"Checkmate." Fenrir growled, driving his cock hard into Ash's fiery depths from behind.

"Show off...ungh god…" she moaned loudly with his next thrust.

What do I get if I win, he'd asked cheekily at the beginning of their second game night. Not a damn thing, she'd insisted that night and the next, through straight losses on his part. Overconfident and thinking the wolf would lose yet again, on the next visit she'd finally agreed to let Fenrir choose his prize.

His strong hands slid up the underside of Ash's body, on her hands and knees before him, the chess board forgotten beneath her, pieces scattered to and fro. She pressed her ass back against him demandingly when he paused mid-thrust to fondle her breasts and pluck at her erect nipples. There was a saying that anything more than a handful was wasted but they were wrong, a man needed a little something extra to dig his claws into.

"You shouldn't have left the rules with me." Fenrir taunted, using his hold on her breasts to pull her roughly into his next drive.

Chess, his new favorite game.

"You stole those!" she accused, unable to hide her shock.

Ash turned her head to give him a 'disapproving' look just as he twisted his hips slightly and thrust again, giving Fenrir the distinct pleasure of watching her expression change from one of shock to one of ecstasy. The wolf leaned his shins against the bed frame and bowed himself over her back, enjoying the feel of her round curves and the way they fit perfectly to his hips with every thrust.

"Soooo you won, whatever will you do with me?" Ashling purred, reaching beneath herself to squeeze his firm balls, suddenly finding herself wanting to be dominated by the crafty wolf. He'd wanted her badly enough to steal and study the boring chess rules, making her a conquest of sorts. And the excitement she felt over that fact had no equal.

The wolf grunted in surprised pleasure but didn't let the shock slow him down. Ash squeaked, equally surprised, when a large, calloused hand suddenly wrapped itself around her throat from behind and pulled her upright. For a long moment Fenrir didn't move or say anything, cock still throbbing deep inside her. Then a low, rumbling growl bubbled up from his muscled chest and he thrust powerfully once.

"You're mine little temptress." he growled, sending excited shivers up Ash's spine. His free hand scratched its way down her torso, leaving a trail of blazing, red tracks down to her pelvis where he roughly shoved a finger between her hot, moist lips. "Say it."

The finger began slowly curling against her clit, beckoning the witch to do as he pleased. Despite the urging of her pleasured body, Ash wasn't ready to succumb to Fenrir, she wanted more. She wanted to see him as hungry and desperate as she felt.

"I'll say it when you earn it." she challenged, turning her head to meet his lustful, wanton eyes.

"When you're begging me to let you cum, you'll say it." Fenrir growled huskily in her ear and nipped her neck hard enough to draw blood.

He withdrew and roughly pushed Ashling down flat on her front, shoving her knees forward, submissive now before the alpha. Once again she'd awoken his beast and had it been a full moon he would have marked her then and there without a second thought.

One of the kings rolling around on the bed caught his eye and Fenrir couldn't resist rubbing his win in a little more. He snatched it up and dangled it before her eyes for a moment before easing it into her tight core. Ash drew in a sharp breath at the cold invasion piloted by hot fingers and moaned his name almost unconsciously. Gods it felt so bloody good and her body was trembling with the need for release. Without her even realizing it, he'd made her forget everything she was and wasn't supposed to be doing and the degree of separation she'd ordered herself to keep. All of it gone, swept away by his arousing nature, slipping further and further by the day. She reached back for his large, rough hand, desperate for friction but he grabbed her wrist and pinned it to her back.

"Touch me Fenrir." she pouted.

She loved his hands, the way she felt every slight movement as they rasped across her naked flesh and how they demanded a response from her body.

Behind her the wolf chuckled. "I can't touch what isn't mine."

He pulled the king out, to Ash's immense dismay and placed a soft, teasing kiss on her ass cheek. Never in her life had she wanted so desperately to be touched, manhandled and fucked. The need was overwhelming and she knew he was going to make her beg. She tried to push herself up, wanting to entice Fenrir, to stroke him, to take control and climb him if she had to, but he shoved her back down. He leaned down, breath hot against her spine and licked his way up.

"You know what to say beautiful…" he prompted in a voice that was both hard and soft, goading and tempting all at once.

"I'm yours." she softly conceded, unable to stand the yearning a moment longer.

Fenrir clucked his tongue against his teeth in a sign that she hadn't done good enough. "Louder." he demanded, lips ghosting over her flesh this time.

"I'm yours!" the witch growled in reply. "Fuck me, now Fenrir now."

