The Wolf's Captive Ch. 01

'He killed my brother,' he stated in hard tones. 'Now he will pay in kind.'

Rising on shaking legs, the result of hunger and shock, no doubt, Rowena stared up at the taut face head and shoulders above her and shook her head in appeal. 'Nay -- Edwin would never kill. You must be mistaken, he-'

'Be silent, wench,' the stoic faced man bit out, favouring her with a quelling look, his eyes flashing with something turbulent but indecipherable.

'Your eyes...I have seen you before -- before today,' she clarified, more to herself, feeling dizzy as his ice-blue eyes narrowed in loathing.

'Aye -- you have,' he agreed in hard tones. 'I see you remember,' he said then, a humourless smile playing about his handsome lips.

'It makes no sense.'

He grunted. Where before he had appeared to avoid her, now his eyes were direct, unyielding. 'You are wondering now if the beasts and demons you dreamed of a child are real. Well, I cannot speak on their behalf but I certainly am.'

'You're a wolf?' Rowena retorted with false bravado, her tones patronizing.

'What do you see? When you look at me?' he countered calmly.

A loud male laugh met his words and he frowned across the way before returning to her once more and Rowena considered him in bemusement. She saw a tall, golden man. His face strongly cut, his hair thick and over-long...and his eyes...

'Well?' he prodded.

'I see an arrogant braggart!'

He smiled. Rowena took a step away.

'You see a man. In the field, when you picked at your grain and sang your silly songs and talked of your frivolous women's things - you saw a wolf.'

Rowena shook her head but the madman continued, undeterred:

'There was a particular song I found rather interesting -- mostly because I could not believe such crudeness could come from between such sweet lips.'

Palming her heated face as she recalled the filthy song many of the maids in the kitchen sung to pass the time as they cooked in the hot room, Rowena cried, 'You are mad!'

'Nay, I am grateful,' he smiled as she threw him a mistrustful look at his sudden change of mood. 'You placed my brother in that ditch, did you not? You sought to treat him with...dignity.'

'You are trying to tell me that a wolf is your brother,' Rowena murmured.

'Blaine is our brother no longer -- Blaine is now a part of the earth! And it is all because of you!'

The one called Emma hurtled over to them and stopped before Rowena, her eyes fierce with hatred.

'It is the way of things,' Rowena returned apologetically and would have laughed at the fact that she went along with these mad folk were she not so frightened. 'Men freely hunt-'

Emma kicked her hard in the shin but strong hand stopped Rowena from falling onto her rear, gripping firmly about her forearm.

'You are a fool, Cedric,' the girl spat, her tone low. 'You should chain her with her brother like the filth that she is and yet you humour her, pander to her -- you let your lust for this-'

'Enough!'

The small clearing became almost unnaturally quiet, as if even the birds above and around the dense forest had been quelled by the roaring command.

The young girl sniffed, her expression unrepentant but she remained silent.

'Arthur,' Cedric, the seeming leader of this band of ruffians, called then, his tones hard and curt. 'Restrain the girl...'

Rowena gave him a look of silent appeal, tried to hold onto those captivating eyes, but Cedric's eyes drifted away from her as swiftly as he released her arm and then he was turning on booted feet and stalking away, his face like thunder as he disappeared into the foliage.

The grey haired man who had mocked her before rose and took strong strides towards her. Before she had a chance to struggle in his hold, he was deftly tying thick, rough rope about her wrists and then her ankles and then he too left, followed by the other men. Emma was the last to leave. With a final look of loathing, the girl pushed Rowena to the ground and kicked earth into her face. And then she was alone, her brother having passed out some time ago. Oh, God, she prayed, let them not return.

*

'Here, do not struggle.'

Cedric carefully untied the length of rope from around the slim ankles.

'You are cold.'

'What do you expect,' the shaky voice returned, loathing underlying each word and he flinched. He had not thought anything. He had been so consumed with rage and grief that he had abandoned them all, had run freely through the forest until he had worked the energy off. When he had returned moments ago to find the chilled and seeming unconscious female curled up in a ball on the hard ground, he had known a sense of rage at her treatment that stunned him, for all its ridiculousness. She was no concern to him.

'You left me in the dead of winter in my thin garment -- was it not your intention to return to find a corpse?'

Cedric grunted, untying the girl's hands. 'It is hardly the dead of winter.'

She pulled warily away from him once free, rubbing at her abused wrists, her expression rightfully mistrustful before something seemed to occur to her. Glancing over her shoulder at the empty pole of wood her brother had been secured to, she said, her eyes wide as the moon:

'Is he-'

'Nay,' Cedric said harshly, rising. 'He lives. For now. Come,' he murmured. 'You must be hungry.'

A stubborn sniff met his words and despite himself he smiled. The sun was setting and cast a warm glow over the girl's breath-taking features, gave her dark hair a golden sheen. She bewitched him, God's truth. His lust for her, he would not deny, for any stout-blooded man would be moved by the tempting form of her.

