I’d never thought I’d have hungered for Hawk’s touch. But feeling it now was a heady sensation. I was afraid I could find myself addicted to it.
A tiny part of me admitted that I had always wanted his hands on me. Despite how much I’d resented his cruelty.
But everything has changed. Especially considering everything I know now.
He’d stripped me of my nightdress and in moments I felt the heat of his nude body sliding over me. The scent of him was wild and untamed.
Like an animal caught in the woods.
A creature fighting for survival. Willing to hide or fight…Whatever…Just to live.
As he settled over me, I found my legs instinctively parting to allow his hips to rest between. His hard, pulsating length already ripe and ready to fill me. I could feel his eagerness rising in heady swells which rolled over me.
He kissed my temple and I was intimately touched by the smal
I didn’t know when I’d fallen asleep, but I awoke when my bed began moving beneath me. I blinked my eyes open and was stunned to realize Hawk was still next to me, staring at the ceiling. “What’s wrong?”He won’t tell me. I chided myself for even asking.“I have to get up and get down there.” He sighed. Sounding like he wanted to do anything but that. He rolled his head to look at me. “So do you.”His voice was quiet, and he reached up to tuck a waving blonde tress behind my ear. “Be careful today. And do well.”“You keep saying that.”“King Detry is watching you very closely. If he decides you’re not up to par…” He sat up and began searching for his pants.“Then what?”He gave me a quick look over his shoulder and resumed roving the floor.“What, Hawk?” I asked again.He dropped t
“It was a mage once. One Detry decided he no longer had a need for. At least, not as she was…” Hawk’s voice dropped, and he looked sad. “Now she serves another purpose.”A mage? What possible purpose! Before I could ask, Hawk was speaking again.“As she is…” His voice quieted so much he was nearly inaudible.In this form, he means.“King Detry couldn’t curse someone like that!” I expostulated. Knowing the King possessed no magic.“No, he had me cast the spell when I was new.”New? New to magic.Why would the King make him do it? And why would he agree?“Why would you do that?” I stared at him, appalled.“I didn’t know then what I was doing.”“Who was she?”“Someone far more important than I knew…To some.” His face showed deep r
Why can’t I get it right? I stared at the untouched stake resentfully.I didn’t know why it was so hard for me. It was endlessly frustrating that it seemed I should be able to do this easily. I’d read enough to know precisely what to do.How to hold my hands. How to move. What to think.But I always doubted myself just as I should be cutting through the stake. And I failed.“Make them concentrate!” Warlord roared from his balcony.Drawing my eye.And I noticed motion on the balcony above him. The glint of the King’s crown and Hawk’s familiar face peering haughtily over the balcony down on us. His expression was stony. Unforgiving as he watched me.What is he thinking? I tried to touch his thoughts now but found them locked. I was sealed out.Oh, no. Something was making my stomach sink. My instincts were screaming that I wasn’t safe. Panic swelled
Magus had not been wrong.I was running to keep up with them, but the inside of my body was still sore from Hawk’s brutal taking. I knew he hadn’t meant to hurt me. He’d meant to be fast.But he’s a lot bigger than me.“We’re never going to make it.” I told Hawk but still I felt some exhilaration that Hawk was taking me with him.Even if we don’t make it out, that means something.Magus was on my heels. Looking very much like he was having fun, rather than scared.Doesn’t anything disturb him.As we were fleeing, I found myself watching Hawk, sword in hand in the moonlight. Looking furtively from one end of the hedges bordering the Training Gardens, to the other.Dark lashes, vibrant eyes, and a disgustingly perfect profile. Looking powerful and ready.Like a snake coiled for action.***We paused behind the h
I turned slowly around and saw one rushing at me with a sword at hip level. Bringing it around in an arc that would surely take off my head.Before it could I heard the gargle of water again. Rising from the dead knight just behind him and from the fountain and in the distance, in the trees I could hear more coming.But I felt nothing. They can’t be right!I’m not doing this.It was effortless.I recalled all the long-suffering concentration I had been immersed in while trying to do all the things Hawk had been teaching. Reading about magic and discussing magic and testing on magic was easy for me.But real magic isn’t an animal I can’t tame.Then I had an epiphany. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I’ve been trying to take it, control it for too long. Rather than let it be what it is. In the form it desires.It made me wonder how many mages like me, Hawk had
Reassured that whatever he’d heard was no threat to us, Magus continued talking about the wolf that had lived so long ago.“Once torn from his pack he sought refuge with humanity and found them kinder than his own beasts,” Magus gave me a pointed look. Reminding me that only those who were, could refer to their group as such. “had been.”“And?” Hawk sighed. Clearly losing patience with the story.“He yearned to be human enough that the Green King, who controls all things nature and sky sensed his suffering. The Green King offered him a bargain.”“I’ve never heard of such a person.” Hawk said.“He exists.” Magus said. “He gives you magic from the land as well as the other creatures like us our extraordinary gifts.”“What was the bargain?” I asked.“He could be human. But he would retain his wolf spirit. And under c
His words were echoing through my mind.He wanted me?Not because someone was making me take him so I could get my magic right?Not to punish me?Not to torment me…But because he wants me?That seemed a hard realization.Thinking on made my brain feel mushy and my heart pound and made confusion pour through me. Everything seemed more complicated when I couldn’t just hate Hawk, thinking that he was constantly trying to punish me.Instead, I chose to focus on the tale Magus had told. About Fury.I’d never heard a version of how Beasts came to be that originated from a true wolf wishing to be human enough that a fey king had granted him his heart’s desire…partially.It seemed inconceivable. But then, I’d seen mages pull trees up from the root. Hawk to be specific.I, more than anyone, knew that one could be limited only by the
We stepped inside.Hawk’s blue lights following us to brighten inside the small structure.The walls were only about ten foot in each direction. With long slender windows on the corners only. But in here it was warm.Even without a fire.There was a quiet stillness here that told me it had been abandoned along while. But at one time, it was used a lot.There was a fully made bed through a side door. Plush furs covered it and the pillow looked down-filled.It looked soft and inviting and I felt endlessly tired.I wanted to stumble over there and collapse face down on it. I was sure I’d be asleep nearly as fast as I hit it.The cabin smelled dusty but there was still a strange hint of flowers.Like someone had taken very good care of it once.***“What is this place?” It seemed deceptively like a shack on the outside. But inside…“It was supposedly