The Fox and the Wizard Pt. 02

Author's Note: This story is best enjoyed by reading Part 1 first and contains elements of non-consent and reluctance. This is a work of fiction with all characters over the age of 18. Part 3 is well underway!

If Xanth's steward, or whatever the man on the opposite side of the door was supposed to be, thought anything of her nudity or the current shape her body was in, he didn't show it. He merely draped a soft blanket over her and gathered her up in his arms like she weighed nothing at all.

Some dormant part of her mind screamed at her that this would be the opportune time to escape, the moment to make good on her silent threat to destroy this place and salt the earth with their bones. But her magic felt like little more than a flicker, as exhausted as the rest of her body was. Drained, possibly, by that damned cilice currently digging into her arm. She could barely pick her head up, let alone fight off the man carrying her down a long hallway lined in stone. They didn't have far to go, so there was only one turn to make a note of in her head. One turn to the right, then down another long hallway. She fought to keep her eyes open.

When they reached what she assumed was her room, she was surprised to find a flurry of activity there. Several women in plain but well-made clothing shuffled in and out of the open doorway. Alayna wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and drift into sweet oblivion, but that well-honed survival instinct had her surveying every inch of the room.

It was... more sophisticated than she might have imagined. The floor was covered in thick, plush rugs of a soft white cream, while the walls were a calming, powdered blue color. A very large bed dominated one wall to her left, surrounded by heavy cream drapes that had been pulled open, supported by thick posts made of a gilded, golden material. One woman stood beside it, pulling down the bedspread, which was the same shade of powdered blue as the walls. Across from the bed, on her right, two women worked to build a fire in the gilded gold hearth, large enough Alayna swore she could roast game inside of it. A small table sat in front of the hearth, flanked by two overstuffed chairs.

On the wall next to the door stood an armoire big enough to hold more clothes than she'd ever possessed in her entire life. What drew her attention most, however, were the heavy cream curtains dominating the wall directly across from her. Windows? An escape route, perhaps.

Following the direction of her gaze, the man carrying her snorted derisively. "Don't get any ideas. You are very, very high up."

Perhaps not, then.

He stepped further inside the room, carrying her past the bed and the hearth, then turning right into a room she hadn't seen before. It was decorated in a similar fashion to the bedroom and all it took was one look at the enormous tub to tell her this was the bathing room. One woman worked tirelessly at a pump jutting up from the stone floor, water filling the tub in spurts. He walked right up to the tub and addressed the woman filling it.

"Is it ready?"

She nodded.

"I'll leave her with you, then. He's in a mood." Alayna swore the woman gave him a sympathetic nod before he sat her on her feet, stripped the blanket from around her shoulders and left without another word.

Alayna had never been modest or shy, but being suddenly naked in a strange room, with strange women milling about, seemed to stir a long-dormant sense of modesty in her. She tried to cover herself, but her weak knees threatened to give out and she stumbled.

Strong but gentle hands gripped her upper arms from behind. "I know you're tired, but try to stay awake until after you've had a bath and a bite of dinner. You'll feel better."

Alayna didn't know where the woman had come from, but she spoke in a gentle tone. Not sympathetic, but gentle. With her help, Alayna was able to climb the two steps leading into the tub. She sunk down immediately, a rather embarrassing moan falling from her lips as her entire body was enveloped in hot water. If she'd been alone, she would have happily fallen asleep right there, content to let the hot water ease the aches she only just now realized she carried.

But she was not alone and these women were on a mission. She'd barely closed her eyes before they surrounded her on the three open sides of the tub, picking up her arms and beginning to scrub them with soft, soapy cloth.

Alayna tried to extract herself from their grips. "I can bathe myself."

"You couldn't drown a kitten right now," one of them said.

Fair enough. Alayna consented to letting them wash her, at least until it came to her most intimate bits. She mustered her energy and snatched the cloth away, insisting that yes, she could and would wash those parts of herself without assistance, thank you very much.

