Disclaimer: I do not own the Fable universe. Characters you do not recognize were created by me for the purposes of this story. Story contains scenes of a very mature nature, do not continue if anything of that nature could offend you (sex, violence, sub/dom, non-con). This story will be quite dark at times, you have been warned.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and for the lovely reviews that have been left! I am sorry this update took so long. I re-wrote it numerous times and am only just now happy with it :) I hope you find it worth the wait - Fallon.

Chapter Twenty-One

Von leaned over her, placing a knee between Maya's parted legs to steady himself as he trailed kisses along her neck. When he was satisfied every inch of her neck had been given equal attention, he crashed his lips to hers.

Von wanted her in every way.

He could feel her hesitation, sense her fears, and he forced himself to calm down and gain control of his senses so he could proceed at a pace she was comfortable with. He reminded himself of his "promise" to remain over the fabric of her blouse.

Maya nibbled on his lower lip and he shuddered.

He smelled something new from her, something he hoped had been there all along – desire.

So close, her scent was completely intoxicating – far more than any tavern ale or fine wine he'd ever tasted. The feel of her skin under his lips, under his finger tips...it was enough to drive a lesser man to the brink of insanity and beyond.

He pulled back and closed his eyes, furrowing his brow, as he hurried to filter everything he was experiencing.

Never had he experienced such dizzying, overwhelming feelings before and he was at a loss regarding how to deal with them – and that made him feel horribly inadequate, a poor choice as a potential mate.

And that was the worst fate for a male to be faced with.

"Von?" Maya questioned, confused and worried by the abrupt end to the bliss that was being lavished upon her.

His eyes remained closed, "I-I...I'm sorry." He pulled himself off of her and shamefully hung his head, certain he had ruined the moment with her and perhaps more.

Maya sat up and watched him, hoping he'd open his eyes, "I thought you were going to take my mind off of everything?" She asked with a smile.

But Von didn't see it, "I-I am sorry, Princess, I thought I could do this...but I fear I'm not as strong as I'd hoped."

She could tell he was pained, but at the same time she was rather frustrated.

After resisting for so long, she had relented some, only to have him pull back. The growing warmth between her legs and the feeling in her heart demanded to be dealt with.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Maya crawled in front of him and nudged his knees apart.

Von's eyes shot open and he stared at her in a panic. The scent of her desire, of her need, was so strong his head was spinning.

Maya wasn't deterred though. She wasn't going to let him leave without fulfilling what he'd promised her – an escape from her worries.

She pressed a hand to his chest and gently pushed him onto his back.

He whimpered, but gave no resistance.

There were a hundred things she wanted to tell him, but her lips refused to move. Instead, she hoped to tell him everything through actions.

She touched the sides of his chest and smiled when he jumped, "Ticklish?"

He said nothing, but his breathing was laboured.

Eager yet unsure of what would please him, Maya kissed his stomach. Even with the fabric of his shirt between them, she could feel the heat from his skin against her lips.

She continued up at a slow pace, enjoying the feeling of his muscles tightening under her touch.

When she finally reached his exposed neck, she pressed a delicate kiss under his chin, "Won't you say something?"

A moan escaped his parted lips.

She freed the top few buttons of his shirt and pressed more nervous kisses to the nape of his neck. The newly ignited desire within her was surging, panicking for some sort of reaction from him.

She ran her tongue across his neck and got what she was looking for.

Von moaned and his head rolled back, exposing more of his neck to her.

Grasping the lapels of his coat, she pressed herself to him as she continued to flick her tongue across his flesh. She was rewarded with frequent groans from the pinned balverine.

Maya gently sucked on the curve of his neck and he bucked under her.

He bent his knees as he writhed, and his thigh pressed up firmly, if not suddenly, between Maya's legs. The contact sent a bolt of warmth across her womanhood that stopped her in her tracks.

She whimpered and Von reached up to touch her face, "Go ahead..."