And then there were hands on her hips, pulling her back against a rock hard, throbbing cock. Her heart fluttered as Fenrir thrust home again and again, driving Ash into an explosive orgasm before spending himself in her quivering folds.

Hours later he still couldn't get Ashling off his overwrought mind. Gods, the things she let me do to her, he thought, eyes rolling back into his head, no one had ever been so trusting or so fearless in his presence. Had Fenrir wanted to, he could have crushed her windpipe without batting an eye. Ash was no fool, she'd known it but he hadn't sensed or smelled a whiff of fear on her perfect body. How could one woman so easily reach the utter opposite ends of him? With seemingly little effort she tugged at heartstrings he hadn't known existed and in turn drew out his beast form. She reached every spectrum, from the warm fuzzies to his cold possessiveness and didn't even know it.

Ash...I have feelings for you.

No, that was weak. I have feelings for you...ok, what kind of feelings? Tell her what kind. Except he didn't know what kind, he lacked the words that came so easily to others. Before Ashling, Fenrir felt either like or dislike, mostly the latter and it was usually extreme dislike.

I care about you Ashling.

No, he couldn't just out and say it like that. Clearly she didn't desire the warm and fuzzy nuclear family or she wouldn't have chosen him. Fenrir sighed and briskly rubbed his scruffy face in frustration. He'd been staring at the damp, mildewy ceiling for hours hoping for answers, the talk from his cellmates nothing but an annoying buzz in his ears. But the dungeon-like atmosphere spoke everything except the language of love.

Love?

There was a word that had never crossed his mind, or his lips for that matter. Was that what he was feeling?

No. No, whether it was or not, he couldn't say that word to Ash. She would run screaming. And yet his mind refused to let the word go and it just bounced around his brain mercilessly. Love.

I love you Ashling.

It sounded utterly ridiculous in his head but it sort of felt right at the same time and gave him the extraordinarily uncomfortable feeling he'd been suffering since he'd met her. Still the thought persisted, Ash felt right, perhaps the feelings she evoked were right too.

What? No. No, no, no, no! When had the fucking glamour failed? Ash stared at the reflection of the bruised, swollen flesh on her neck in absolute horror. It should have lasted all day, her spells never failed. Oh fuck, had anyone seen it? Yeah, of course they had, it was glaringly obvious. Teeth marks with bruising around them, a hickie from their second go around; because somehow Fenrir always managed to find out what drove her insane; and several sizely fingerprints. That would be why Tomas had looked at her like an alien and avoided eye contact for the rest of the day. The witch took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hands gripping the edge of the sink like a lifeline.

"What am I doing?" she asked aloud.

Granted, it was too personal a thing to be as clear cut and cold as she'd first promised herself it would be. Clearly having sex and making a child was a very personal thing, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise. But this was going too far, love bites and hickeys? They were acting like teenagers. You have to stop this, Ashling told herself, you have to stop this before something drastic happens...like feelings. But then her mind slipped off, as it always did, thinking about his warm embrace and how good it felt to be…cared for…

Fuck. Cared for? Yes, Ash confirmed after a long moment of thought, she really did feel cared for when they were together. The way he held her and stroked her hair, the soft gleam in his steely eyes that was beginning to look like it belonged there. And just that morning she'd caught herself actually looking forward to seeing Fenrir.

But as always, Ash was of two minds, though she was abnormally reluctant to face this half, and knew that care for was a relative term with a man like him, a killer, a criminal. How capable was he of having actual feelings? He probably didn't care for her at all, he wanted sex, wanted to feel normal behind bars, something any woman would have done for. Maybe he was hoping Ash would get sentimental and fight for his freedom, he was just using her. That line of thinking didn't seem unreasonable. She couldn't judge him for that, because she was guilty of the very same thing, but it meant that he didn't have feelings for her. Inexplicably, that thought hit her like a fist to the belly and she floundered as the air was forced from her lungs, stunned and hurt.

Ash sucked in a raspy breath and let it go in a deep sigh, ashamed of the tears stinging her eyes. Why did this have to be so hard? For all her thinking and planning and promising, nothing was turning out the way it was supposed to. With Sean everything had been so simple, so straight forward, so true. Life with him had been wonderful, ups and downs had been navigated with honesty and guided by his calm demeanor. Of course, Ash hadn't been closed off or damaged like she felt now. Also that relationship hadn't been built on having a baby to repay a debt with a career criminal…

Aaaaand she was back at the beginning of the thought rotation from hell.