Chapter 2 - "Passion"

"Take her to my tent"

These were the first words I heard when I woke up, but I was too confused by the change of scene to understand what had happened to me: I found myself in a tent, probably coming from the encampment of Princess Zeyana.

I touched my bare skin, from the waist up to the chest area and I encountered bandages covering me and a blanket that protected me from the cold.

"Are you awake?"

I lifted my torso and turned my head: Zeyana aws on the other side of the tent, stretched out between her comfortable and luxurious pillows. She was looking at me with a mysterious smile.

"What happened?"

"You fell asleep shamelessly using me as your personal pillow, then I had you brought here and I called someone to treat your wounds" she explained to me with unexpected calmness.

"Why am I in your tent? " I put a hand to my chest feeling the soft bandages that also embraced my bust and I remembered the cuts, scratches and bruises that had covered it up to that moment. The magic couldn't make my body indestructible and I remained a frail woman under the weight of the whip and the beating.

"If I had left you close to my men, I am sure they wouldn't have kept their hands to themselves."

"You have little faith in your soldiers, are they all dogs in heat? "

"No, but they've never seen such a charming woman."

I turned around; I didn't want to look into her eyes and I hoped to hide my surprise at the words she had said, which had made me blush. Coming from her, it was more than a compliment, but I wondered if she believed she could win my trust with out"of"place appreciation.

"What do you want?"

"Come with me, to Atenarte."

"So now I can choose… I'm sure that if I said no, you'd kill me rather than set me free" I commented contemptuously but she laughed and got up to walk towards me. Her step reminded me of a predator just before jumping on her prey; the idea provoked mixed feelings in me.

"There's no use in killing you, because they're still hunting you out there witch, but I'm offering you the life and luxury of court, the chance to get stronger and take revenge on whoever you want ... Father Donovan, right? It will be yours if you wish it, you can do what you think is right, I will give you everything. Come to Atenarte with me and be my witch."

She was in front of me: her slow, soft footsteps had led her to me, then she knelt beside me and stared into my eyes with such determination that it made me tremble. She had won me before she even started her talk and I couldn't deny that she got me hanging on her lips; I, however, would not have folded easily, just as I had not allowed myself to be folded by the whips of my executioners.

"Who says I need you to have all this? I can very well find someone else who would offer me this and more for my powers... you said it yourself, I'm fascinating" I smiled: "many would wish, indeed, would die to have me by their side."

"Is that what you believe?"

"Yes" I kept eye contact but backed away with my torso as the princess came even closer.

"Then I'll have to eliminate the competition... this will be enough" her lips were very close to mine, a small movement of my face would have been enough to make them collide and I ardently desired it, but I would not have risked falling into her traps. Why would she suddley ever feel attraction to me? It didn't make sense! If it had been me I would have understood it since I loved to follow my every instinct, but what about her? She was a princess, one of those strict and always controlled ones! Yet she was looking at me with an intensity capable of making me melt and the temptation was almost impossible to overcome: her candid and sinuous body was uncovered on the shoulders and along the legs by the white dress she was wearing, while her breasts could be glimpsed from the neckline on the chest. Her arms had enclosed my body in a grip of lust and I saw no way out, I didn't want to see any.

"Princess, do you think you can conquer me with your body? " I asked her smiling, opposing my passionate impulses for the first time. The beautiful woman licked her lips, staring at my mouth, then returning to my eyes: "I looked at you while one of the camp doctors visited you... you have a lovely body, too bad for the wounds..." she whispered passing a hand on my chest, over the bandages.

"You"u ..."

"You are the only one who has ever been allowed to talk to me in this way, to stand up to me, to rebel against me! I guess you will understand that I can't leave you unpunished for what you have done. " Her sensual and warm voice hit all my weak strings, making me bend to lust, to the desire to taste the princess.

"In the end, you were the real dog in heat."

The fact that I insulted such a powerful and very dangerous woman showed how crazy I was: sometimes I wondered what had happened to me, why my brain worked that way every now and then; should I have shut my mouth? Still, it wouldn't be fun if I did that!

I braced myself for some kind of death threat or a slap but the princess blushed and gasped. I held my breath completely amazed at what was happening, and to be honest, I was very turned on too.

At that moment, in those few seconds before the woman's lips collided with mine, I realized that I was dealing with someone as unstable as I was.

Wait... wait, wait, isn't she that kind of person that likes certain things"? Oh, now I understand ...

I put my hands against her chest when she made me lie under her, I rebelled, but weakly and that's because I was adoring the situation despite everything that had happened. After spending a lot of time in a cell and in solitude, that physical contact and human warmth seemed even more precious to me; I didn't want to give it up. And her hands… her hands were touching my body with a foreign delicacy, unknown to me, it seemed to be from another world. I wanted her more than ever.

She kissed my neck with sensuality, nibbling my skin and licking the points now made sensitive by her attentions. I was on fire from her caresses and I couldn't refuse her, not after looking into her lustful and all too attractive eyes. I was lost in that gaze, I hadn't even noticed that her hands and her body were now under the covers with mine: we rubbed our skin against each other, panting silently; mute was also the reproach for our senseless actions, which we would probably have repudiated the next day, yet they seemed the only right choice on that horrible night.

"I love the color of your skin ..." she whispered against my lips, watching me carefully. I gave a shy smile: my complexion was slightly amber, due to the constant exposure to the sun that people like me had to endure, working hard to survive, but how could a princess like her appreciate such a trait? In high class candor was what perfected feminine beauty, so being pale, being protected from the hot and fierce sun was the goal of every aristocratic lady.