Maya blushed and pushed her hips down, rubbing her crotch against his thigh. The pressure against her womanhood was just what she needed and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. She felt dirty for doing it, but it felt too good to stop.

Her bloomers were soon saturated.

Von pushed his thigh against her as she rocked and watched her face contort in pleasure. He could tell she was trying to restrain herself, and that she was embarrassed. But to him she was absolutely stunning and he was more than willing to allow her to continue.

Maya whimpered above him. She was so sensitive, he wondered...but no, could she be an innocent?

He ran his hands from her shoulders, down her sides and to her hips. His fingers hesitated at the hem of her blouse, wanting nothing more than to rip it from her body.

The warmth between her legs was getting almost unbearable and she was desperate for more. Maya slipped her leg over him, straddling him, and continued her gentle but needy motions. She blushed as the rather large bulge in his trousers pressed against her most sensitive area. To know that she was inciting such a response from her left her with a strange sense of pride, but also fear.

Von struggled to stifle a growl and conceal his sharpened incisors as he gasped. She was pushing too many of his buttons at once, and he couldn't hold himself back much longer.

He grabbed her hips as she rocked forward and held her still, "Maya..."

"Please," she gasped, "don't make me stop."

His hips lifted of their own accord and both groaned.

"We can go no further..." Von insisted as his grip on her tightened.

Maya nibbled her lip as she thought, but ultimately grabbed the hem of her blouse and hiked it up and over her head.

His chest tightened and his erection throbbed.

Her breasts were tightly bound down, but he longed to free them. Blue swirls glowed across her stomach, twisting and twirling down and past the waistband of her bloomers. Seeing her so exposed only made him want to comfort her more.

Von whimpered at the sight of her, "H-Have mercy, my love..."

Maya blushed and leaned down so their noses touched, "You said you'd ease my worries...so ease them...please."

"I will," he managed to say, "but I...I can't claim you as I'd like."

He wanted to show her exactly how much he loved her, but something was holding him back – something he'd only just realized.

"Why not?" Maya asked in a panic, becoming horribly embarrassed by her display.

Von caressed her cheek, "You've never been with a man before, haven't you?"

She shrunk against him.

Humiliated, Maya eased herself off of him and reached for her blouse with tears in her eyes. She had tried to hide her lack of experience, but clearly she'd been fumbling too much.

Von grabbed her arm and pulled her back, "Maya -"

"If I my touch was so unlikeable you could have had the decency to say so before I..I..." She couldn't even bring herself to say aloud what she had done. Rubbing herself against him, straddling him, removing her blouse...she was no better than a whore on the corner.

Growling, Von jerked her back against him and grabbed her hand.

Maya gasped as he pressed her hand against his aching erection.

"Your touch drives me wild," he whispered huskily into her ear, "don't think for a moment that I do not enjoy it."

Inhaling sharply, Maya licked his neck and rubbed her hand over his sizable bulge, "Then don't make me stop, Von."

He groaned as she slowly cupped him before nervously fumbling with his belt, "We can't...I-I haven't marked you..."

Maya kissed his parted lips, "Marked me?" She continued petting him as she spoke.

"Every mated pair marks each other through a scratch or a bite," he explained through clenched teeth, "to...to seal their bond and...gods, you need to stop that."

She smiled, having finally worked the clasp of his belt loose, "Then mark me."

He cupped her cheek, running his thumb over her lips, "But you haven't seen me in my true form...and when you do..." He couldn't even bare to finish his thought.

Turning from human to balverine was a painful, humiliating transformation. He didn't want her to see him like that, as a monster. He didn't want it to push her away. If he lost her, if she ran away in fear or disgust, he doubted he could live with himself. But not marking her was out of the question. He hadn't marked Seraphina, hadn't told her the truth, and had paid terribly for it.

Fate had conspired against him for betraying the ways of his true self, his balverine self, and he couldn't afford to make that mistake again. She meant far too much to him for him to risk in such a way.

