111A/N - Two chapters coming out with in days of one another? Insanity! Warning, I have NOT edited this chapter yet, but I want to get it published because I'm not going to be around for a few days. Rest assured that I will most certainly be coming back and proof-reading late, but for now try your best to ignore my numerous mistakes, thank you very much.
SEXUAL CONTENT
She woke up early, laying in the dark, staring at the ceiling, she felt like she'd barely slept.
Which was most certainly case, seeing as she'd only managed about three hours of solid sleep, and only after exhausting herself with trying to figure out what was suddenly happening.
Cypress groaned lowly, bringing her hands to her face and rubbing under her sore eyes, immediately regretting the choice to think at all.
There was a faint murmuring and she paused in her self-pity, listening carefully to see if she'd only been imagining something.
It started up again.
She sat up, slipping out from under the covers and walking over to the window, peeking curiously through the glass and out into the front of the manor.
There were horses, and then Wulfe's men, all saddling up and checking on their supplies. Thane wasn't there with them, but she could see Andren, his usual bright smile plastered on his handsome young face as he flitted about, chatting animatedly to an unresponsive Tallus.
"They're leaving?" Cypress spoke quietly to herself, once again entirely bewildered.
Where could they be going all of the sudden? Did this have something to do with the night before?
She had a sinking suspicion that it did.
There was a flash of deep red as the sun rose above the trees, Cypress turning her gaze to Wulfe, who was standing off to the side, speaking to Greyson, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He looked even worse today, his eyes dark, his face scruffier than it normally would be. He walked over to Andren and Tallus and she continued to watch, standing completely still by the window, expression decidedly grim.
The men were beginning to mount their horses now, and Wulfe was pacing back and forth impatiently.
Without thinking, Cypress pulled the blinds closed and vacated her room, not bothering to put on shoes, slippers, or even a robe to cover up her nightgown.
She felt like a child as she ran down the hallway, their were butterflies swarming in her stomach and her face felt overly warm, but she needed to get to his room as quickly as she possibly could, they needed to talk, and she felt confident now, more confident than she'd felt in weeks.
There was barely a pause between her reaching his room, opening the door and then closing it behind her. She came to a stop near the foot of his bed, spinning around, sucking in a deep breath while anxiously trying to straighten out her hair and her nightgown. She was going to get her answers one way or another, but she hoped it would be easy, she didn't want to have to fight him, she was too tired, and Wulfe... He was just sinking into some sort of madness that she couldn't, and didn't want to, comprehend.
Her foot tapped on the ground and she crossed her arms, standing in the slowly growing light that seeped through his rooms windows while she stared at the door, waiting.
The door knob twisted and the door swung slowly open as Wulfe walked in, his head down and his shoulders slumped forward.
"Wulfe."
He looked up, grey eyes narrowed and piercing as he settled them on her, he pushed the door shut, continuing to stare at her bleakly before letting out a long sigh.
"Here already?" He muttered, walking passed her and to his bed, taking a seat at the end of it and resting his forearms lamely onto his knees.
Cypress turned to face him, "I want to know why I'm really here. And you're going to tell me."
"It's a bit of a story." He warned but Cypress only nodded as she stared down at him, cold and inquisitive.
Wulfe sighed again.
"When I was young I decided to become a soldier, I didn't want to stay in my town any more and I loathed being dirt poor. I moved through the ranks very quickly, squadron leaders and generals particularly enjoyed how ruthless I was, they told the Queen about me." He cleared his throat, licking his dry lips. "She made me an Inquisitor for a while, I found it incredibly boring, I preferred the chase. And then suddenly, as if by a miracle, the Renegades appeared and I was offered another job, the job of becoming the leader of the Hunters."
Cypress watched as Wulfe's hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles went white, she could hear the bones in his fingers crunching, she swallowed but chose to remain silent.
"I had a lot of fun hunting your lot down, and then one day I saw you and I found you fascinating." Wulfechuckled. "You looked so wonderful when you were killing someone, I became entirely obsessed with you, I thought you'd be very entertaining to have, but I didn't love you, not then." He laughed again bitingly and pressed his hands to his face. "I received a note one day, from a Renegade, asking me to meet one on one with them, I found that so interesting that I couldn't say 'no', so I went. And that was when I met Leonis for the first time."