After she was cleaned thoroughly and her hair washed, they helped her from the tub and toweled her dry, then slid a sheer, thin sleeping gown over her head. It was nearly transparent, but Alayna supposed she should be thankful she was given anything at all to wear. They guided her from the bathing room and into the bedroom, then sat her down at the table in front of the hearth. A hearty stew sat steaming in a bowl, making her stomach rumble. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was.

She forced herself to eat, even as one of the women began running a comb through her long, wet hair. The sensation of having her hair brushed coupled with the warmth from the hearth nearly had her falling asleep in the bowl. She would sleep for just a few hours, she told herself as they led her to the bed and drew the covers over her. Just a few hours to regain her strength and then she would investigate the windows to see just how high 'very, very' was.

***

In her dreams, she was back at the keep, snuggled down into warm furs with Beckett. She had never remained in one place long enough to consider it home, but this small stretch of land meant more and more to her every day.

It wasn't the sprawling estate Beckett had been born to rule over. Any other lord might have sneered at this place, with its rundown keep, a smattering of villages that had been burned too many times to count and the constant threat from the west. But Beckett had seen a need in this strategic piece of land, a need to protect the innocents nestled further east in the kingdom, and had claimed it as his own. He would never be lord of his father's lands, but he could make a difference right here, protecting common folk from the savage tribes that constantly sought a foothold in the kingdom.

The days were long for all of them, for Beckett and Alayna, for the men who followed Beckett into battle, and then into disgrace with him. For the men who saw a noble lord actually trying to make a difference in the world and joined his cause. The small villages were slowly being rebuilt. The keep as well, though it sustained much less damage. They were even trying to coax the fields back to life after being razed.

It wasn't often they had an uninterrupted morning, but Beckett seemed intent on making the most of it as he peppered kisses down her bare stomach, along her thighs. She sighed and nestled back into the warm furs, her thighs falling open for him. With a low growl, he set upon her wet folds with such intensity she gasped. His tongue skillfully manipulated her clit, flicking back and forth rapidly. Alayna moaned, hips undulating on the bed.

"Yes," she whimpered as he tossed her thighs over his muscular shoulders, tilting her hips up for better access. "Gods, that feels so good..."

He worked her clit mercilessly, until she was writhing on the bed, gasping and moaning. As she approached the edge, the movement of his tongue slowed down. Alayna cried out in frustration.

"More!" she demanded, locking her heels together behind his back. She reached down, burying her hands in his sinfully dark hair to keep him right where she needed him most, riding his face.

"Beckett!" she cried out, a warning that she was about to go over the edge...

A sharp pain from where he pinched her thigh brought her fully awake. Alayna gasped, her eyes flying open.

It wasn't Beckett at all between her thighs, wasn't his dark hair she was gripping, his face she was still riding. It was Xanth, his rich blue eyes burning with lust as he watched her face.

"No!"

But she was too close to the edge to stop, her need too great. With a sharp moan, she came under the savage treatment of his tongue on her clit, hips jerking wildly. He held her in place with strong hands, lapping at her clit until her moans turned to whimpers and she was no longer trembling.

"You bastard." Without thinking, she drew her foot up so she could kick him squarely in the face.

Less than a heartbeat later, searing pain tore through her body, causing her to cry out for a different reason. Pain hummed from the top of her head all the way down to her toes, her leg falling uselessly back to the bed.

"Good morning, Fox."

Alayna closed her eyes as the pain finally began to ebb. She'd forgotten about the damned cilice, forgotten about the insane wizard and her current captivity. She cursed her body and her dreams for making her grip Xanth's hair so she could use his tongue to bring herself to orgasm.

"Pleasant dreams, I take it." She refused to open her eyes, even as she felt his weight shift off the bed. "So you're aware, I haven't given you more of the aphrodisiac potion yet, so you can't blame it for the way you so sweetly pressed your pussy against my tongue."

Her lips pressed together in a thin line. She was content to lay there with her eyes closed, ignoring him, until the sound of shuffling fabric preceded bright light spilling across her lids. Alayna cracked open one eye to see he'd opened the curtains.

