AN: Thank you for all the favs and the follows!

Pgoodrichboggs: you rock my socks with your reviews!

Remember those warnings before the first chapter? Yeah. There's a reason this story is rated M: Minors who should not be reading NC-17/M rated materials have been warned. Pearl-clutches have also been warned.

I wasn't going to get specific about what kind of triggers were included here, but once I got finished with the chapter, I re-read it and realized that there might be some serious objection. Warning for violence against women. If you can't stomach this, best not read it. My original intent was not to do this direction, but this is what seemed to be the most natural course given the circumstances.

On with the show!

Chapter 12

The fireplace behind Loren crackled and popped, sending extra bursts of warmth at his right shoulder. The sun outside shone through the leaded window panes, but it hadn't quite reached midday and the room had yet to truly warm.

Loren was immersed deep within his mind as he sat unmoving at his vast desk, gazing over scattered communications over various parchments. It occurred to him recently that at one point they had all been neatly managed and organized, yet at the present moment they were strewn about in utter chaos with no rhyme or mien for guidance. What an utterly fitting metaphor for his life at this juncture.

The Lord sighed and rubbed his forehead wearily, allowing his calloused hand up and through his wavy dark hair. He closed his eyes to shut everything else out around him, to just have a moment worth of reprieve from the decisions he needed to make.

In times such as these, it was Ursa he would turn to for bolstering, and to keep a clear head. But after what he'd seen outside the Great Hall this morning….. His brown eyes shot open and he allowed his jealousy to rip through him. Sirius fucking Black. His thoughts were fuming; he should have known. While the great Master Warlock Black was a force to be sought after by all the Houses within the Guild, it was well known libertine where the hearts of women were concerned.

It had been a year since Black had been under their roof, and even then he had counted the times those gray eyes had wandered to his wife when she had looked away, or placed lips to her knuckles for a moment longer than appropriate. Though Ursa was not one to be taken with such subtle overtures, it was only so much a woman could likely fight off. Black was patient and he was driven, and Ursa was a monumental prize. Not only to just Loren, but to any man she might have given her heart to.

The Black name had once carried a great deal of regard and political clout among the society of great Houses and Lords, but it had fallen after a great scandal resulting in the exile of its scion and disappearance into thin air of the remaining heir. In the face of being forced into collusion with the Houses of The United, Sirius Black had chosen exile and abdication of his rightful status as the ascending son. He had struck out on his own with no support, and no means, and had apprenticed himself to a Master of Transfiguration.

Loren sighed again, banishing the turmoils he ruminated over in his mind over old politics. Sirius Black was but a small thorn for him right now, he knew. The greater picture was what he needed to focus on now. He raked his palms out of his hair and wiped at his face, turning his focus away from his petty jealousies over the flirtation with his wife that Warlock Black seemed to intent upon.

At this very moment, in his very home, his children and two wards were undoubtedly engaged in lessons in their Great Hall. Draco and Theodore had been here now long enough to have established a routine and for Warlock Black to have made his return journey over the vast Gresham planes and into the Morvan Mountains, and yet Loren had still not sent any communication to his brethren Houses about the revision to their Dragon riders.

Loren reached for the recent communications from the Houses of McKinnon, Longbottom and Weasley. All of which had diligently included letters of certification for each of their viable choices.

For House McKinnon it was a daughter, around the same age as Tyt'o, named Merrigan. Both the Master Warlock Moody and Necromancer Mora had included their certifications at her advanced achievements in refined spell casting and her interest in earth based magics and traditional blood rituals. Loren read the recommendations, her lists of achievements were impressive and extensive. So many years of toil and hard work had gone into the skills she was told she was going to need, and now all for waste. Loren scoffed in disgust.

It was the same for the Longbottom lad; extensive training and study with Mora, Moody and Black. Top marks, top rated skill levels. Ambition, focus and years of training invested in his potential.

