Princess Wilde

by naiad8

Sofia grows into a young woman with yearnings that are not exactly human. Who was her father anyway? What has his legacy given to her, and who will guide her through the fire?

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Sofia's POV

That night seemed like a dream – one that subtly changed my view of the world over the coming months. I remember waking up with a smile and his name on my lips. Then my stomach grumbled loudly, and my eyes flew open in embarrassment. But Cedric wasn't next to me, waiting to teach me more about pleasure – ready to love me more. I was alone in my bedchamber, sweaty and sticky and hungry enough to eat my weight in chocolate croissants.

Had it all been a dream? I'd been thinking of Cedric in inappropriate ways for months, but this – this was beyond my wildest dreams. I'd imagined kisses, and I'd learned to touch myself and thought vaguely of him touching me too, but I'd had no idea my body could feel like that, that I could let go so completely, make noises like that, feel so out of control and love every second.

I was a Good Girl. I took my responsibilities seriously, and only strayed from the rules when it was particularly important for the greater good. I raised a hand to my Amulet, which had been remarkably quiet all throughout the intense experience of last night. I had returned to my rooms after dinner, ready to dress in my Forest clothes and run as a wolf under the full Moon with my sorcerer. I remember being almost giddy – desperate to run with him through the trees, wrestle a bit. I imagined us Changing back, him on top of me, his shirt open at the throat, his amber eyes glowing gold in the moonlight as he bent down to kiss me. And then I remember feeling hotter and hotter, more and more vivid images flashing in my mind.

I thought of what he must look like under his clothes, the hints of dark tattoos I'd seen hints of when he rolled up his sleeves and removed his gloves, the lines of his muscles under his clothes. I imagined his lips trailing over my body, whispering words of appreciation as he saw more and more of me revealed. I imagined him inside of me, though I had not the slightest clue how to get to that state other than the few facts my mother had taught me, and the whispers of servants and other Princesses in the halls of Royal Prep.

I had laid back in my bed, in my thinnest night shift, though I wasn't sure how I'd gotten that way. My fingers flew over my body, my breasts, touching myself between my thighs, but nothing felt right – nothing felt like what I needed, what I was desperate for. I remember the Amulet glowing a soft pink, and I was running through the grass, straight into his arms, unsure how I had gotten through the Castle in my nightgown but not caring the least. Part of me wished I couldn't remember all that had happened, how embarrassingly I had acted. I'd thrown myself at Cedric, and though he had indulged me, given me what I needed, I had no real sense if he had done it out of desire, or out of pity for my mad state.

The Amulet had helped me though, not stopped me. Whatever I was doing, it was somehow right. But was it right for Cedric? Did he truly want me, or was he merely treating some animal need I didn't know Guardians had. When he'd kissed me, I'd felt his desire, that strange hardness against my stomach. Some part of him wanted me, but he was so hesitant.

I sat up in my bed, remembering some kind of spell he'd put on himself, wondering what he'd done to himself to give himself the courage to touch me at all. Part of me wanted to run across the castle and straight into his tower and demand answers (and probably more of what he'd been doing last night), and part of me wanted to hide in my room and never come out again. How could I ever look him in the face again without turning beet red? How could I ever be in the same room with him without wanting him to kiss me and touch me and do all those wonderful things to my body.

I'd told him I loved him. And then I'd fallen asleep. Way to go, Sofia.

There was a knock on the door. "Princess Sofia? Are you there?"

It was Baileywick. I pulled the disheveled bedclothes over my too-thin nightgown. "Come in."

The door opened and he stepped just over the threshold, only as far as was precisely appropriate for a male servant in the bedroom of an unmarried Princess. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Princess Sofia, but you are usually up far earlier than this. Violet tried to rouse you earlier and said you seemed very deeply asleep but restless. Are you feeling quite well?"

I fervently hoped that Violet's human nose had not detected the scent of sex and sweat all over me. Even if I was still very much a virgin, it would do no one any good to suspect what had happened last night. "I'm afraid it took my a very long time to fall asleep last night and I'm still a bit peaked. Perhaps I am fighting off an illness?"

"Say no more, Princess. I'll have the kitchen send up some vegetable broth and fresh bread. You rest here as long as you need to. I'll let Princess Amber know that you will be delayed in the latest planning session for your Birthday Ball." Baileywick gave a smart little bow and retreated out the door, closing it gently behind him.

I let my head fall back into the pillows and sighed dramatically. I didn't really want to be stuck in my room for the entire day, but I didn't have the strength of heart to go out and track down my sorcerer yet either.

After a simple yet filling meal Violet came in to fuss over me, and convince me to take a relaxing bath. I didn't really want to wash his scent off of me, as I had a horrible fear it was the closest I would ever get to him marking me as his. I didn't really have the least idea about Guardian mating practices, but that much I understood on instinct. I needed him to claim me, and he had not yet done so and I felt empty and lost as a result.

I sat soaking in a hot bath, mindlessly watching steam rise from the water and feeling sorry for myself, then my Amulet began to glow a soft pink once again. I should have blushed in embarrassment, but after last night having a Princess show up in my bathroom while I was naked didn't really rate highly on my personal scale of shame.

In a shower of golden sparks, Pocahontas, bright jewel of the Powhatan, stepped forward, seating herself gracefully on the bathroom rug with an amused smile.

