Like Fire in His Veins
Prologue
For years our secret tryst carried on, with no one the wiser, if not for that blasted tourney. At that tourney, on that day our true feelings for each other were shown; the wolf maiden and the dragon prince a love story that would be sung across Westeros for all time. For a long time I never thought I would get the happily ever after I wanted, try to understand that my betrothed Robert was a good match; from the house Baratheon, he was lean and tall, raven haired, and his deep blue eyes looked upon me with the greatest amount of love imaginable. Robert was handsome, brave, and ferocious in battle, but he lacked honor I had heard of his sexual conquests long before our betrothal, a known womanizer and father at sixteen had no place in my bed, but my lord father willed it and so it would be.
While Robert pined after me bewitched by my 'graceful beauty' and ignorant to my wolf blooded nature I longed for another. And my one true love and only heart's desire was none other than the dragon prince Rhaegar Targaryen. We had met as children during a tourney and remained friends and confidants over the years, and eventually became lovers, sneaking off at public events to steal heated kisses in dark corridors and musty stables. My heart was torn in two the day his betrothal to Elia of Dorne was announced mere days before he had planned to ask our
fathers' permission for my hand. Besides my brothers, Rhaegar was the only person who understood and loved me for me and not because of my idyllic facade. What he was for me I was for him all his secrets were mine and my secrets his. He wanted to escape the life of a prince and I the life of a lady and so that day at the tourney four years after the birth of his first born was the breaking point for us both. After he sang that song for me at the feast he swept into my room in the middle of the night and years of repressed love and passion and lust broke free in a mess of limbs and tangled sheets, whispered words of love and cries of passion. As we lay bereft of clothing and slicked with sweat he promised we would leave for Dorne the next night. The morn of the tourney he graced me with the crown of winter roses to remind me of our promise and we left that night after the competitors lay sleeping in their beds and rode for the nearest sept where he draped me in the banner from his tent.
I found myself was pregnant when we reached Dorne, Rhaegar insisted it was the prince he was promised; that I was the mother of his prophesied child. Luckily he understood my character enough to acknowledge my need for independence however he insisted upon me remaining in the Tower of Joy, for the sake of the baby I obliged. Months went by and I grew heavier and heavier and the war between our families raged on. With the deaths of my father and brother, Rickard and Brandon Stark, my brother Ned led the banners in alliance with the houses Tully and Arryn and accompanied by his best friend Robert Baratheon and the bannermen of Storm's End. And when Rhaegar was drawn into battle I begged him not to go fearing what would happen should he meet my brother and my former betrothed on the battle field. He insisted that his duties to his father and his country were not ones he could ignore. He promised he would be merciful towards Robert and my family after the rebellion had been put to rest. The day he left he pressed a kiss each to my lips and my swollen belly and promised me he would return to gaze upon his son's face. When he had gone I cursed my foolish heart, all day I prayed to the mother for her mercy, that she would prevent the ones I loved from meeting on the battle field, that Rhaegar would live to fulfill his promise and that life would carry on peacefully. I was wrong soon after wards my son was fatherless and shortly after that he would lose his mother.