The last cluster of parchment was the one that Loren Gresham felt the keenest sting from; the House of Weasley. The largest and one of the more influential Houses in the Guild, Arthurus had been vying since the years he was himself a youth for a position to apply as a Dragon Rider. Yet, in all the years since those hopes had been sewn, neither Goldoduur nor his mate Imri had so much as hinted that they planned to clutch. Yet Arthurus had trained, and planned. When he married and his wife bore him sons, he had invested in them each, one-by-one, all six sons and one lone daughter, they had all been trained.

Arthurus might not have been able to claim a place to vye for a seat in a clutch circle, but he'd made damned certain that his children would not miss out on the same opportunity. This was his life's work, passed on to his children.

The Lord of Gresham House swore under his breath as he reviewed no less ten and seven certifications for the sum total of seven children of the Weasley House. He let them fall out of his hands back onto the dark wood of his desk and hung his head in his hands again. How would this treachery plan out, in the end, he wondered? Lucius Malfoy had him, no doubt. The contract he had produced was no less legally binding in the year it was signed than it was in the present day. It could be used to embargo the Gresham House, and seclude them in years of legal battle between the two opposing factions. It would be years of counsels and appeals, followed by fines and enforced restitutions. It would bankrupt his lands, and wage famine to his people.

Both Loren and Ursa had vowed that they would do everything to keep Hermione from being taken to a House allied to The United. They had sworn it by their blood as Gresham's and by their sacred place as the keepers and riders of Dragons. Loren shuddered at the realization that were his daughter to be taken to the Malfoys, that she would be as good as lost to Lucius himself. A vile and despicable man, with no revere of regard to anything but power, money, and status. He'd married one of the most beautiful and talented daughters of the great Houses, and had abused her so thusly that she was a mere shell of her young self.

Thinking of Hermione's sweetness and idealistic countenance being poisoned as the Lady Malfoy had made Loren Gresham stricken with a fear he would never admit to another living person. He would summon Goldoduur himself from the very mountains and set forth an assault on the Malfoy lands before he gave that god-damned man his only daughter.

This was nothing short of an absolute disaster. Years and years of people's lives and livelihoods were for nothing now, and still Loren pandered back and forth with how best to give news to each of the Houses.

There was no way that this sort of announcement would be received well in a mere missive. Nor even by way of an emissary. This breech needed to be faced head-on by Loren Gresham personally, and it would have to be done with all Houses present to receive each of their grievances, and address restitutions.

The sound of a creaking door interrupted Loren's raging thoughts, and his head whipped up from where he hung it to see the face of his wife, tentative and nervous, begging a hesitant entry to his personal study. "Enter, wife." he croaked out, and straightened his posture as Ursa tentatively crossed the threshold towards her husband.

Having assumed he'd been able to put away his feelings of jealousy over having come across Sirius holding his wife so closely outside of their Great Hall, he discovered that in her presence he was quite mistaken and he fought with himself as he was unable to look up at her as she walked nearer to him. He was, after all, still only a man.

Ursa had hurried to Loren's study and stood calmly outside collecting herself for as many moments before she'd dared to enter. She didn't wish to convey her nervousness, but she could barely contain the wringing of her hands as she tried to maintain her pace.

"Something the matter, my love?" Loren asked, his tone slightly bitter in his address of her but Ursa didn't pay it any attention. She simply sighed that her husband knew her well enough to see her distress, and pay mention upon it.

"Oh, Loren," she started with a relieved sigh. "I need to speak to you about the lessons. Sir Black-" Loren whipped his head toward her and glared. At the mention of that name, he'd finally snapped under the pressure and this was the final piece that sent him over the edge.

"And what have you to say about him, I wonder?" He asked with a bitter tone. Ursa had stopped just shy of his desk before seating herself opposite, shocked at his outpouring of acidity.

"I'm not certain I follow, Loren." Loren scoffed and scowled a moment.

"I'm sure you do, my lovely wife." He bit out, and she peered at him in confusion yet again. Loren bit back what he wanted to say, realizing he was going to have to bide himself a moment.