Her mouth felt incredibly dry all of the sudden, "L-Leonis?"
He nodded and continued, "It was few months before you got here, he had an offer for me, and I really, really couldn't let this one pass."
"What was it?"
"Well, it was you of course." Wulfe answered matter-of-factly, knowing that she already knew the answer, but choosing to ignore the fact. "He said that he'd give you to me, if I worked for the Renegades, it wasn't a hard decision for me, my enjoyment is far more important than loyalty to the Queen. I didn't think about it clearly enough though, I regret that now."
Cypress sucked in a deep, shaky breath, her eyes watering uncontrollably.
"So we made a plan, him and I, ah and Erik and Andren of course, and Leonis told me where a meeting was going to be held, the one above the bakery," His lips were twisted into a vile smile, "I hadn't told any of my men the plan, and Andren wasn't in the hunting party that day, I was far too concerned about catching you, so concerned that I accidentally allowed Leonis to be one of the Renegades that was caught."
Her hands shook as she clenched them into fists, "Is Andren a Renegade?"
"Yes, he's the one I give information too most of the time, unless I'm able to meet Leonis myself."
"...Did Andren kill Thane?"
Wulfe's eyebrow shot up immediately in surprise, "How did you know about that?"
She smiled back at him unevenly, "I didn't see him getting ready to leave with the rest of them this morning, I took a guess."
He nodded one more, "Now-"
"-No. I don't want to here any more about Leonis, I understand what you mean now about the both of us being in a game." She stopped him, a couple of tears dripping down her face, "I'm guessing that I wasn't the one that was meant to break Leonis and Ammarand out of the cells."
"You're spot on with guessing today, very impressive."
She scoffed weakly and shook her head in disbelief.
She couldn't believe she'd been so worried about betraying her comrades when all of this time she'd been the one that had been pawned off to the enemy for information. Her teeth were grinding together, anger surging through her as she thought about how Leonis told her to go back to the manor with Wulfe. He'd been so adamant about it at the time, the bastard, how could he do something like this to her? Cypress shuddered and shook her head again, pushing these thoughts away.
"Why are you still doing this?"
He stood and moved to stand right in front of her, their bodies only a few inches apart, "No matter what the outcome is of this war, I'm going to end up dead. If the Renegades win then the public and most of the soldiers will be screaming for my execution, especially after what happened to that friend of yours, Frouyd. And when it comes to the Queen, well, she's been suspicious of me for a while now, she's on to me, and from what you saw last night with Thane, I don't think I've got very much time left. I decided if I'm going down, I'm taking as many people as I can with me." Wulfe lifted his hand and went to brush her some her black locks out of her face but Cypress twisted her head away, he laughed lightly. "I really have fallen in love with you, I hope you know that, and I'll protect you for as long as I can but-"
There was a loud crack and then silence, Wulfe's cheek quickly blooming into a pulsing red as he stared at the woman seething with rage in front of him.
"Enough... enough." She took a step backward and then another, then spun around and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Wulfe stared at the empty space in front of him, arms hanging limply at his sides.
xxxxx
She'd gone to her room after she'd slapped Wulfe and she'd collapsed to the floor, sobbing into her hands, letting all the pain she was feeling over Leonis' betrayal seep out.
When Alissa had come to check on her a few hours later she hadn't bothered to respond, staying silent and laying still on the floor. The girl had knocked and called softly for a few minutes longer before finally giving up, leaving Cypress to wallow in despair.
Another couple hours later someone else had come to her door, but they didn't knock, just stood silently on the other side for quite a while before turning and disappearing once more.
Now it was much later, the day had come and gone and now it was the evening, there was a heavy rain outside, the sky already quite dark even though it couldn't have been past more than 7 o'clock.
Cypress was curled on her bed now, there'd been a few solid hours where she couldn't think of anything, her mind and body had gone numb, and when that had stopped she'd been angry, first at Leonis, than Wulfe, and finally at herself for being so fool-hardy and righteous. She'd helped to get herself in this situation, she'd trusted Leonis far to easily, she should have stayed with her parents and ran the Inn and the smithery and gotten married to the butchers son and lived a normal, dull life.
Instead she was here, and she had many peoples blood on her hands and she... She...
