Within the southern empire you will find quite a few beast folk but unlike anywhere else all of them would either be slaves, pets or servants with no social standing or opportunity to get out of the lower class. Havign relations with any beast races is also forbidden to prevent any non human to gain social standing through marriage for example, , so any romantic displays are kept secret even if it is an extremely rare occurance since most of the empire isn't very fond of the beast races (despite there being many brothels that employ them and slaves aren't always just for working the fields or household work.)
A rare few who do fall in love with a non human will either have to leave the empire or get creative to hide their relationship from the public.

Lionel Freemantle certainly did not expect to find himself in this situation when he was sent off on his first solo trade mission by his father, and having his life saved by a a female Volf after his horse got spooked and ran his wagon off the road into a small ravine. She nursed him back to health and helped him fix his wagon and salvage whatever possible, and she even pulled the wagon herself since his horse had vanished into the night after the accident. He managed to still make a small profit which was somewhat of a miracle all things considered, but it might not be enough to please his father. So he extended his trip to do some local trading to make up for the lost wares and have enough money to prove to his father he was ready to take over the family business.

In the weeks they spent together Lionel got to know the Volf female, named Yenene, and learn more about her kind and she in turn got to learn more about the humans. Neither of them had expected that by the end of the trip they would have fallen in love, but this posed a problem for Lionel since as much as he wanted to stay with Yenene he had to return home where she would not be welcome as his love and she risked being captured as a slave. yet Yenene was determined to stay with him either way, claiming they had pack bonded, and though he did not fully understand at the time he knew this was something signifficant for the Volfen, especially for Yenene who had been banished from her pack. So Lionel devised a risky plan to make it possible for Yenene to stay with him if it worked out. He would make up a story about the accident and how he went about recovering his losses, and having obtained Yenene as part of a deal, so she would have to pretend to be his slave from now on which could be an easy sell if he returned with her pulling the wagon though honestly he hated the idea as he had always been against seeing the beast races as nothing but slaves.

Now a year later they find themselves walking on their way back from the market in the streets of the capitol, Goudsbergen, also know as the golden city for it's yellow-leaved trees. Thus far nobody suspects a thing about their true relationship even if some might remark Lionel is treating his slave way too friendly, but since they know his previous stance on slaves they see it as nothing more as Lionell being too much of a goody-two-shoes. Yenene seems happy enough in her pretend role and carrying the load in public while she listens to Lionell telling about the history of the city, and she doesn't mind the slave clothes either as she would nothave worn much else either back with her old pack although it was made from some higher quality fabric they simply didn't have in the pack so she felt like royalty wearign even this simple garb. They now also had their own house together as Lionel had moved out from under his father's roof, as it would have made it more difficult to keep up the charade with his parents and the household staff around at all times of the day. The mansion had a sizable garden surrounding the house and high walls meant that nobody could easily spy on them from a distance while they were indoors so they could fully relax together.


Made in Hero Forge
Characters belong to me  Chakat_Blackwater