"Hello, Sofia of Enchancia. What troubles you so that it follows you into your bathing rituals?"

I laughed. It was really a ridiculous time for a princess to show up, but the Amulet knew what it was doing.

"I'm in love with a man who I'm not sure cares for me in the same way. He...we are both Guardians. Do you know..."

"Of course I know. Guardians are common to all peoples. Guardians understand the beauty of the forest like few others do. I am not surprised that you are one of the Honored Ones, Sofia." Pocahontas picked up a pitcher of warmed water and poured it into the bathtub, and I sighed, feeling tension leave my muscles with the scent of lavender and lemon swirling in the humid air. "But a Guardian male usually makes it unquestionably clear who he would take for a mate. Does he run from you? Does he refuse to touch you?"

I blushed now, memories from the night before rushing back – the fervent need behind that first kiss, the feel of his hands on my thighs, the wet drag of his tongue across my most intimate flesh. "No, no he doesn't refuse to touch me. But, I think he is only….he's humoring me."

Pocahontas arched an eyebrow in question, "You are an intelligent woman, noble in spirit and brave of heart. You are likely a magnificent...let me see," Pocahontas cocked her head to the side and pursed her thin lips, "Wolf. You are a wolf, yes? You mate for life?"

I blinked at her, my stomach dropping. Did I want to mate for life with a partner that didn't want me? Would I never find another love? I couldn't imagine being with another man, having someone touch me like he had. Would that be the only passion I ever got to experience?

I must have somehow given her a positive response to her questions, for she continued, "And how long have you know this wolf man? Have you only just met?"

"I've known him more than half my life. He is...he was my teacher."

Pocahontas nodded sagely. "Is he also one of your chiefs? A...prince? This is important in your world, yes?"

I bit my lip. "He's the Royal Sorcerer – the best Royal Sorcerer. And he rules in the forest. But no, he's not a prince. But I don't care about that!"

"But does he care? You are a princess, and he is not your equal."

"I wasn't born a princess. And I really truly don't care!"

"Is he older than you?"

I sank deeper into the water, almost tempted to submerge completely and escape this inquisition. "Yes, he is older than me. But we will both live a very long time, so what will it matter when he is a hundred and I'm eighty five? I don't think it's important!"

"It's not about what you think, but what he does."

Those words stuck me like a hammer blow to my head. I had been self-centered, thinking only of my needs, my desires. I was actually surprised the Amulet hadn't just cursed me and made me figure out what I had done to deserve it.

"Oh! Was that what happened to me last night? The insane wantonness? Did the Amulet curse me so that I practically mauled Cedric and forced him to pleasure me?"

Pocahontas blinked at me, her mouth open. I blushed so red I think my hair turned magenta. Then she laughed, her voice as musical as wind chimes. "Oh you people are so very prudish and backwards about sex. I doubt you could have forced him to do anything he didn't want to do."

"But I was in pain and he helped me."

"And he didn't seem like he was enjoying himself in the least?"

Well, he had actually kissed me first. And he made the most tempting noises as he'd touched me and licked me. Did that mean he had been willing to see me as more than a student he was obligated to teach?

"What you likely experienced was the Heat. Grandmother Willow once told me of it. A tribe member went through something similar, after many years of she and her mate having no children. She went a little mad, her mate took her away deep into the woods for a time, and then later that year gave birth to twins. She was a fox when the moon was high, and guarded all the forest creatures from unnatural foe."

I turned the thought over in my head. Children. Was that what this was all about? I was ripe to have children. Although someday in the future I certainly wanted a family with Cedric and to bear his children, I didn't want that yet. I wanted enjoy some time with him first. If I ever actually got him.

"So, you think perhaps he does return my feelings, but that he thinks I'm too young and too highly placed for him to court?"

"Perhaps. Or perhaps he thinks another mate would suit you better than he. He may want what is best for you."

I huffed in annoyance. "I have no interest in any other suitors. I've had to put up with drinking enough tea and enough sedate rides through the park with minor second sons and lords suitable for a princess of peasant birth. He is exactly what I want as well as what is best for me."

"It is not me you have to convince, Sofia. It's him. Let him see that you know your own mind. Wait for a while. Let him see that you are mature enough to make a decision that will last a very long time." She smiled. "You might also want to make sure he sees you with some of these other suitors. Jealousy might make him reconsider his convictions."

We shared a very feminine smile, and with another light show from the Amulet, Pocahontas returned to her own time and place. And I had a few things to think over.

I didn't see Cedric until the next day. I entered his tower without knocking, and he froze as I entered, his eyes wide and just a bit terrified.

I cleared my throat. "I want to say thank you, for helping me when I was so desperate. I hope that the experience wasn't too unpleasant."

He opened his mouth, but nothing but a squeak came out. Wormwood squawked in riotous laughter from his perch. "No worries, Princess. He came back here smelling like sex and grinning like a loon. He even had a wet dream last night, crying out your name, and he hasn't had one of those since he was a boy!"

I blushed, though I'd promised myself I wouldn't and Cedric stomped across the room and shooed Wormwood out of the window with a bellow of rage and a "Poseidon's Pumpkins." I wasn't sure Cedric could understand Wordwood as clearly as I could when in human form, but he must have got the gist of the raven's speech, because he was just as red as I was.