"Of course you aren't, dear. I pray then, continue on." He waved his hand at her dismissively, though Ursa maintained her wariness as she continued again, slowly.

"Sir Black has begun his instruction in earnest, pairing the children up with our wards in turns." Loren nodded.

"Excellent. The sooner they begin working through these lessons the better. I trust then they are faring well?" he added, but Ursa shook her head.

"Hermione and Tyt'o did well enough, not showy or conspicuous. They ended well; Hermione won. I just watched our son face off to Draco Malfoy, and not only did he disobey the rules of dueling from Sir Black, he threw a spell once he'd ended the exchange Loren. The spell could have maimed that boy."

Her husband laughed then, taking Ursa by surprised. It was a throaty and full sound, but felt hollow without true mirth. It sounded cruel. "But it didn't, did it?" he countered and she shook her head again. "Then why does it matter that Tyt'o wanted to show him a share of his skill? What does it matter if Malfoy leaves the duel a little worse for wear? Surely Sir Black" he emphasized mockingly. "Had the matter well in hand?"

"Your daughter stepped in and defended him Loren!" Now that caught Loren's attention.

"She did what?"

"Hermione blocked the spell and hit her own brother with it." Now Loren was getting more agitated.

"What in the depths of Hades was Black doing this entire time? Caressing your fingertips as the two of you watched?"

There is was. Ursa flinched noticeably, and lowered her tone immediately. "I beg your pardon, my Lord?" the admonishing tone didn't faze her husband, and he stood to his full height out of his chair, leaning towards her over the desk.

"While our son was practicing his magical technique against a sworn enemy of this House, where in fucking House were you, Ursa?" He demanded, raising his voice to a booming shout. His wife stepped back every slightly.

"My Lord," She began softly, holding her hands up in a pleading manner. "I but sat apart near the fire to watch over the lesson-" she tried imploringly, but Loren advanced undeterred.

"So you mean to tell me that as our son dueled, and threw an underhanded move, you stood by and did nothing? That Black did nothing? Instead our daughter intervened while the two adults -both skilled in their own magic- were dumbstruck into inaction?!" Ursa had backed up in earnest, and she felt a perspiring coolness upon her and a panic roiling out of her middle. Her Lord was positively enraged and had whipped around his desk to cut off her path to the door and force her back until she was pinned against his desk.

Roughly he grabbed his her shoulders and she hissed at the strength in his grip as he squeezed mercilessly. "Where the fuck were you, Ursa?" He growled out, increasing his pressure to cause her to cry out, grabbing at his larger hands to pull him off.

"Loren Please! I was- I was there!" She stammered between whimpers of pain. "I sat at the hearth, I never left! I called for drink from the staff! They will attest that they saw me-" Loren grabbed harder and pushed her backward so she had to leave off his hands to catch herself before she slammed into the top of his desk.

"You are mine, Ursa. You are MY wife!" he snarled into her ear, and for the first time in the years they had been married, Ursa felt terror take ahold of her entire being. Her body kept screaming in pain as Loren's strong hands crushed into the soft flesh around her shoulders. There was no doubt of the bruising that would bloom upon them later. Tears had formed in her eyes, and had begun to well up past her lids she whimpered, and cried out.

"Loren you are hurting me! Stop!" she cried, and he slammer her into the desk, making her voice break. "I would never disgrace you!"

Her Lord's face was pressed into her cheek, dragging ragged breaths from himself his rage rang out. "Black is a lecher and a cad! Don't you think I haven't seen how he looks at you, woman?" Ursa's tears pooled at the bridge of her nose before flowing across her face as she whimpered, her husband's crushing grip keeping her still, his hot breath in her ear and voice ringing her eardrums. She tried to shake her head; she had always been dutiful to him. Faithful. Loving. She knew her husband had a temper, but he had never handled her thusly.