As it turned out, very, very high was indeed very, very high.

One entire wall of her bedroom consisted of nothing but windows, with a view that rivaled anything she'd ever seen before. Stretched out before her were gorgeous, snow-topped mountains and a cheerful blue sky. Alayna started to rise from the bed, only to realize her dressing gown had been shoved up around her hips and one of her breasts had popped free from the neckline in all of her writhing. It was always the left one, for some reason. She scowled and sat up, hurriedly putting the gown back to rights.

"Come. I'm sure you've been dying to see if you can use these windows as a means of escape."

She was curious. Alayna rose from the bed on unsteady knees and, with a wary glance cast in his direction, approached the windows.

Her room appeared to be in some kind of tower, looming high above a large, sprawling city. She cast glances this way and that, finding that her room was part of a much larger structure. Separate buildings dotted the landscape, some with towers as high as hers, though none of them blocked her view of the mountains. She stiffened when she felt Xanth move up behind her.

"I picked this room especially for you." He pressed right up against her back, his hands settling on the glass on either side of her head. From this position, she could feel his erection straining against her back. "I know you like to spend a lot of time outside."

It unnerved her that he knew so much about her. There was no question anymore that the force she'd felt watching her had been him. He used one hand to brush aside her thick hair. She'd fallen into bed with it still wet, so her red curls were even more riotous than usual.

"Hopefully this will suffice for a while. You don't seem to care for cities, but I also have a large expanse of forest on the other side of the castle, left mostly undisturbed. As long as you don't venture too far into it, you'll be safe."

His head tilted to one side so he could press his lips against her neck. She had to fight the urge to shy away from him, because she needed all the information she could get right now.

"The other side. Is that the Greenfrost?"

"Yes," he murmured, trailing kisses up and down her neck. "I put the Greenfrost there and then added all manner of ugly, dangerous beasts to keep this place away from the prying eyes of the rest of your world."

She frowned. "My world? I should think it's your world, too."

"Not so." He moved closer, pressing her into the glass. His lips brushed the shell of her ear and she had to fight a shiver. Her slightly pointed ears had always been sensitive. "I come from somewhere very far away, but I've been here for a long, long time."

He shifted behind her, bending his knees so he could settle his pants-covered erection right up against her backside. Alayna gritted her teeth and balled her fists.

"Why not go back there?"

His dark chuckle vibrated against her back. "I can't. At least, not yet. My home was taken over by something far more dangerous than has ever existed here. But we are actively working to take it back." He thrust softly against her backside, making her dressing gown ride up between her cheeks.

"We? There are more of you?"

He thrust again and groaned against her neck. "Yes. Many more, scattered to all different worlds. Working together and against each other at the same time to take back our home."

Another thrust, this one more forceful. Another groan. One hand left the glass to start inching her sleeping gown up. She wanted to ask him how many, how they communicated, what sort of power they had, but his thrusting was growing more insistent, more demanding. She couldn't take it anymore. Alayna ducked below his outstretched arm and slipped out of his grasp, retreating back into the room.

Xanth stood at the window for a moment, as though trying to collect himself. Alayna eyed him, ready to make a run for the door.

"One day, you won't pull away from me. You'll welcome my touch. You'll ride my face and you won't call out for another man."

Not likely, but they all needed their various fantasies to carry them through the hardships of life.

"Let me go." The words fell from her lips before she could stop them. "Let me go and I'll never tell another soul about this place. I'll even help you reclaim your home."

"You're going to help me do far more than that, Fox. You're going to help me establish an empire, a legacy, that will last until the end of time." He turned to face her. "I can't let you go. Because even though I'm far older than you could comprehend, because I've been to more worlds than you could dream, you're the most rare and precious thing I've ever found."

"I'm not yours!" she thundered.

"YES YOU ARE," he roared back.

