"Would you like to see the library now?" Alexander asked, slamming open Daniel's door without announcement. Daniel startled, dropping the teacup he had been holding. It shattered on the stone floor.
"What, now? Sir, it is almost night!"
"I thought it might give you some occupation. I will be unable to keep you company this night due to...prior obligations." His gold eyes studied Daniel keenly and he frowned at the obvious relief that flooded the young man's face.
"Oh, well then… If it is not too much bother."
The library was even grander than Alexander had eluded. Daniel gasped when he saw that it was not only one room but almost the whole floor of a wing. "How could one even manage to read all this?" he asked with wonder as he trailed his fingers along the spines. Not a speck of dust on them. It was obvious that Alexander cherished his books.
"It would take one several lifetimes, I would hazard." There was a pleased smirk on his face as he watched Daniel wander around like a man caught in a dream. "And there is more. Almost every floor has a study with a bookcase or five stuffed into it. Perfect to hide oneself away in and…indulge."
Daniel chose to believe that Alexander meant to indulge oneself in literary pursuits. "I think I can spend many a happy evening here," he confided.
"I am glad to hear that." Alexander came up behind Daniel and placed his hand over the young man's. "This can be yours, you know," he said, his voice a throaty murmur.
Daniel froze. "I do not understand you."
"Do you not? I shall make a present of this room, this very wing if you so wish it. Any book you find in want of, I shall obtain for you. Anything you should desire, consider it yours for the asking." An arm wrapped around Daniel's waist and pressed him against the baron.
"And what would I have to do to earn it, my lord?" He let his hand fall to the baron's. His heart was beating so fast; he wondered if Alexander could hear it.
"I have told you to call me Alexander." The baron pressed his cheek against Daniel's and he could feel the other man was smiling. "You would have to do nothing, only…stay here. With me."
Daniel turned around in Alexander's arms, realizing it for a mistake when his chest was now pressed against the baron's. "Sir, you do not even know me. To make such a demand to a stranger-"
"It was not a demand but a proposal." Daniel felt himself color. "And," the baron leaned closer as he had done that afternoon. "I know enough of you. I knew the moment I…laid eyes on you that you were meant to be mine."
Instead of being outraged, Daniel was left with an odd, breathless feeling. He felt as if his bones had turned to water and if not for Alexander's arms around him he would have fallen.
"That is…a bold statement. My…Alexander." Alexander smiled as he placed a small kiss on Daniel's lower lip.
"Your Alexander. I like the sound of that." A small nip followed the kiss. Daniel opened his mouth, either to gasp or speak some sort of denial, and then Alexander kissed him properly. Daniel was lost to the sensation. His eyes closed and all he could do was clutch Alexander to him.
They finally parted with an obscene sound and Alexander licked his lips, his smile very reminiscent of a cat that had stolen its fair share of cream. Daniel raised a shaking hand to his own mouth. Alexander lowered his head again, but Daniel turned away at the last moment.
"And what of the funding? I came here with a purpose…Alexander."
Alexander's sigh stirred Daniel's hair. "I will still sponsor all of your mentor's little endeavors. If you give in to my desires."
It was the wrong thing to say. It acted like a douse of cold water and Daniel blinked as if awakening from an enchantment. He attempted to disentangle himself, but the baron's hold was firm. "My lord, we really mustn't."
"I disagree, we really must." He held Daniel's head steady as he kissed him again, not the slow exploration of earlier, but a bruising one filled with passion and violence. As with the first one, it left Daniel trembling and pliant. "See, you feel it too," the baron's voice was almost hypnotic. "This attraction between us, this," his voice lowered to a smouldering murmur, "heat."
The only thing Daniel could think to do was squeak out, "I will not be your whore, sir."
Alexander glowered. "And who said that you would be?"
"Please…I am… I just need to go back to my room to…to think." Daniel pushed against Alexander's chest. He was thrown against the bookcase for his efforts.
"So you can come up with pretty excuses to deny yourself this?"
Daniel opened his mouth to protest when the baron sealed it with his own. His head knocked against the shelf and he whimpered into their kiss. That seemed to excite the baron for there was a hint of teeth to their embrace now. Surprisingly it was Alexander who thrust Daniel from him, hand rising to cover his mouth. "Go to your room and stay there until dawn." His voice was a growl and he hunched in on himself as if in pain.
"My lord?"
"Go!" the baron roared and Daniel complied.
He did not stay in his room long though. He hastily began to cram as many things as he could into one of his travel bags. He could stay in this castle no longer. He would walk to that small town he had passed on his way here and send for his things. They did not need money that desperately to call for Daniel to keep courting this madman. Herbert had a silver tongue when it came to such things and could surely find another, less deviant, patron for the next season.
No one tried to impede his progress when he left the castle and hurried to the forest, lantern in hand. He had scarce need for it; the moon was so full and bright tonight. The thick leaves soon made it necessary though and he turned the key to make the flame higher.
For a mile there was only the sound of his breath and the pounding of his heart. A few meters more and he halted. This was not right. There should be other sounds in this forest at night. Where were the birds, the scurrying of creatures in the underbrush? He peered around himself, now wary. The only reason that smaller creatures fell silent was when…
A dark shape stepped from the woods and onto the path behind him, its jaws hanging open in a parody of a grin. Daniel squeaked, his shaking hand making the lantern cast unsteady shadows and made the beast look larger than it could possibly be.
His bag fell from nerveless fingers. He took a step back and the creature, the wolf, took a step forwards, an unholy gleam in its amber eyes. Daniel threw the lantern at it and bolted into the brush. He realized it was folly as soon as he heard the wolf give a cheerful yip and pursue him. He had just cast away his only weapon and, really, thinking to lose a beast in its own- Two outstretched paws hit his back and he crashed down with the weight of the wolf on his back.