As she braced a palm to the earth to rise, she gasped and fell to the floor once more.

'My legs -- I cannot feel them!'

Cedric hunkered down and briskly caught a slim calf between his hands, chaffing at the smooth skin there, cupping the small bare feet in his hands and though he could tell the girl reviled his ministrations, she gave in on a sigh, her expression pained as the blood started to flow freely again.

'Does that feel better?' he asked quietly, his eyes rising from her shapely leg to her face. Her eyes watched him in puzzlement.

'I do not understand...why are you being considerate?'

'I do not wish you harm.'

'But you brought me here.'

At the softly spoken statement, Cedric expelled a harsh breath. 'I did -- because I wanted you. Nay, do not cower away. I will not...hurt you. I promise you that.'

Her eyes, which had previously been intent and angry on his face, now looked away. 'It is the only way you will have me otherwise.'

Cursing himself for a swine at the girl's fearful look, Cedric nodded. 'So it seems. I would have you willingly or not at all. You were not part of my plan, girl. You should not have come out...if you had stayed away then-'

A small hand covered his own, resting on his bent thigh. 'Please,' the girl whispered. 'Please let us go.'

Angrily, he slashed a hand through the air. 'Nay. You are mine now. You will serve as my serf if you will not agree to warm my bed. Nothing you say will sway me, nothing you say will allow you to return to the place you call home for you will know a new home and master now. Do you come or not?'

Cedric frowned heavily at her, annoyed at his own harshness and when she finally looked at him, it was not with the bereft look at one who mourned for their former life. It was resigned, yes, but almost...relieved? Nay, it could not be so.

'I cannot walk.' The haughty tones brought him up fast from his frivolous musings.

Cedric nodded, rising with the girl scoped in his arms. 'Do not argue,' he warned. 'Unless you wish to crawl on all fours.'

The girl was silent, her face turned away from his as he carried her through the forest.

'You mean like you do?'

He blinked at her retort. 'Aye, like I do.'

'Do you still spin that tale?' she grumbled. 'Do you think me a simple-minded fool, sir?'

'Nay -- I think you a saucy tongued wench who would do better to learn sweeter ballads. Where did you hear that crude song?'

Pale green eyes met his in frustration and resistance to accept the truth. 'You try to trick me -- no doubt you heard the exchange between the wolf and I that morning from -- from your hiding place in the field. Now you think to play games with me.'

'Look into my eyes. Look deeply,' Cedric said gruffly, her weight in his arms was almost non-existent. She was so delicate, so small but the full breasts concealed within her thin garment were full and womanly as were her curving hips. He felt his groin tighten at the warmth of her pressed so closely to him.

She stared unblinking into his eyes and after a moment murmured, 'I cannot believe it. I will not.'

'You can,' he replied calmly.

She turned her face from his once more, breaking the invisible current that hummed between them and he sighed in irritation at the rebuff. He was not used to women rejecting him or turning from him -- even the human ones seemed to eye him with hot eyes, though he did not bed with them.

When he had finally gathered the courage to approach the woman he had been spying on for days, he had had to bring forth every ounce of will power not to pounce on her, not to nuzzle her skin as he wished to, the beast inside him strong and unreasonable but she had gentled the fierce desires within with her soft voice and whimsical smile. And then she had warned him to be wary of her kinsmen, complimented his beauty all before throwing him a cluster of dry, bland grains. He had turned his nose up at them as soon as she walked away from him, not wanting to offend her, and had done so again for the next few encounters when she would seek to feed him. If only he had kept his desire for her from Blaine -- kept the fact that he was scarily certain she was his mate. Then Blaine would still be alive. But Blaine had gone to her, had wanted to see for himself the girl -- his mate -- that Cedric had vowed to turn his back on. He would mate with no human, he had arrogantly announced, even though the pronouncement had caused a slashing of pain in his chest at the thought of an existence without this captivating human by his side.

'If you are a...a wolf-man then prove it.'

Cedric sighed at the goading challenge. 'Nay -- I will not pander to your whims. Believe it or not -- it shall not change the truth.'

The sound of activity beyond, of his men, seemed to bring a burst of energy to the woman in his arms for, rather than arguing with him or offering a flippant response, she said:

'You want to bed me.'

'Aye,' Cedric frowned at her, pleased he had not given away his surprise at her boldness. He slowed his pace as she curled her arms around his neck, slowly and turned body in his arms.

'How much?' she whispered.

That got him. 'Wha...'

'How much do you want to bed me? You are a handsome...man.'

'Thank you,' Cedric returned uncertainly. 'We -- we reach the group,' he nodded ahead.

'No, wait. Please.'

He stopped fully and glanced down at her in bemusement.

Tentative fingers played with the hair at his nape and he swallowed.