He turned back to me and looked at the floor at my feet. "That was the Heat. Some types of female Guardians experience extreme arousal when they are at peak fertility. Usually not this young, but we both know you are far from the typical Guardian. It...it was nothing to be ashamed of, and I am glad I could help you. Don't...you don't have to feel sullied or shamed of it. Your purity is intact for marriage."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Thank you for your restraint. I understand that you may not want to tie yourself to me, so you should not feel obligated to marry me."

His eyes flew up to mine, and I saw what I needed to see. He wouldn't mind marrying me. Not at all. He just had to give in to what we both wanted. "But I can't say I will give up trying to convince you over the next few decades. You know I'm very persistent when I know what I want."

He took a step toward me, then stopped, shaking his head back and forth as though he was trying to wake himself up from a dream. He even pinched himself.

"You are still very young, Princess Sofia, and you have so much of the world to see and people to meet. You can't possibly know..."

"Actually I've been to twenty seven countries, three continents, and met fifty two eligible princes, dukes, lords, boyars or emirs. That's pretty good for not yet being eighteen."

He stared at me for a long time, until his fingers began to fidget and he pulled on his gloves until the yarn began to fray again.

I took pity on him. "So, what was that spell you used last night. It looked pretty painful. Something about your animal nature?"

He finally took a full breath and smiled at me, comfortable in his role as teacher.

"Actually, I should have taught it to you earlier. It's a very old spell, and used to separate..."

I listened intently, and he grew more and more comfortable in my presence. I was still young, and I could bide my time, no matter how torturous it was to be near him and not have him touch me. He was worth the wait.

A week later, my eighteenth birthday came and went with the usual fanfare, with the added pressure that I had been "out" in full society for a year and had yet to enter into any serious courtship. I was actually proud of myself for managing to skillfully redirect any male friends that showed interest to partners who would much more suited (and more interested). Mom ran interference with Dad whenever an offer from a distant kingdom or trading partner. I was not a princess of the blood, and any marriage alliance I could offer the kingdom was unlikely to be important enough to put undue pressure on me to accept. If Dad would have let me, I would have renounced my title and become a duchess like Aunt Tilly, but he said I'd have to wait until at least twenty years old to seek that escape.

The best part about my birthday was the small ball I got to plan mostly myself, despite Amber's endless meetings about it, and the fact that I was able to dance with Cedric not once, but twice. He held himself at a distance, true, but I caught him looking at me more than once. The next day just after breakfast with my family he met me in the hall, and he gave me a delicate silver dagger – an athame, that had belonged to the last female wolf in his family, his great-grandmother. I was awed by the gift, and struck mute at his reason. "This is for your protection, Princess Sofia. Go to the guards and ask for lessons in self defense. Carry the knife, but learn to use it well. As an unmated female wolf, when you are out in the world you will be a target for males to try to take, often by force. You'll need teeth in human form, and if this knife helps protect you it wouldn't be the first time it had done this job." He'd spun away, stomping off through the halls.

I held the knife gingerly, not happy about learning to use a weapon, I always felt there was a way to bridge any misunderstanding, but I would do as he said. I really wished that he would just make the "unmated" part of that obsolete, and that would take care of the problem! Of course, the knife could help me protect my mate as well, should we both come under attack.

I started lessons later that week, much to the approval of the Captain of the Royal Guard. Apparently they were always worried about me given my tendency to land in odd adventures, and they wanted me to be able to defend myself using more than magic. One more lesson, one more responsibility. I filled my mind with etiquette and politics and even Amber's fashion diatribes, and it worked. I almost managed to push away the fear that I would lose control again.

But two weeks later I did succumb to fear the next full moon. We had not run together as wolves for a full month, and I was worried that with the full moon I would once again go mad with lust and throw myself at him. I was terrified that it would push him farther away from me, when he was growing comfortable and even somewhat affectionate with me again.

He'd even let out a low, sub-audible growl when he'd been forced to attend a tea where Prince Desmond did his best to try and convince himself that I was a nice, unthreatening choice to court openly. Though no Guardian, Desmond did seem to somehow get the message that courting me was not a good idea and not at all unthreatening. Cedric smiled when he left, and I was excited at the prospect that he would soon realize that he was really the only possible choice of my heart.

If I fell into Heat again and attacked him, I was afraid I would lose all the ground I'd gained. So I went to bed very early, conjured a lifelike simulation to delicately snore in my bed, and fled into the foothills, away from the heart of the forest that he paroled faithfully. As a wolf, I checked on all the interesting residents of the hill country, running almost as far as Aunt Tilly's estate before turning around. I was achingly lonely without him running next to me, and by the predawn hours I was skirting the edge of the forest near the castle, having caught his distinctive scent. We met as wolves just at the edge of my corner garden, and we returned to human form instinctively. He pulled me into his embrace and we stood there, the moon setting and the sun rising, and breathed in each other's presence in sweet silence.

I put aside my concerns about the Heat. Cedric let me read the few books he'd found about it, and it should not be a problem for several years. I did hope by then I might have convinced him of my faithfulness and commitment to him, and the next Heat would be much more fun for both of us.