"Maya," he searched for the right words, running his hand through his hair, "I can't lose you...what I mean is..."

She watched him fumble with his words, patiently waiting for him to continue. As strong as her arousal was at the moment, she could tell he was struggling with something important.

Von sighed, "What I'm trying to tell you is...that I want you to be my mate."

Her eyes opened wide, "You mean...you wouldn't leave if I...if we..."

She didn't know how to phrase it. There was really no way of telling him politely that she feared he'd make love to her and then leave. But growing up in the castle, hearing the ladies gossip...it did happen.

"No," he said with a grin, "I wouldn't leave you in the morning if we spent the night together. The reason I can't mark you now, why I can't love you completely, is because you have yet to see my true form. If I mark you, we're bound together. If you hate what you see when I turn...I want you to have a way out. I can't sully you like that."

She touched his cheek, "Von..."

"I don't like what I am, Maya," he lamented as he twirled a strand of her hair around his finger, "and I'd change in an instant to make things easier for us if I could. Even if you still want me to mark you after you see what I am, I doubt those closest to you will approve of your choice of mate..."

He had a point, as much as she hated to admit it. Walter, Ben, Jasper...Albion...would they accept a balverine standing beside their queen?

Even if they did, by some strange chance, surely there would be other consequences.

Would one outlive the other? How would the blood of a hero mix with that of a balverine?

Von sighed, a sad yet contented smile on his lips, "We don't need to consider everything just now, Maya. I just don't want to bind you to a problem, you're going to have enough pressures around you when we return to Albion."

Knowing he was right, Maya rolled over and nuzzled up against him. She wished she could just run away with him and they could spend the rest of their days in seclusion, but fate had a different plan for her.

She smiled despite it all and kissed his chin, "And to think I feared it was my lack of experience that upset you."

Von chuckled, "You are foolish to think such a thing."

His words eased some of her nerves and she sat on her knees as she fumbled to put her blouse back on.

He pouted, "Have I said something wrong?"

Maya gave him a puzzled look, "No...why do you ask?"

"You're covering up," Von reached out to rub along the curve of her hip.

She glanced down and saw that, despite the pause in their activities, he was still hard.

"I thought you wouldn't claim me?" She asked, sinking down against him so her chest pressed against his.

Von ran the tips of his fingers over the top of her breasts, "There are...other ways in which I can pleasure you, my love."

Maya trembled in anticipation.

Smiling, Von eased her on top of him, having her assume the position she held earlier.

Happy to be back on top, Maya looked down at him with a coy grin upon her lips, "Now what, oh handsome teacher of mine?"

He slipped his fingers under the leg of her bloomers, playfully rubbing along her thigh, "Patience, my princess, I do not wish to rush this moment for the world..."

She blushed, his sweet words only adding to her desire, and slipped her hand down between them.

Von groaned as she brushed aside the clasp of his belt and started on the buttons. He playfully swatted her hand away and cupped her through the fabric of her bloomers. Her arousal had saturated the fine cotton, and he could trace the outer lips of her womanhood with ease.

Maya whimpered and grinded against his hand. Her excitement embarrassed her, but Von seemed pleased with it.

He pressed his finger along the seam of her lips and she leaned forward, placing a hand on either side of his head to brace herself as she quivered.

Von withdrew his hand and Maya opened her eyes, looking at him for some sort of explanation.

He gazed at her with hungry eyes, hooking his fingers under the bindings around her chest and tugging.

"How is this fair?" She asked in a hurried whisper, "That I should be so bare, and you not?"

Happy to oblige her, Von sat up just enough to shrug out of his coat. He quickly unfastened the majority of the buttons of his shirt and pulled it over his head, the buttons he had missed popping free as he did so.

His chest finally bare to her, Maya drank up the sight of him.

