen's. Rhaego glared at her as she spoke, a silent and brooding glare, eyes widening occasionally when her voice raised. What did she think to accomplish in this fit? Was she truly this... jealous? That she thought he'd only have time for her? The stallion had inhaled a great breath in preparation to respond, struggling to rein in his rebellious fury that wanted nothing more than to outdo Aileen's own. However, he paused at the venomous whisper she spat out and shock was plain upon his broad face and in the second of hesitation. What? It took only a fleeting moment for the mockery of the nymph's words to sink in... and then there was a glimpse of hurt.... followed by betrayal and then a flash of anger that came so strongly and abruptly that Rhaego hadn't the ability to stop himself as he rose slightly into something of a quarter or half rear and lunged forward, teeth bared in a fearsome display backed with the muscle and brawn of his stocky frame. "Aileen!" His sharp and thunderous voice shot out in a livid reprimand, seeking to place a harsh nip upon her hide if she did not react quick enough. He had tolerated much from her before, but this, this was too far.