We ran together through our Forest, and together we protected those who dwelled there. We did make a very good team, fitting together like a hand in glove. It was everything I could have wanted in a vocation, and he was everything I wanted in a man. Wassalia passed quietly, and I treasured the fingerless gloves he'd given me, a lavender version of the ones he always wears. I keep them on constantly for a month, no matter how many times Amber make acerbic comments on my lack of fashion sense. I had vowed to be patient and prove my lasting love, and every little token, every longing look fed my soul and kept me hopeful.

But everything went wrong – or right – the night of Amber's Hearts Day ball. Always set in the darkest days between Wassalia and the first day of Spring, Hearts Day was usually a minor holiday celebrated between courting couples. But Amber had decided to create the new "Event of the Year" by having an Ball and inviting royalty from all the surrounding kingdoms. I was reasonably sure that Amber just wanted an excuse to dress extravagantly to impress Axel and induce him to enter a formal courtship. Amber was nineteen and had no desire to get to the ripe old age of twenty without being at least formally engaged to a Crown Prince.

The day had started out with strange omens, with the sun in the winter sky and the waxing moon dancing with her sister in the daytime. I felt out of sorts and restless by the time of the ball, eschewing the theme, much to Amber's displeasure, and not wearing blush pink or daring red, but a gown of topaz silk, the color of my sorcerer's eyes. I felt a bit lost among all my old classmates at Royal Prep, most of whom were still attending tea parties and stealing kisses.

The ball was full of confetti hearts and prink and red flowers that Cedric had been forced to conjure late into the night before. There was pink champagne and singing cupids that frolicked overhead when not gossiping loudly about who might be in love with whom. Really, my tastes were much simpler and though I tried to get into the spirit of the day and had slipped a simple heartfelt card under the door of Cedric's tower, I was feeling a bit down when he'd made no similar move.

I was sitting out from dancing with the shyer princes (I was always a safe bet for Desmond or even James when he wanted to escape giggling girls), when I noticed Cedric leaning up against the far wall, a woman in a dark red dress pressed tightly against his side, whispering in his ear, making his cheeks turn red.

That was MY job. I was the one who flirted with him. I was the one who made him blush too hard. He hadn't asked me for even one dance, and had hidden for most of the night so that I couldn't drag him out to the floor, and here he was being practically fondled by some hussy!

She was a decade my senior, closer to Cedric in age, with a fashionably pale complexion compared to my own golden skin, and short blonde hair in a cloud of ringlets and very generous curves. And Cedric was just standing there, letting her stand far too close. I stood abruptly, brushing past Hugo who was just coming to talk to me (and possibly to dance with him, again), and I strode purposefully around the edge of the ballroom. I slowed as I neared Cedric and his hanger-on, listening with ears that heard more than most humans.

"I'm sure you think this is all so dreadfully dull, Cedric. May I call you Cedric? A powerful sorcerer like you should be doing so much more interesting and scintillating activities on such a holiday. Conjuring cherubs for children barely out of the school room? Ha!" I could see the woman sneak a hand against the wall and squeeze his ass. "Wouldn't you rather find something much more adult to do, my sexy sorcerer?" His eyes practically bugged out of his head and he opened his mouth to speak, but there was no way I was letting this go on one more moment.

"Get your hands off of him." I hissed between clenched teeth which seemed to have grown much sharper than usual in my anger.

The woman, who I finally recognized as Lady Penelope, a lady in waiting to Princess Hildegard of Freezenburg, turned her head and gave me a quelling stare. "Go back to your hearts and flowers, Peasant Princess. Leave the real men to a real woman."

A red film seemed to descend over my mind. I barely heard Cedric's outraged exclamation and his backing away from Penelope and stepping toward me. I just growled, loudly, snapping my teeth at the wench. "Mine." I stalked toward her, wanting nothing more than to see her blood flow, my nails long and sharp and wanting to scar those high cheekbones. Cedric gripped my arm tightly, but I was shaking with sudden, overwhelming rage like I had never experienced before. I pulled away, my arm striking out toward Penelope and my nails almost making contact with her face, but Cedric wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back, giving me a sharp low growl that made me cease struggling immediately.

Hildegard popped out of nowhere, her hand gripping Penelope's arm with her claw like long fingernails. "Sofia! What are you doing!"

I was overwhelmed with horror at what I had wanted to do, the violence I had almost done. Why, if I had been a wolf the woman's neck would have been between my teeth, I was so impossibly angry. Jealous. I stood there with Cedric's arm around me, which loosened suddenly as we started to garner the attention of the room, which had grown unnaturally quiet.

Hildegard stepped closer, thrusting Penelope behind her with the careless negligance of command. "Sofia, are you….Are you a Guardian? A wolf?" Hildegard looked far too interested in me. Usually I was an amusing companion or fodder for gossip, but this time her eyes glittered with a twisted mix of avarice and fear. A hard knot of worry formed in my stomach, though I had no idea why. I was right to be so viscerally scared.

Cedric took charge, pulling on my arm with one hand and wrapping his other arm around my shoulders. "Excuse me, your highness, Lady Penelope. I'm afraid Princess Sofia has not be feeling well and must be overheated. I'll escort her to the royal physician."

Penelope, I refuse to call her a lady, simpered at him from behind Hildegard. "Do come back, Cedric. I'm sure you would like to continue our stimulating conversation."