Her eyes squeezed closed, she didn't want to admit it to herself, not after everything she'd heard this morning and all the torment she'd put herself through, but she had to, because she realized that Wulfe was right. He was going to die, and so was she, they were pawns and they were going to be sacrificed, just like Frouyd and Thane and so many others had been.
So she surrendered, she had managed to fall in love with Wulfe.
A soft whine of misery escaped her and she she rolled onto her stomach, pressing her face into her pillow and groaning a few more times.
She'd always liked aggressive men, especially ones that could put up a good fight, and then there were those eyes of his, and the scars, and of course his brilliant red hair.
She lifted off a few more things in her head, and then weighed the pros and cons once again.
This was war, wasn't it? And there had always been that saying about everything being fair in love and war. And yes he'd kidnapped her and attacked her, and perhaps had molested her a few times, but he'd also had kept his promise about not sleeping with her until she'd given her permission. Cypress had also done her share of attacking him as well, and if she thought back on it, she'd tried to murder him at least three times.
None of this was very important, she'd already made her decision, she was in love with him too.
The rain battered harder against the window, and the wind howled lowly, rustling the branches of the trees.
She crawled out of her bed and went into the bathroom, she cleaned herself up, fixed her hair, brushed her teeth, and then stared at her reflection in the mirror for a while, amazed at how slim she'd gotten, she hadn't noticed before.
Cypress left her room in search of Wulfe, she went to his bedroom first, and then to his office, he was in neither of these places. Looking around it seemed that the manor had been emptied of more than just the Hunter's that day, she hadn't caught sight of any servants whatsoever, the manor was silent.
She went downstairs next, opening the front doors and taking a gander out into the wind and rain, there was no one out there either, and the stable doors had been pulled closed to keep the remaining few horses warm and dry.
Where in the world could he be hiding himself? She felt a twinge of guilt, she shouldn't have slapped him like that.
But it certainly wasn't too late for her to find him and apologize to him! So she shut the double doors and nimbly padded across the chilly marble floors in her bare feet, she was just passing the sitting room when she spotted him from the corner of her eye.
She stopped, he had his back towards her and appeared to be perusing one of the bookshelves.
Cypress had butterflies again, warm ones, ones that made her forget everything bad that was going on, ones that made her think only of herself and of the man standing across from her.
She crept up behind him carefully, bringing her hands up to rest on his shoulders, she was only slightly surprised that he didn't flinch, but she knew better, of course he could tell that she'd been standing there watching him.
He didn't acknowledge her until she pressed in more closely and rested her chin on his shoulder, her lips brushing his neck delicately.
"Cypress?" He rasped uncertainly, turning his head slightly to look at her from the corner of one penetrating silver eye.
She met his gaze evenly and then captured his mouth with hers, she'd had enough of talking, she just wanted to feel good, even if it was only going to be for tonight.
Wulfe turned, trying his best not to break their kiss, and made to wrap his arms around her but she grabbed onto his hands, breaking away and gently tugging at him. He didn't hesitate at all, his fingers lacing with hers and his feet following after her as she lead him out of the room and upstairs into his own bedroom.
Cypress was on Wulfe as soon as he'd closed the door to his room, she'd pushed him back and grasped onto his face, her mouth slanting up to meet his, teeth nipping impatiently at his lips while her hips pressed securely against his. It took a moment until he returned the kiss, his lips parting and his tongue snaking out to push into her mouth. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked his stiffness against her, groaning into her mouth at the feeling of having her there, receptive and in his hands.
He ran his fingers over her sides and then over her ass, giving a quick slap to one cheek before he lifted her up, her legs automatically wrapping around his waist as he carried her over to the bed.
They broke apart, a line of saliva connecting their mouths, Cypress' tongue snaked out and dragged across his bottom lip, her eyes never leaving his.
"Fuck me." Cypress ordered wantonly and let out a surprised gasp when he tossed her roughly to the bed. She rested back on her elbows, watching closely as Wulfe rid himself of his clothing, exposing his wiry form to her once again, his cock jutting up proudly now that it was lose from its confines.
He leaned over and grabbed her calves, pulling her down until her ass was just about at the end of the bed, he pushed her silky nightgown up and over her pale thighs until it bunched up above her waist. She squeezed his hips with her raised knees, trying to pull him down and on top of her, she wanted him inside of her, she didn't understand why he was taking his time.