'Do you know how to be tender with a woman?' she asked after expelling a deep breath, her eyes clearly showing her nervousness.

'I...I can be a tender lover,' he allowed, feeling a cool sweat break out on his forehead.

'Would you be tender with me?'

No. 'Yes.'

'Set me loose.'

Cedric arched a brow at the command and slowly released his arm from beneath her legs, feeling the slender limbs brush his body as he gently lowered her to the ground.

'How much do you want to be me -- Cedric.'

My name on her lips. He shuddered and considered the flushed cheeks before him through hooded eyes. He knew this game she played and could scarcely believe in her audacity and boldness. She thought to seduce him. He almost scoffed aloud at the idea but as she bit at her lip his cocked jerk in response and there was his answer.

I want you -- I want you desperately. But that, he would not say.

*

'It would be...pleasing.'

Rowena frowned. 'Just... pleasing?'

'Aye -- for both of us,' the well-carved lines of the handsome face softened with burgeoning desire and Cedric fingered a dark curl before lifting it up to his lips, his eyes never leaving her. 'It would please me to see you wrapped in nothing but this fine hair,' he stroked the curl in his hand between finger and thumb.

It is now or never, Rowena thought determinedly, trying valiantly to keep hold of the senses he would strip from her with his heated eyes. She glanced quickly at the cylindrical shape at the front of his braies. Rowena had never before even bathed a man but she was not ignorant to the look of a nude one -- nor of an aroused one. She had seen the act of fornication many a time in her twenty years but had always been an inadvertent spectator to it. She was mortified to find that the sight of his blatant, raw maleness roused her, despite the angry voice in her head cursing him as an enemy, a man who had snatched her away from home. Not the worst of fates, the provoking voice in her head suggested. If he had wanted to hurt you, he would have by now. You do not fear him. Perhaps not in relation to the violence he might cause, she thought with a shiver as she reached out a hand and grasped his hardness. Even through the fabric of his braies she felt the heat of him. Cedric groaned above her and a resulting wetness settled between Rowena's thighs.

'You like that,' she murmured breathlessly, turning her timid exploration into a hesitant caress and in silent reply, he thrust himself into her yielding hand.

A large palm swept under the fall of her hair and as the calloused fingers started to knead her head, Rowena sighed, arching her neck and closing her eyes with a sense of ecstasy as firm lips pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her throat.

Cedric seemed to delight in her boneless surrender, becoming the dominator, pulling her hips against his.

'I must have a taste of you.'

So saying, Cedric swooped down, bending to meet her small height, and pressed his lips to her own, murmuring reassurances when she stiffened. Placing coaxing kisses on the corner of her closed lips, Cedric persisted until Rowena gave a sigh of pleasure and opened to him. He thrust his tongue boldly into her mouth.

'Sweet,' Cedric muttered. 'So sweet.'

His hand caressed her exposed throat, the fingers rough in texture but gentle in their ministrations and then he was smoothing that big palm downwards until he closed over her breast.

Rowena pulled away from him on a squeak.

'Do not fear me,' he breathed.

'I -- I do not.'

Cedric smiled slightly at the shaky announcement and then his gaze dipped and rested hungrily on her bosom. Without preamble, he deftly bent her over his arm and closed his teeth around the aching tip of her right breast and Rowena was glad of his arm bracing her for her legs had become suddenly boneless.

As this peculiar, angry -- breathtakingly handsome -- man pulled on her breast, Rowena strove hard to remember her ploy. But he was sucking at her so strongly through the fabric of her gown and the pleasure it brought to the point between her thighs was excruciating, she could think of nothing more.

'This is how much I want you,' he said hoarsely, then, turning her upright, his lips closing around her ear as he ground his stiffness into her covered mound.

Rowena pulled away, her words slurred as she spoke.

'Enough to free my brother? To let us both go?'

She closed her eyes when the hand holding her hip tightened before slipping away.

'No. You are just a woman, after all -- there are plenty beyond who would be more than happy to ease the ache you caused,' he said in cold insult. 'Innocent virgins are more trouble than they're worth -- your clumsy kisses spoke volumes, lady.'

Rowena slapped him. Pulling her hand back to inflict the same to his other cheek, she gasped when he caught her wrist in a punishing grip.

'You dare much. Your brother killed my own. Nothing you could give would be payment enough. Nothing,' the words were gritted out, Cedric's jaw flexing as he spoke. 'I do a kindness when I remind you that I am your lord now. When we return to my holding, North, you will be punished just as any insolent serf would be if you act thusly again. Keep you claws do yourself, wench.'

His eyes, previously heated, smouldering, were now clear. With mortification, Rowena knew that his lust had dissipated and so too had what little power over him she'd had.

'Your legs should have revived by now -- walk,' he ordered, nodding his head curtly in the direction of his group.

Rowena hugged her chilled body tightly and chanced a glance up at him but was presented bu his hard profile. Silently, she obeyed.

*