I growled again, but Cedric grunted and my body froze, obeying him without my conscious thought. His effortless command of me was thrilling, and I was overcome with the sudden heat of arousal blooming in my core. "Lady Penelope, I'm certain that with my roll complete at this affair, my only use will be to aid the Princess with her difficulties. I wish you luck with your...search."

He pulled me away, sweeping me out of the ballroom and on to the terrace, ignoring half-hearted calls of concern from some of my friends. I had enough presence of mind to smile wanly and wave off their concerns, but I was holding on to my sanity by a thread. By the time Cedric had me out in the garden, my dancing slippers growing wet from walking through the light snowfall, I was out of my head. A swirling morass of anger and hope and violence and giddy need made me feel almost dizzy with emotion.

He kept pulling me along by my arm, staring straight ahead and holding his breath, taking shallow gasps of air through his mouth and shuddering each time. "You need to rest Sofia. I have a sleeping potion in my tower that may be able to let you rest through..."

I pulled away from the iron of his grip, then thrust my body toward him, forcing him backward into the thick foliage of an evergreen hedge. Snow puffed out around us with the force with which we'd struck the bushes, and Cedric was half buried within the green needles. I stood on tiptoe and pressed my face into the hollow of his throat, growling softly and then inhaling deeply. He smelled SO good. Underneath the smell of juniper and snow that surrounded us was his unique musk, warm and earthy, combined with dried herbs and a touch of dragonfly dust from the potion he'd been teaching me to make this morning. My tongue snuck out to drag across the skin just over his yellow bow tie and he groaned, his hands coming up to tangle in my hair.

I sank into his body, pushing him back into the bush enough that he was low enough for me to kiss, and then I kissed him like I meant to devour him. I bit his lips, I stroked his teeth with my tongue, I sucked his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood and relish this flavor of him.

It was that thought that woke me from my altered state. I pulled away, staring at him in sudden horror. His cheeks were pink and his lips swollen and his eyes were so dark they looked black. He didn't look like he was protesting all that much, but I couldn't analyze at the time. All I knew was that I'd pinned him in place and attacked him. The Heat. The thrice damned Heat.

I ran, pelting across the snow-covered gardens at full Guardian speed and into the servants' wing, fast enough to appear as a blur. I took every short cut and every back stair and arrived at my chambers, locking the door. I slid to the floor near the door and began to cry. I had threatened a (mostly) innocent human being with violence. I had grown unbearably aroused at Cedric telling me what to do, then I'd turned around and pinned him into a plant in order to kiss him hard enough to draw blood. Big fat tears rolled down my face, and I drew my knees to my chest, burying my face in the yards of silk and wishing it was his skin, his hair, his fur. I barely managed to get out of my clothes and into my bed before blessed sleep finally claimed me, although I was restless, tossing and turning with dreams that tortured me.

The next morning I felt horrible, and looked it. It was a simple thing to convince Violet that I was ill, and to to try and force myself to sleep. But I was up pacing the room in circles, bouncing between anger, sadness and arousal. Six months ago I had had sweet fantasies of a stolen kiss, a soft caress as being enough to fulfill me. But this night I was consumed with thoughts and memories of his kiss, his touch, his fingers and mouth within my most intimate flesh, and I wanted more. Servants and family members visited, and I kept up the front that I was ill and resting, but I went back to restless pacing as soon as I was alone, hoping that somehow I would tire myself out enough to sleep. This couldn't last forever, could it?

I made the mistake in the dead of the night of looking outside while sitting at my window seat. The moon was not yet full, but it was still a potent force to my soul. The next hours were a blur. I remember falling asleep on the floor, curled up as a wolf. Then waking up to a snowfall of white fluff which I late discovered was the white goosedown of my mattress – I'd shredded it with claws at the end of my human hands. Yes, parts of me had Changed without my conscious will, and I was some sort of strange hybrid. I remembered laughing hysterically at the clouds of white feathers and then dancing around the room holding an old stained robe that Cedric had loaned me once after a potions accident and I had managed to never return. I was back to crying and screaming when Violet came in to check on me.

I screamed at her, wordlessly, and she fled. The next thing I remember was my mother barging into the room, Amber dressed in riding gear following close behind, and strangely enough, Axel and Hugo just behind her. I suppose I should have been flattered by all the concern and Amber cutting short her morning ride to check on my health, but I was a crazed inhuman thing, boiling with desire that I couldn't fulfill, and I was in no mood to deal with humans.

If my mother spoke to me, I was beyond understanding. At one point Hugo came bounding across the room, concern in his eyes, and I hissed at him. "No boy. Man. Mate!" My claws and teeth and inability to speak coherently was apparently enough to chase Hugo away for good.

That was the closest to human conversation I could get, and that had taken my amulet glowing bright pink to get past my chapped lips.

Mom shooed everyone out of the room, yelling something, and I was once again alone to wallow in my misery. I lay huddled in the ruins of my mattress and quilts, rocking back and forth and trying to just endure.

Then a scent filled the room and I sat up, staring at the doorway as the door slammed open. My mother and Cedric stood there. She said something to him, but they were just meaningless words. He nodded and stepped forward. Closing the door behind him.

He smelled so good. But I wasn't allowed to get closer to him. Not allowed. Why not? I climbed off the bed, uncaring that I was only wearing shreds of the nightgown I'd put on two nights ago, and my skin was covered in slashes from the too sharp claws on my fingers. I stalked toward him slowly, and he watched me, eyes wide and so dark. Later I would remember how tired and drawn he looked, as though he'd been through every bit of the hell I had gone through.