That was until she felt his fingers hook onto her underwear, pulling it off of her and then returning one hand in between her legs where he pressed his long fingers against her slick heat and then pushed them inside of her.
She purred for him and he leaned over her, propping himself up with his free hand while his fingers pumped slowly in and out of her.
"Nnn, fuck me..." Cypress groaned, rolling her hips in time with his fingers until he pulled them out of her and brought them to his lips, taking his time and licking her essence off slowly, enjoying her flavour.
She watched, eyes half-lidded in her arousal, she lifted her hips and his cock slid against her opening, pressing tormentingly against her while Wulfe moved from licking his fingers to instead licking at her throat and then down to her breasts.
He was driving her insane and she was sure that he was doing it on purpose as some sick form of revenge, she wouldn't allow it, they had all night to fuck slowly, she wanted him inside of her now. Her legs hooked around his waist tightly, and she lifted her hips high, one hand sliding between them to grab his cock and guide it to her entrance.
Wulfe threw his head back and hissed as he sunk into her, pressing down until he was filling her completely with his manhood.
"Mmm, my little wild animal." He growled lovingly and pushed her up the bed a bit, holding onto her hips as he at first started to slowly thrust in and out of her, his speed gradually increasing until he was rutting savagely into her.
Cypress dug her nails into his back, gasping and wailing his name as they both finally got what they wanted, her body arching and her hips rocking as he brought her closer and closer to climax.
He was holding onto her with near crushing strength, his body angled so that he was hitting deep inside of her tight heat, his cock sliding beautifully against her walls.
He came quite suddenly, hissing her name through clenched teeth as he jerked inside of her a few more times, trembling near violently in his release, she went to touch his face and his arms but he had pulled out of her and had slid down till his face was between her legs and then he was tongue fucking her, absolutely uncaring of his own seed seeping out and onto her thighs.
She threaded her fingers through his hair and pressed against his eager mouth, choking out his name as he brought her to her own climax, her thighs trapping his face between her legs as she came, his mouth ready and waiting for her sweet nectar.
Cypress panted softly and loosened her thighs hold on him, she felt his body slide up and onto the bed, and then he was leaning slightly over her, looking down into her eyes. He had a smile on his lips, a weak one, but a smile none the less, and then he was sitting her up and pulling her up the bed so that they could rest against the pillows. He pulled the blankets over their bodies and she pressed herself against his, resting her cheek against his chest, her hand down between their bodies, fingers dancing along his hip bone.
They met each others eyes again, Wulfe thoughtfully gazing at her in the afterglow of their 'love-making'.
She pressed a soft kiss to his skin and looked away, content to lay in his arms until she felt his member brush her hand as he hardened once more, she pulled the blankets down and climbed into his lap, straddling him and lowering herself smoothly onto his cock. Her hands pressed just above his hips at first and then climbed higher until they rested on his upper chest, his grey eyes never leaving her face as she rode him languidly, both of them more than happy to take it easy this round.
Wulfe grabbed onto her hips as his climax neared, taking some more control and pulling her down onto his cock while simultaneously thrusting up inside of her until he shot his load into her yet again, pulling her down hard so that he could cum as deep inside of her as physically possible.
She dismounted and laid next to him, his hands coming down between them to finish her off, skilful fingers working at her sensitive flesh until she peaked again, her lips against his in a passionate kiss.
They lay entwined once more, this time making out, feeling one another up with long caresses and licks and nibbles.
Cypress purred and finally tucked her head under his chin, holding onto him tightly, she wasn't sure if she'd ever felt this good before, and she was more unsure if she'd ever get to feel this way again.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
His voice startled her from her thoughts and she frowned but gave a slight nod, of course she was leaving, she had too.
"Let's pretend for tonight that you aren't." Wulfe suggested, nuzzling his scruffy chin against her soft, black hair.
Cypress smiled sadly against his throat, "Ok."
His arms tightened around her minutely at her response and then he was kissing her again, her forehead, cheeks, nose, lips, throat and then her breasts and even further after that.
They lost themselves in each other once more, enjoying the small window of time where it was acceptable for them to be in love.
Well, it's finally happened! Thank you for reading, leave a review if you enjoyed! See you again soon (hopefully)