He twisted around to face the creature, vowing not to go without some sort of fight…and looked up into the grinning face of Alexander. He was confused. How had Alexander found him, not to mention how had he defeated the wolf that had been about to make him its dinner? And why did the baron not have on a stitch of-
Alexander kissed him, twisting his fingers in Daniel's hair to keep him still, his weight keeping Daniel pinned to the ground. They finally parted and Daniel gasped for breath, a strand of saliva trailing down his chin.
Alexander did not say a word as he tore open Daniel's shirt and leaned down to give suckling kisses along his neck. Daniel squirmed in earnest when the baron's fingers found the fastening of his trousers and he realized the direction this was going. "Why?" he finally managed to wheeze out. Alexander looked up and met his eyes. The same eyes the wolf had had down to the unholy gleam.
"You left the path," he rasped.
It had not been love making, it had been a claiming. Fierce and unapologetic it had been and Daniel was surprised he had found any sort of pleasure in it at all. But he had found pleasure. He had clawed at the ground and the dead leaves as Alexander took him like the beast the baron was, biting the back of Daniel's neck to hold him still, never quite breaking the skin. There would be bruises come the morning though. Bruises on his neck, his hips, his thighs… Alexander's little announcements to the world that he had claimed a mate.
"Do not look at me so. I have already said I was sorry." Alexander did not look up from the letter he was writing at the desk in his room. Probably a letter to Herbert saying he had found his apprentice quite adequate and would be keeping him for a while. Daniel's premonitions of being a bride up for sale had not been unfounded. He dragged a hand that still trembled through his disheveled hair and leaned back into the pile of pillows behind him.
The savagery in the woods had mellowed by the time Alexander had carried him back to Brennenburg. There had not been a soul to see the baron, nude for the world to see, or his nearly comatose lover, his clothing so rent he might as well have been wearing nothing. When Alexander laid him down in his bed it had been followed by soft kisses and even softer caresses. That…that had been pleasurable as well. Daniel had been in such shock he had let himself get carried away with the baron's more tender gestures, clutching Alexander's shoulders and moaning out his desires, each and every one of them being granted post haste.
He drew the sheet up to his chest and tried very hard not to break down into tears. "And do not give into self pity. We did nothing to be ashamed of."
"You're a monster!" Daniel spat out, drawing his legs up to his chest to make himself as small as possible. Alexander looked up at that, his expression carefully neutral.
"Why would you say that?"
"You're a villain, a…a rapist!"
Alexander laughed and looked a bit relieved. "Oh, you are upset over that. I did warn you not to stray from the forest paths, did I not?" He rose to his feet and walked towards the bed. When Daniel did not reply, he continued. "And I told you the consequences of running from me." He sat down on the bed and pried one of Daniel's hands from where it was clutching his knee. He kissed the pulse point of Daniel's wrist and held it up to his cheek, eyes half closing in seeming bliss. "I am happy you ran though, happy you gave me the excuse to declare my intentions earlier than planned."
"Your intentions!" Daniel was dismayed by Alexander's arrogance. "As if I would ever have you after that!"
Alexander pretended not to hear him, possibly did not hear him as he was a man in another world, kissing each of Daniel's knuckles, sucking on the tip of one finger. Daniel shuddered, revolted, and tried to pull his hand back.
"Do you know how old I am?" Daniel shook his head. The baron was no longer making love to his hand, but he kept a tight hold on it. "Do you know what I am?"
Daniel hesitated and then nodded. It was too ridiculous to say out loud, so he settled for, "I think so."
"We are an extremely long lived species. I have been alive almost two centuries and will be so for many more." He waited to see if Daniel would have some response to this. Daniel had seen the man turn from wolf to man, he could proclaim himself from the moon at this point and he would accept it as truth.
"What does that have to do with me?"
Alexander sighed. "Do you have any idea how lonely it is, watching the years pass and doing so alone? No companion to while away one's days with, to share in your-"
"Sir, do get on with it."
Alexander grinned and Daniel drew back at the sight of his teeth. "I am explaining where you come into the equation."
"You are a baron and not an unattractive one. I am sure you do not suffer from lack of…willing companions." He stressed willing.
"But my kind is not prone to dalliances, Daniel. When we take a mate we take one for life and I have never met one worthy of me. Not until I met you."
This was where Daniel was supposed to swoon, he hazarded. Well, unfortunately for the baron he had never been one for romantic twaddle. "You do not know me, sir, as I have stated before. We met at a social function, a money raising event, and you did not even exchange two words with me."
"I did not have to." Alexander's broad palm cupped Daniel's cheek. "I knew you were meant for me."
"You liked the look of me and assumed I would be a pliant bedmate. Well, you have had your fun and I mean to go back to England."
"I had hoped for a different response."
"If you expected something more in your favor, you certainly did go about it the wrong way."
Alexander's smile turned tight. "And do you really comprehend what you will be giving up? I would make you one of my own. The power and agility it brings, not to mention the longevity. Lifetimes, Daniel, to read and study and do whatever takes your fancy. And a mate who will never leave you for another, who will be loyal until his dying breath and adore you for all of his days."
Daniel shuddered. It sounded very much like a version of his own personal hell. To be shut away for lifetimes in this grim castle, as a monstrous concubine to a psychotic lord… To give up his adventures with Herbert, his pursuit of archeology… He shook his head so violently his hair flew about him. "I am sorry, but I must decline. You are asking me to give up everything I have ever known and…I have only just met you. It is too much."
"You poor, sweet dear," Alexander purred, his lips brushing against Daniel's inner arm. "I was not giving you a choice." Sharp teeth sank into his tender flesh and all Daniel could do was watch with horror.
X
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