He swallowed thickly and I followed the movement of his Adam's apple with my eyes, wanting to lick his neck, wanting to tear off all the silly coverings he wore. Then he raised a stick, pointing at the bed, which repaired itself, feathers returning from the chaos of the room back into neat order. It was powerful and beautiful and I took another unconscious step toward him, wanting him, his magic, his body.

Then the stick turned on me and I was floating through the air, back on to the mattress and the sheets were dancing above me, ripping into the strips which suddenly attacked me, binding my hands and feet to the bedposts before I could even think to move.

I howled, angry at being restrained, and I completely forgot that I wasn't supposed to want the man with the marvelous scent. I was supposed to stay away from him. I fought my bonds and growled. He pointed his stick at himself and collapsed to the ground in pain and I howled more, this time in terror. What happened to him? He was mine, MINE!

He approached the bed, placing the stick on a nearby dresser, and shrugging out of his robes, pulling off his neckcloth, leaving him in a simple linen shirt and breeches. He toed off his shoes and sat next to my hip. He raised a hand to cup my cheek, and the contact of his skin against mine cooled me, soothed me. His words I could almost understand. "I'm so sorry, Sofia. I'm so sorry I have to do this to you, but all the books say there's no other choice without risking permanent harm to you or your magic."

I turned my head into his hand and licked his palm, the salty taste of his skin ecstasy. I struggled to make words, the amulet glowing once again to aid me. "Please. Please...love me."

He took a deep breath, then leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine in a soft, sweet, very human kiss. I tried to follow him when he pulled away, snapping my teeth and trying to catch his lip, but he smirked a bit and shook his head side to side. This time when he leaned down, he pulled aside the shreds of my nightgown and revealed my left breast, then nuzzled the underside of the mound, pressing soft kisses that made me buck and growl in impatience. He listened, pulling my nipple into his mouth this a harsh suck that sent lightning straight to my womb and I yipped in approval, arching my back and pressing my chest into his mouth. He pushed the shreds of cloth away from my other breast and plucked at that nipple with his long fingers and I twisted back and forth, begging him for more.

He moved from one breast to the other, licking and sucking and even biting softly, until finally my nipples were so hard and I was so tightly wound with the need of days of unrelenting arousal, I climaxed with a shout after a particularly effective suck on one nipple and a twist of the other.

The look on his face as he sat up would have been comical had I been in my right mind – a combination of shock and utter masculine smugness. He smirked at me, "I must be a natural at this."

If I had been Sofia, Princess of Enchancia and not Sofia, Wolf in Heat, I would have rolled my eyes and tackled him to the bed, proving that I could drive him just as mad. But all I could do was yank at the cloth binding me to the bedposts and growl.

He looked at my arms where they were bound and frowned, sorrow falling across his face like a cloud across the sun. He stared into my crazed eyes and begged. "You want this, yes? You want relief? You want me to give you relief?"

The amulet glowed again, lighting up both our faces with rose-colored light. I struggled to bring forth a single word.

"Mate!"

He drew back, eyes wild, and bit his lip hard. The glow of the Amulet faded, as did my control of language. I whined, piteously, but I had no shame left, only need.

He clenched his fists, and then spread his fingers wide, pulling off one and then the other fingerless glove, leaving his long fingers bare except for the fine black tattoos of runes along the backs of his hands up to his first knuckles.

Then his fingers stroked over my stomach, my hips, petting my thighs with one hand as the other drew the fabric of my gown up to my waist, revealing my calves, my thighs and my mons to the light of the morning sun shining through my windows and to Cedric's amber colored eyes.

I arched my body toward his, desperate for relief. One orgasm was not enough to quell the burning in my blood. When his fingers stroked over my labia, feeling how wet and slick I was, I whimpered again, needing more.

He stopped being gentle at that point. I closed my eyes, concentrating on raw sensation as his fingers circled around my nub. Then he pressed it with his thumb as one long finger pushed slowly inside of me. It was slightly uncomfortable, but I quickly needed more, bucking my hips and driving him deeper. He added another finger, sliding slowly within me and pressing, testing. It was too slow, too precise, but when he found that spot high against the front wall of my channel it was suddenly perfect. I howled, bucking my hips again but he stayed with me, one arm pinning my hips to the bed while the other slid inside me, stroking that spot over and over as his thumb mashed down on the nub I stroked when I thought of him in the depths of the night in this very bed.

I screamed, my body convulsing with hot, hard pleasure. Relief coursed through my veins, but it still wasn't enough. I was still more animal than woman, and all too soon my head began to thrash against the pillows, my limbs pulling at my restraints.

"Please, please!" I whispered, my voice hoarse.

At least I had regained the use of some words. His fingers held magic, and he lightened his touch, pulling his fingers from within me and just swirling lightly, too lightly, over the engorged nub that still throbbed with my last climax.

"Sofia, look at me."

My eyes opened, and he hovered, leaning into my chest, his eyes perhaps a foot from mine. He was too close, too intimate. It was exactly what I needed. He held my gaze captive and thrust his fingers within me again, three this time, pushing against that spot within me over and over and over until I broke, shrieking his name, his dark eyes holding mine throughout everything.