A modest amount of curly black hair ran down the center of his chest and disappeared under the waistband of his trousers. To her sadness, scars were plentiful along his soft flesh. She pressed her hands to his chest and gently toyed with the curls of hair near his nipples.

Von's hands returned to the tightly bound wrappings around her chest, "You have no idea how you tease me so..."

Maya whimpered nervously, "V-Von..."

"Ever since that night in the tavern..." he said as he raised his hips, "I've wanted to see more of you, Maya."

She gasped as his tugs on the bindings became more desperate, "I...I was mortified that night," She confessed, the blush on her cheeks intensifying.

"Why?"

"I was afraid," she grinded hard against him, "about what you thought of me..."

He smiled, still struggling to free her, "You were stunning...and you still are, Maya."

"Hmm," she moaned, "such things you say..."

"I speak the truth..."

Von gave one last frustrated tug and finally forced the bindings down.

Maya gasped and sat up, trying to cover her exposed breasts.

He sat up with her and grabbed her wrists, "Let me see you, my love..."

She whimpered as he pried her arms from across her chest, the cool air and his gaze sending a shiver down her spine.

With a low groan, Von cupped her breast and brought her nipple to his lips, "So soft..."

He flicked her hard bud with his tongue, tracing circles slowly around it before capturing it with his lips. His sucks started off gentle, but soon became more needy. He caressed her other breast with his free hand, gently pinching her nipple as he roughly sucked her.

Maya's head rolled back as she moaned.

Never had she thought her breasts could be so sensitive, or that something so embarrassing could be so heavenly at the same time. She wanted to hide but she couldn't bare the thought of him stopping.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, intent on keeping him where he was.

Encouraged by her hold on him, Von snaked a hand down between them to the waistband of her bloomers.

Maya jumped slightly. She knew she was horribly wet and that Von could no doubt smell it on her. Still, she feared he'd not like the feel of her once the fabric had been cast aside.

"Maya?"

She forced herself to make eye contact with him, "Hmm?"

"May I continue?" He slipped a finger under the waistband so she knew what he was asking.

She looked away from him, pretending to be interested with something on the bed, "I...I doubt you'll like the feel of me..."

"I have yet to see a part of you I don't like, Maya."

She didn't look convinced.

Von sighed and kissed the top of her breasts, "You have nothing to be ashamed of, Maya. Let me relieve your ache..."

He knew why she was embarrassed, and wished to quell her insecurities and fears. He wanted to feel just how wet she was, how ready she was for the heat of his touch.

The ache intensified and she inhaled sharply, "Y-You'll be gentle?"

The softness of her voice was matched only by the feel of her skin. He smiled and kissed her chin, "With you, always."

Maya thought for a moment, and he allowed her it.

Finally, she nodded.

Von watched her keenly, waiting to see that moment when she gasped at his touch.

His fingers slipped under her bloomers and toyed with the curls upon her womanhood.

Maya closed her eyes and whimpered through pursed lips.

He cupped her, allowing her to grow accustomed to the feel of a man's hand on her most sensitive area. When she relaxed against him, he parted her with his fingers and ran a single digit down her sopping slit.

Maya gasped and bucked against him, moaning his name at the sudden contact.

"Everything is fine, my love," he assured her, "there is nothing wrong with you..."

She dug her nails into his shoulders, "B-But...it feels so strange..."

"You're just excited, you like what I'm doing to you..."

It felt like a fire had been put to every nerve between her legs. She arched her back, "Oh, gods, I do!"

He flicked his finger over her swollen clit and watched her spasm.

"V-Von...w-what..."

He rubbed circles around the tiny bundle of nerves, "Forget about everything for tonight, my love..."

She whimpered, the huskiness of his voice doing nothing to dam the flow of her juices.

His fingers pressed firmly to her clit,Von captured her nipple with his lips and sucked.

Maya's eyes shot open. He was making her see stars. She blinked, but they remained.

"Von!"

He dipped a single finger down and prodded her opening. Her arousal coating his fingers, he slipped into her easily.