"Please," she whispered finally. "Please Loren-" her voice cracked. "I love you. Only you. There is only you." Ursa reached one of her hands up to his forearm, her eyes clenched and her tears unchecked. As her hand made contact with his forearm her fingers brushed his cheek and Loren's painful grip suddenly relaxed and let her go. Loren remained on top of his wife, crushing her beneath his larger body atop his desk, her form wracked then with the sound of her sobs.

The sound of Loren's ragged breath broke and Ursa parted her tear-filled eyes to look upon her husband. His expression of rage had broken and left only grief and remorse in its stead. His tears and sobbing were all that remained, and she touched his cheek with as much of her palm as she could reach, and Loren wrapped his strong arms around her.

His beautiful wife, the mother of his children; he forced her down upon his desk as though she was no better than a common woman of pleasure, and her cries of pain had been wrought by his hands. He was a goddamned monster. "Gods forgive me Ursa." He implored, stroking her as he wept atop her. Ursa joined him in his outpouring, lifting her head to meet her forehead with his.

In all of their marriage, Loren had never once laid a hand of harm on his wife. She was his most beloved of all things in his life, and in his misguidance he had disgraced, humiliated, and harmed her. He had betrayed his vows to care for her as no other, violating their decrees of marriage. His behavior disgusted him to no end, its foulness lay waste to his mind as all he could hear were the cries of his wife as he'd handled her so despicably.

"My love. My truest, dearest love, please forgive me." He begged and buried his mouth into the nape of her neck, tangling the start of his beard and wetness of his tears into her beautiful brown hair.

The moment of violence and fear had passed, but between her calming tears Ursa's body shook as the high of panic receded and her body tried to purge her of the terror he'd caused her, but she couldn't control herself and couldn't manage to find her own voice.

"I love you. I love you as no other, my one. My only true one." She shuddered deeper, willing her body to soften to him, her husband, but finding herself unable to release herself into his embrace, and unable to push against the bulk of him that covered her. Ursa was pinned down below him and only by his leave would she be released.

The two of them remained laid atop the desk together for what felt like an hour. The light of the sun had crossed from midday into the early afternoon, so she was unable to tell with certainly how much time had passed. Loren held his wife fiercely, whispering apologies over and over to Ursa, murmuring his love and devotion and promises that he would never abuse in such a way again. The two had eventually shifted and flattened themselves along the top of the wood and held each other through quiet promises and soft brushes of their lips.

Meeting his earthly brown eyes, Ursa held Loren's stare to comfort herself in his sincerity, and his soft lips met her own without breaking eye contact. They were uncertain at first, hesitant in the wake of the violence he had committed on her body, but she softened for him.

"I have loved you since before I knew what love was." He whispered to her as he gently brushed against her mouth, opening slightly to taste her sweetness. The weight of him atop her was familiar; so many years of his body entwined in hers imbued her with such familiarity to him. At the feel of his lips entreating hers, she parted her lips for him.

Loren sighed in relief that she accepted his overtures and he tenderly stroked her lips with his own, glancing gently with his tongue. His kisses were so tender, so sweet and gentle, Ursa met his lips with her own, sharing her mouth and tongue as they danced together, returning to each other in their kiss.

Loren smoothed his wife's hair gently as he worshiped her mouth so lovingly, groaning and whispering without end, speaking to her of his love and devotion and Ursa in turn fitted her arms in the small space between them to cup his face in hers as she leaned upward to meet with him, kissing him over and over as she drank in his words.

Loren continued in his gentle caresses of his wife, gently moving from her hair to her clavicle, delicately running his fingertips at the little bits of exposed skin that were available to him and breaking his mouth from hers to rain the softness of his mouth along the bare expanse of her throat, and tops of her shoulders. The sensation washed over her skin, tingling and warm, causing her hips to roll just slightly with it as it moved across her, and pulled a low moan from Loren's mouth as he pulled so carefully along the shoulder of her dress to expose her shoulder.