I kept watching his face as his eyes traced down my body,, I watched him look at his fingers deep within me, and I watched as he pulled his fingers from me and brought them to his lips just as he had the last time I'd gone mad, inhaling the scent of my pleasure before thrusting them into his mouth like his favorite candy. I remembered everything he'd done months ago, and nothing could describe the pleasure of his mouth on me.

I moaned, arousal spiking once again, and he blinked up at me, a guilty look of pleasure on his face.

"More?"

"Please!"

He climbed on to the bed, awkwardly scrambling over my bound legs. Impatient, he waved a hand at the bedposts and my feet were free. He pulled my legs over his shoulders with easy strength and pressed his mouth to my sex. His tongue gave a long, flat stroke to my nub, his eyes raising once more up to mine. "Cedric. Cedric!"

Suddenly I couldn't stop saying his name. Moaning it, growling it, screaming it as his tongue dipped deep inside of me and his nose pressed against my nub. I came that way, that long pointed, aristocratic nose pushing against me. I had come over and over, and every muscle ached pleasantly. My mind was slowly returning, though my sense of shame was still held at bay by hormones run amok.

He pulled away from me slightly, a broad smile of accomplishment on his face. He was so sweetly happy to bring me pleasure that my heart thudded against my chest, my breath caught as my love swelled within me. But the hormones won, and love turned to lust. It wasn't enough this time to have him pleasure me. I wanted to pleasure him.

I was always a bit too selfless for my own good. But never had I needed to be so devious in order to indulge my selfless tendencies. I wrapped my legs around his neck, holding him to me as one of my hands bent in a distinctive pattern, calling Cedric's wand to me from my bedside dresser. Once I had a wand and my mind was more human, it was a simple matter to release myself from my remaining restraints, reverse our positions on the bed, and charm the same sheets he'd used to tie me up to tie his hands where my feet had been, and his feet where my hands had been. I grinned down at him, twirling his wand between my fingers, which once again had human nails, as I straddled his waist, feeling the bump of his manhood pressing against my bum through his breeches.

"My turn, Cedric."

"Sofia, you aren't in your right mind! You don't..."

"Be quiet, or I'll have to hex you into silence. I don't want to do that, because I want to hear what sounds you'll make. Now, you may have had a lot of experience with naked women at your mercy, but I would very much like to have experience with one particular naked man."

Another flick of the wand, and the buttons of his shirt popped off, revealing his chest. I dropped the wand on the floor, hoping Cedric didn't try the same trick I had. The tattoos I'd only seen hints of were revealed, thick black lines of text in several languages forming sacred circles and swirls through the sparse dark hair on his chest. I wanted to study every one, trace my fingers, and my tongue over every line of script, every inch of skin. So I did. I started at his jaw, pressing kisses, flicking my tongue to taste him, inhaling each nuance of his scent. It was different, after the spell to strip him of his animal nature, but he was still very much my Cedric.

Oh, and the sounds he did make. Whimpers and squeals and pleading. Initially he was begging for me to let him go, but eventually he was begging me for more. I moved down his body. My tongue circled over his tattoos, and I sucked on his hard flat nipples as he had done to mine. My fingers traced over the firm lines of his wiry muscles, until I finally met the barrier of his waistband.

"Sofia, Sofia think about this, are you..."

"Oh trust me I have thought about this." I quipped back, the Heat giving me confidence where I truly had none. My fingers shook as I pulled at the laces of his breeches where a hard lump was pushing against the fabric. I'd tried this last time and been unsuccessful. This time I wanted to see him. I needed to see him. "You know how curious I am, and I've never seen..."

"Neither have I."

My eyes locked with his. He shrugged the action pulling at the ties that bound his hands to the bedposts. "I've seen a man of course. Can't bloody help but see myself. But a real woman, the most intimate bits. Just books. And you."

I swallowed, overcome with what he had done for me, what I hoped this meant. "Those were good books." He smiled. "I want to see them." His eyes grew huge.

Whatever he was going to say in response to my demand was lost as I managed to pull apart the last lacing on his breeches and the fabric pushed aside, revealing the tip of him pressed against his smallclothes. I pushed and shoved his breeches and smallclothes down his hips and under his bum as he squeaked out sounds with a red face.

His male part...his cock, that was the word the maids used when they whispered and thought I couldn't hear them gossip...his cock stood straight up, the skin darker here, and the tip of him an angry red, deeper than the blush on his face. I stared, wide eyed, and wondering how in the world this was supposed to go inside me. I knew that what was supposed to happen, but not how. Perhaps touching him like he touched me would be enough to give him pleasure?

I wrapped a hand around him, curiosity and need for him thrumming within me. He yelped, his head whipping back into the mattress, his hips bucking and he thrust in my grip. "Sofia!" he cried out, his voice surprisingly deep compared to the squeals from earlier. I stroked my fingers over him, feeling him throb and twitch in my hand, like this part of him was under my control and not his own.