She leaned against him and lifted her hips up at the sudden intrusion.

He pressed his lips to her ear, "Relax your body."

Maya nodded and tried to do as he said.

"Good..." He breathed against her neck.

Von crooked his finger against her velvety walls and flicked.

She bit his shoulder to stifle her moan.

The stinging of her teeth digging into his flesh sent a rush through him like nothing he'd ever experienced. It was primal, like the balverine inside of him.

Dizzy with lust, Von forced another finger into her.

Maya felt the stinging pang and bit down harder.

His fingers pulsing in and out of her, the stinging was soon replaced with a growing pressure and warmth.

His incisors now long enough to slip past his closed lips, he rested his head on her shoulder to hide them from her. Her bucking, her moans, the scent of her arousal...it was all so much.

Maya braced herself and rocked against his hand. Her womanhood felt swollen and hot, and a coil of fire was tightening in her stomach.

Von seemed to sense what she was feeling and rolled forward so she fell onto her back.

He loomed over her, one hand painfully groping her breasts as he suckled her. He pounded his fingers into her harder than before in a desperate rush to send her over the edge.

Her lips parted in a silent scream, Maya arched her back as a wave of fluid gushed from her.

Von panted into the crook of her neck, his affections having left her nipples sore and coated in a sheen of his saliva. He removed his fingers and Maya let out a strangled groan.

Her sopping opening stung, but the blanket of pleasure Von had given her dulled it beautifully.

She snapped back to her senses just as Von tugged her bloomers from her completely.

Weak and dizzy from the bliss he'd just given her, she sluggishly looked down at him, "Are you not d-done with me yet, V-Von?"

He nudged her legs apart and kissed the inside of her thighs, "I hurt you..."

Maya swallowed hard and shook her head, "You did nothing of the sort."

He rubbed her legs, easing them further apart, "Nonetheless, let me clean you up."

"What do you -"

He parted her slick folds and pressed his tongue to her.

Maya gasped and reached down, trying to close her legs all the while.

Von glanced up so as to reassure her, but succeeded only in revealing the long, sharp incisors poking out from his lips.

Before Maya even had a chance to react, Von pushed himself away from her and scurried to find his shirt and coat in the mess around them.

Naked, but not wanting him to leave, Maya stood up and caught him in an embrace. She pressed kisses to his scarred back and struggled to hold onto him.

"I never should have come," he insisted, "you were crying and upset...I-I took advantage of you." He cursed under his breath, "I'm a monster..."

"So what," Maya said as tears brewed in her eyes, "you'll just leave me? Do you really think I'll feel better if you go out that door? After everything that just happened?"

Von hung his head.

"You're not going to scare me away, Von..."

Stray tears fell silently down his cheeks, "You say that now..." But what would she say when he'd be forced to turn all the way in the final battle?

Maya slipped around him. She pressed her hands to his chest, stood on the tips of her toes, and kissed him. She could taste the salty tears on his lips. She realized that he had come to her in order to soothe her fears, but that he very much needed some of the same.

Von covered her with his coat and toyed with a lock of her hair. He seemed to be deep in thought, but Maya was just happy he hadn't left.

He leaned down, pressing his forehead to her's, "I hope you're right, I hope you don't hate me after I...I..." he sighed, not wanting to even speak the words, "and if you still want me to mark you then, I will. But you've already marked me, Princess, and I do not regret coming here this night."

She rested her head against his warm chest. There was still so much uncertainty before them, but she knew in her heart that she loved him, that she'd give anything to be with him.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" She whispered softly.

Von chuckled and ran his fingers through her hair, "Do you think that wise? I am sure Walter would faint if he saw us leaving your house together in the morning."

"I don't care who sees us," she kissed his chest, "I would just very much like to have you by my side tonight...everything seems less darker when you're near."

He kissed the top of her head, breathing in her scent in the process, "Then I shall stay, my princess."