His entire body flickered, then disappeared. Alayna managed one step in the direction of the door before he reappeared in front of her, scooping her off her feet before she could blink. Three long strides carried them to the bed, where he unceremoniously dropped her. She tried to scramble off, but he pinned her there as he sat atop her, knees on either side of her rib cage. Alayna flailed and he caught one of her wrists, dragging it up to the gilded headboard. A compartment she hadn't noticed before slid free, the loud rattle of chains filling the room. She used her free hand to try fighting him off, though she didn't dare try to scratch or strike him for fear of setting off the cilice.

Her strength proved no match for his and she quickly found herself chained to the bed by both arms. He lifted himself off of her and did the same to her legs, despite her attempts to keep them free.

Once he was finished, he stood at the foot of the bed to admire his work. "I love how spirited you are. It's going to take effort to tame you without completely extinguishing that fire, but I'm confident in my ability."

"One day, Xanth, I'll have you on your knees in front of me, begging me to spare your life."

The corner of his full lips tilted into a smirk. He walked away and she had to crane her neck to see what he was doing. Xanth crossed to the small table in front of the hearth and picked up a glass vial.

"Is that..."

"Your daily potion, yes."

"I won't drink it."

He sighed. "We both know you will, Fox. The only variable is how much you fight me before you do. Why not save your energy to plot your escape after I've finished with you?"

That's exactly what she was currently debating. The night before, she'd fought so hard against everything he did to her and had immediately fallen into a deep sleep afterward, losing valuable time. Today would be different. Alayna glared at him, but nodded.

"Good girl." He crossed back to her and sat on the bed, sliding one hand under her head to lift it slightly. Xanth popped the cork with his thumb and tilted it up to her lips. Alayna grimaced at the sickly sweet taste, but didn't try to spit it out. He guided her head back to the pillow.

"Your training begins now, Fox." He trailed a finger down her cheek, as if he couldn't stop himself from touching her in any fashion. "You'll drink one of these potions every morning, with your breakfast. You may be given an additional potion in the evening, depending on my plans for you."

Alayna laid in silence.

"You are no longer allowed to touch yourself. Any orgasm you have will only come from me, or someone or something of my choosing. Any attempt to bring yourself pleasure without permission will result in consequences."

"What consequences?"

"Nothing you'll want to repeat, I assure you." He rose from the bed. "Your body will slowly become accustomed to the potion and you'll be able to carry on with your day in a heightened state of arousal. But for these first few days, it's going to be a gnawing hunger inside you. The need for release will be the only thing you can think about. Do not, under any circumstances, try to ease it yourself. You'll come to me or you'll go without."

She mentally snorted, but didn't allow her expression to change. If she wanted to get herself off, she would.

"You'll address me as 'sir' unless I'm wringing pleasure from your delicious body. Then you're permitted to cry my name. Anyone I tell you to fuck, you'll do so without question or complaint. You'll treat them with the same respect and submission you show me. I'll never give you to anyone who would cause you harm, so you need not worry about that."

He stepped forward and sat beside her again. His finger began tracing lazy circles around one nipple through the thin material of her sleeping gown.

"You are not allowed to give yourself to anyone without my express permission. If a man or woman catches your eye, you're to come to me and ask nicely. I'll consider your request."

She did snort this time. He responded by viciously pinching her nipple.

"I'm serious, Fox. You'll find I'm quite considerate when the mood strikes me, but you will not go behind my back. You're mine, wholly and completely. You have no freedom with your body but what I grant you. I know your kind has particular needs and I'll ensure they're met."

The potion must have been kicking in, because that hard pinch wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"You keep talking about my kind. I have no idea what you're referring to."

"I suspected as much, after last night." He went back to making those lazy circles, her nipple now jutting out from the thin material. "Have you ever wondered why you seem to need sex more than others? Have you noticed one partner simply can't satisfy all your needs? Why just one taste of your arousal is enough to ensnare a man into obsession?"

Alayna bit her lower lip. She had, in fact, wondered all these things, had assumed she was just some sort of accident of nature. She nodded.

"You aren't just a half-elf, Alayna. You're a particular breed of elf, called a Sereni."