With his own eyes, he could see the damage he had delivered her; several large bruises were already blooming along her perfect skin where he'd gripped her. He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, admonishing himself at his repulsive behavior, and lathed her over and over again tenderly, ministering to the blemishes with his lips and hints of his tongue. He was no monster, this woman was his truest love, and he would make recompense to her for the rest of his life if he needed to.

Ursa breathed deeply and moaned at Loren's tenderness, the wet trails from the traces of his tongue igniting along her uncovered skin and the cool of his breath. Just above the bone of her hips, she felt him roll his hardened length into her as he drug himself lower still to rub himself at the more intimate part of her.

"Aaaaaaaah." she sighed as Loren gently slid the fabric covering her shoulders down, smoothly and methodically rubbing himself between her legs as he did. His kisses and the attentions of his tongue never ended as while he exposed more and more of her warm, soft skin, paying benediction to every inch that he could reach. Ursa melted into the wood beneath her as her husband loved her endlessly with his attentions.

With a little tug, he pulled the cloth of her dress down over her beautiful breasts, exposing them to the air. Ursa gasp at the sudden change of temperature, pebbling her skin, Loren sunk into the flesh of her breasts with abandon. He lapped, kissed, and suckled at them tenderly, leaving his wife to begin a writhing motion that matched his own. Gentle and unhurried rolls started in her hips, keeping time with his own hardness that was rubbing ceaselessly between her legs, exciting her.

Loren released the the cloth of her gown and cupped her beautiful soft breasts with reverence as he paid each of them in turn their proper exaltation. He lapped carefully at her perfectly shaped dusky areola with the flat of his tongue, avoiding her taut and aching nipple, and she arched into his mouth to try to push herself toward him. Refusing to deny her, he swirled and suckled around her once, twice, and continuously and she moaned deeply as he flicked his tongue over her hard nipple while he suckled softly.

Ursa's arms had been pinned inside the long sleeves of her gown, and she tried to ease them out, to reach for her husband, to feel her limbs free to explore and express to him how utterly divine his touch felt on her body. Loren smiled as he turned his attention to her other breast, and lightly played at the nipple of the one he had just left. Ursa could not possibly contain the gasping and panting, and mounting tension which drove her on and on beneath him, and he lapped it up as surely as he lapped his tongue along her. Over, and over he licked, and played with her, keeping the rhythm between their hips steady. "Oh gods Loren," Ursa whispered. "Oh please." she absolutely ached for him, to feel him all over her.

Freeing his hands, he smoothed them down the long folds of her gown, pulling it up foot by foot until he grasp at the hem and found the smooth expanses of her calves. He sighed as he continued his ritual to the flesh of her breasts, and the soft skin between them, cupping the back of her legs and slowly moving them up her body. Finally finding the freedom from her sleeves, she wove her hands through his dark wavy hair, running her nails sensuously along his scalp and down his shoulders, urging him further.

Loren very methodically eased his hands further, coordinating his body movements between the suckling of her breasts, to the teasing of her nipples, a rolling thrust of his hips as he continued to bring her tension higher and higher, his hands moving along the backs of her thighs, curling his fingers further under to find her delicate seam from underneath.

Oh, how Loren adored her body! Never breaking his pressure between their hips, he reached his hands to the ties of her undergarments and pulled the ties away, guiding the cloth from her hips. He released her succulent breast from his mouth with a soft pop and trailed kisses up her throat to her chin, whispering to her "You are as sweet as life itself, my heart, let me taste your sweetness." Ursa could barely breathe, but nodded her agreement and eased her body back lifting her hands above her head, while Loren journeyed back along her skin, paying attention at every place possible.

Free from restriction beneath her gown, Loren cupped his left hand around the back of her leg to cup her cheek, and slowly, teasingly swiped along the soft lips of her seam with his other hand. The sensation of his touch sent Ursa nearly out of her own body as she gasped in pleasure. Once, twice, and he would pause, causing her to bow her back up as she gasped and panted, her noises nonsensical and filled with ecstasy.