"Aphrodite's Ass!" Cedric bit out, and I smiled widely, my blood surging hotter and hotter. I let go of him completely, which made him groan in protest. I sat up straight, whipping the remains of my nightgown over my head, my knotted and unkempt hair spreading out in a wild cloud around my shoulders. He stared at me, his mouth a perfect circle of shock. I relished the attention, though the faintest traces of embarrassment leaked through. Instead of moving to cover myself, I moved farther down the bed, laying my nude body between his spread legs, my breasts pressing against the fabric still covering his thighs and my head hovering by his hip, I wrapped my hand once again around his now practically purple cock, and he groaned again, this time his usual, "Merlin's Mushrooms!" followed by a sharp, "Fucking hell!" as I stroked the ring of my fingers down to the base where his manhood joined with his abdomen in a nest of dark crinkly hair. I moved back up to the top slowly, and half way up I heard him grit out. "Harder. Tighter."

I turned my head into his hip, smiling into the taut skin there, inhaling his scent, so strong and thick here near the root of him. I obeyed his demands, tightening my grip, moving from top to bottom over and over again. Then I turned to watch my hand move over him, entranced by the rhythm of it, feeling his hips under me moving to chase my hand, and my own hips pressing against the mattress, desperate for friction.

Then I noticed a drop of liquid at the very tip of him, and the scent of it overwhelmed me. It was pure Cedric, salty and musky. Without conscious realization I'd moved to hover over him, my tongue sneaking out to taste that white drop.

"Titania's Tits! Sofia!"

Another lick over the bulbous head of him as my eyes looked toward his face. He was clearly gobsmacked, panting for breath, his eyes so dark they looked like the sky at the deepest part of night, his body shaking.

I took the head of him into my mouth, going with the instincts my blood sang to me. I still watched him, and so I saw his eyes slam shut and his teeth bite into his lower lip. I could not have imagined a sexier sight. I felt triumphant as I swirled my tongue around him, chasing that flavor, that scent of him that was so irresistible. I sucked hard and he screamed.

"Sofia, if you don't stop what you are doing I'm not going to be able to...gah..."

His cock grew harder in my mouth, swelling even more, and then his flavor inundated me, I pulled back in surprise, which resulted in him spurting his seed on my lips and chin. I swallowed, my tongue darting out to collect what had been painted on my face and he growled softly – the animal within him not completely banished after all.

I looked up to see his eyes on fire, glowing with a dark light that thrilled me to my core, I climbed up his body until I could press my lips to his, stroke his tongue with mine. He tasted himself on my tongue willingly, eagerly, kissing me with all the fire and desire I could have ever wanted. My body pressed against his, relishing the feel of my breasts against his chest, his already hardening cock pressing against my wet lower lips. I began to roll my hips, searching for the delicious sensation of his hardness pressing against my nub.

He pulled and yanked at his bindings, and I should have freed him, should have given him a choice, but I was too caught up in how I felt, how I wanted to make him feel. I eased my nub over the thick ridge of his cock over and over, my hips controlled purely by instinct. It wasn't quite enough.

I pushed upward, sitting more fully on him, pressing my nub harder on to the hardening thickness of him, bouncing slightly, testing every motion my hips could make to see if it would give me what I needed. He groaned and swore, and I stared down at him with half hooded eyes, watching him look at me with an expression of pure need.

He grit out a phrase in a voice so deep I could feel it vibrate through me, "Vincula nulla!" And his arms and legs were free, the cloth strips completely disappearing. His hands went to my hips, his grip tight enough I would have bruises the next day. He planted his feet and arched his back, and the wonderful pressure and friction I had been playing with soared to a sweet pleasure that sang along my nerves and flashed at the edges of my vision. I was so very close to climax, but he kept me at the edge for long minutes, rolling his hips with mine, grinding together, sometimes cupping one of my breasts, sometimes caressing my cheek and a move so tender I knew he must love me.

Then, in some accident of angle or eagerness, the tip of his cock slipped just a bit into my channel. We both stopped, frozen. I wanted him. I wanted to be claimed, the mystery to be over and to start a long life of pleasure and belonging and magic.

He looked to be almost in pain, his arms shaking as he held my hips still. "Sofia, if I do this, if we do this now, in your Heat, you will end up bearing my child. You'll be tied to me for a lifetime, a long lifetime. I won't be able to let you go – I'm not that good a man. Is that what you want?"

I stared down at him, his words cooling my ardor enough to let me think. I didn't want a baby yet. Of course I wanted his child, no other man's, but I was still young. Did that mean he would be willing to do this another time, when I wasn't controlled by the Heat?

Apparently he took my long pause as an answer. He lifted me up, tumbling us over on to our sides, pulling his hips far from mine. He buried his head in my neck and his fingers – three long fingers, into my core. He thrust them in hard and fast, not letting me think, not letting me breathe! I clutched on to his arms, frozen in place as I tidal wave of sensation washed over me, breaking when he took his other hand and pinched my nub between his fingers. I screamed harshly, tears in my eyes.

I was still shaking with it, unable to move as he rolled off the bed, clutching the waistband of his breeches, his cock jutting out straight and so hard. He dipped down to the floor and grabbed his wand, before looking me in the eye with a sad smile and disappearing in a puff of green smoke.

That arse. That unmitigated, cowardly, handsome, talented, sneaky and too-noble-for-his-own-good arse!

I turned into my pillows and screamed out my frustration, beating my fists on the feather mattress he'd so recently repaired.

Damn him for being right. Now was not the time. But soon. Very soon.

He could run fast. But I could do. We matched well that way.

Author's Note: Notice any glaring mistakes? Tell me so I can fix it! Reviews and critique are gold!