"Does it reflect the difference between the two of us, princess? "

She did not answer, but she bit my lip forcing me to silence; she observed me from under those long and beautiful eyelashes and she brought her fingers to my thighs, moving slowly to inflame my desire: "Alex ... "

I closed my eyes and indulged in pleasure, silencing the voices screaming at me that I was a fool and that I couldn't agree to have sex with the woman who arrested me. Her fingers were expert and wonderful, her mouth hungry, her movements were strong and confident.

"I will never be completely yours ... never" I said, holding back the gasps that the princess had been tearing from me for long minutes. I clung tightly to her shoulders, letting my head fall on the pillows and stifled another moan.

"You want your freedom... I'll give it you" she smiled at me and went down with her face between my legs.

"I hate orders and I won't be your puppet, you understand that too"ahh! "

"Shh... let's not wake everyone up."

She continued to give me pleasure and in a short time I found myself completely lost in that passionate envelope made of twisted legs and sheets: my hands began to explore her body, but they were rougher than hers; I wanted to take revenge for the way she treated me, as if I were undeserving of respect and consideration.

"Yes… ah! Oh yes… Alex! "

I bit my tongue to prevent me from speaking when I realized that my attempts at revenge against her not only had failed miserably, but had the opposite effect of pleasing her even more: I found myself looking with amazement at the princess's red face, with her eyes half closed and her lips parted, naked and vulnerable beneath me asking me to be even rougher.

"You really like these kind of things? " I sighed.

"It doesn't matter, go on!" She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me back to her body, chest to chest.

"We don't have much time, so don't think about it too much" she whispered in my ear making her hand swipe from my waist to my butt without shyness.

"Someone is coming ..." I said softly when I heard footsteps coming from outside the big tent. The lantern lights at night cast the shadow of a slender female figure, but perhaps it was the distortion of her shadow that made me believe she was a woman. Or my very developed sixth sense, since within a few seconds I heard Keira's voice: I couldn't show myself in that state with the princess! I would have betrayed her friendship!

"Get away now "! "

"Why should I?" She looked at me, remaining motionless in her position. How come she seemed so calm while I was going crazy? Did she want her soldiers to find us? The more I spent time with Zeyana, the more I realized that she was unpredictable!

"Her majesty? I have a communication about the group of deserters " Keira's voice was firm and determined, the soldierly one, and it sounded so different from the one she had addressed to me a few hours earlier. Realizing that the princess would not move and she would not try to make herself presentable, I decided to take matters into my own hands and get dressed, but she grabbed my wrists and pinned me against the soft surface of the pillows. Her bright, clear eyes took my breath away once again.

"What are you doing? Now are you worried about what others might think? I am their princess, indeed, their future empress if all goes according to my plan and no one would ever be allowed to speak out or make judgments without my approval. My freedom comes from the power I possess."

My heart was beating hard, but I didn't understand why. The princess's long, precious hair brushed against the skin of my bare arms as she moved away from me and I immediately regretted having contested her choices, as I lost that warmth that her body had given me up to that point.

I saw her put on her pale robe left on the ground as we savored each other, I looked over her equally white skin with greed and smiled from behind the clothes that kept me away from the cold and hid my nakedness.

"You found them I guess" the princess's voice changed completely and became cold and authoritative. She pulled the curtains back enough to talk face"to"face with her soldier, but they remained half closed. She looked irritated.

I felt like laughing; just mere minutes ago, as I touched and kissed her she was feebly begging me to be more rude and passionate, with an almost shy tone, certainly vulnerable. I couldn't miss the golden opportunity that had happened to me and I would have defended it with claws and teeth if I had to. At that point I didn't even care what I would have to do to get my revenge on Father Donovan and those bastards who cooperated with him. If it had been up to me, I would have already hanged them and burned their homes, but I still didn't have the strength and the ability to do so.

"Yes, they're bringing them here now. They are all present except one: his companions claim that he died because of the wolves. They are currently looking for traces of him in the woods.

Keira was so efficient, I liked her more and more. I lay down on the pillows to be more comfortable and watched the princess's lips move as she whispered something to the soldier, then I realized that Keira had seen me and was looking strangely. Perhaps she did not expect to see me half"naked in the tent of her beloved princess. I hoped she wasn't getting any strange ideas, but I could still lie in case she walked away from me.

"Well, let me know when they arrive."

"Of course, her majesty."

"You can go" Zeyana closed the curtains and sighed running his hand through her hair with a frustrated gesture. She seemed restless: "Something wrong? "

"I still do not understand how it is possible that some of my soldiers have committed those atrocities, going against my orders...! " She seemed to speak more to herself than to me.

"Isn't this kind of behavior normal during times of war? I don't know how you fight in Atenarte, but it gets worse here... what can be defined as grotesque, crazy, blasphemous is a common thing in this Country" I said bringing my arms under my head and closing her eyes.

"Alex."

"Yup..?"

"What happened?"

Her voice cleared and the movement of the air made me realize that she had stopped next to me. I opened my eyes and held yet another sigh: not now, I thought, did I necessarily have to talk about what had happened and which I barely remembered? I didn't have the energy to do it, so I turned my back on her.

"Later ... I have no strength left, because a certain person sucked the remaining ones from me.

Before closing my eyes to go back to rest, I saw the satisfied half smile of the princess and I began to think that it would not be unbearable to collaborate with her.