With a careful motion, Loren worked the ties of his breeches free in the pause between his ministrations and freed himself into the open air. His length bounded free with exuberance, and he coated the tips of his two fingers in his mouth to return them beneath the hidden reaches of his wifes beautiful body. Finding her wet outer lips, he tenderly touched them, moving his fingers upward through them gently, once, and again, making her writhe so beautifully.

Such a beautiful creature she was there, beneath him. Her long hair flowing freely all around her in shining waves like a creature of pure light. Her sensuous skin glowing in the sun, exposed so in the air of the room, her perfect lips parted and panting, begging and wanting for him to continue with his play of her body.

Running along her slick inner folds, he teased her canal delving only slightly into it to wet his fingers upon her, and traveling upward using the wetness to work her sensitive bundle at the peak of her lips. Ursa gasp and lifted from the top of his desk as his calloused hands gently tendered to her soft and responsive clit over and over with methodical gentility. With the hand holding beneath her leg, his fingers could just reach his throbbing length and he angled the swelling of his end to gentle probe along her opening, which was soaked completely with her juices.

Loren knew every inch of Ursa's body, and how best to make it sing for him. He plied every ounce of himself to his task and worked his fingers over her delicious tender numb as he tantalised her with the tip of his prick. All the while Ursa moaned over and over, writhing endlessly as he worked tirelessly to bring her pleasure, to worship and adore her beautiful body. To drink in the soft sounds of her moans and pleas for release. He feasted his eyes on her hooded eyes, drunken with lust and her steadily approaching climax. Onward he worked her, dipping only briefly back to her entrance to secure her wetness again as he circled her again and again, and she begged him in return not to stop.

The tension in her hips started as the pattern of her writhing changed and slowed for only a few moments. She was so close, and Loren knew it. He steadied himself with only his tip moving inside the entrance to her heated and soaking core, her juices covering the end of his cock as he burned to bury it deep within her body, to feel her softness all around him as he plunged into her. The mark of her orgasm was marked with a long intake of breath, and she cried suddenly "Come into me! Oh, come! Come!" She cried. Loren could scarecly refuse, and he plunged in her as his fingers never left her, pushing her further as she crested the wave of her shuddering climax, the walls of her softness closed all around his hardness and he plunged slowly and rhythmically, mimicking the sensation of her fluttering walls as she gasped and cried.

As the waves crashed over her repeatedly, Loren softened his favor of her perfect pearl until he was barely touching her and increased his pace within her as the orgasm reached its culmination. Beneath him his exquisite wife rolled and writhed in the joy of sensation he had performed and he loved every moment he witnesses as she soaked it up.

Continuing on his light touched, little waves continued as he pumped himself into her, grunting his delight, and thrusting just so as the tip of him met with the very depths inside her. She gasped each time, and lauded how delightful it felt for him to reach that part within her.

Their eyes met as he thrust again and again, his long hair waving along his face as he concentrated solely on her, on her beautiful face and sublime figure. Loren knew he wouldn't last long looking at her like this, and he didn't want to either. He longed to fill his beloved with his seed, to explode within her and have her wrapped around every part of him she could touch.

She rocked her hips into him in time with his thrusts into her, and she reached up with her arms to smooth them down his own, to connect with him. It was perfection. She was perfection. He felt his orgasm rolling on and he cried her name as he leaned down to her to claim her lips as his hands secured her hips and his thrusts shallowed and became erratic. His hot ejaculate pumping over and over to him as he gasp for breath between kissed until he stilled himself, and met his forehead with hers. His hands cupping her jaw, leaning over her form in her now-disheveled dress.

As they came down from their respective highs and their vision cleared, the stared at the other as they panted. Ursa smiled and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, easing him upon her bared breasts and she kissed him again, and for a moment she was afraid to speak first.

Her husband smiled at her, his familiar scent filled her with reminders of his love and their care for each other, and he knew then that he was forgiven. Ursa tightened him into her embrace, and they basked in the sunlight together.