by Sky Winters
“You think me a thief?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve only recently met you.”
“I can assure you that I’m not.”
“I will take your word for it unless proven otherwise, I suppose.”
“Do you know the origin of the necklace?”
“I do not. I know it has been handed down in my family, but not for how long.”
“I see. And tell me, were your grandmother and mother only children?”
“Why yes, they were. How did you know that?”
“There is a very old story about such a compass. It is very ancient, timeless, in fact. No one knows how old it is. It is said that the woman who wears it will one day become the mother of the new leader of all the shifters.”
“But that is ridiculous, neither my grandmother nor my mother were shifters. I would have noticed, I believe.”
“No. They wouldn’t have been. Only a male child can be born a shifter. The compass waits for the right generation. If you had been born a boy, you would have been the new leader. Since you were not, the compass would pass down for you to wear and if, someday, you have a son, he will be the new leader. Otherwise, the compass is passed to the next generation until a son is born.”
“That is a ridiculous story.”
“Is it? Do you think it is a coincidence that you fell down a mysterious hole and landed in a world you’ve never seen before?”
Alice looked at him, bewildered. A few days ago, she would have scoffed and said that what he was saying was impossible, but she had just been threatened by a flower and spoke to a ladybug. That certainly wasn’t normal either. Could it be possible she had somehow gone through a portal and was in some other dimension or was she experiencing a severe psychosis, perhaps as a result of her fall.
“Well, I don’t want it. I have no desire to be a mother of some sort of freak.”
Much to her surprise, The Huntsman looked wounded. She immediately realized that she had insulted him and felt horrible about it.
“I’ll get you to safety and we will see if we can get you home, but I’m afraid that you are stuck with the compass until you pass it to another.”
“Look, I’m sorry about the freak comment. I didn’t mean you were a freak.”
“Of course you did. It’s okay. I’m different from what you are used to. I get it. Though I haven’t been to your world, I imagine it must be very different from this one.”
“Vastly different. Still, I apologize for not thinking of what I was saying before making such an offensive statement. As for the compass, I will simply give it to one of the women in your clan and perhaps they will become the mother of the new leader.”
“I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but that won’t work. The compass is tied to your lineage, handed down through your bloodline for as long as it has existed. If you give it away, it will only find its way back to you. The compass needle points you toward love and the compass always points itself toward you.”
“That just isn’t true. I was away from home for a very long time and it stayed behind at my grandmother’s house. It was still hanging where I left it when I returned.”
“How old are you, Alice?”
Alice’s face looked shocked for a moment. How could she have forgotten? If the passing of days here were equal to those where she had come from, then today was her birthday. So much had happened lately that it had completely skipped her mind. It wasn’t as if she had a lot to celebrate at present.
“Oh my goodness! I’m twenty-five today! I completely forgot that it is my birthday!”
“Precisely. I’m guessing that you fell through that hole at the stroke of midnight in this world, when you would have turned twenty-five by our standards. It was not long after that when I found you in the woods and you didn’t appear to have been there long enough for the scavengers to nip at you.”
Alice shuddered at the thought that there had been things in that forest which might have eaten at her had she remained there too long. Things were beginning to make sense now, in a strictly nonsensical sort of way. A method to the madness, perhaps.
“And which way was the compass pointing when you opened it earlier, Alice?”
“West,” she replied.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she replied as he walked slowly to her other side without a word. “Look, I’ll show you.”
Opening the compass, she looked at it in disbelief. It now pointed toward the east. That couldn’t be right. Could it have gotten broken in the fall? It had led her to the Evil Prince and now pointed in different directions than the one they were going. Or perhaps, if it was supposed to be pointing her toward love, the man she was to find was traveling and had now crossed her path somehow. She looked up at The Huntsman, confused, and he smiled. Still without a word, he walked behind her, and the compass followed. Alice turned in a circle as he continued to walk around her, the compass turning with him as he moved.
“Getting the picture yet, Alice?”
“No. That can’t be. You are cocky and nothing like the man I would want to fall in love with.”
“That’s a bit hurtful. Okay. Let’s go with your theory that the compass is broken and you can give it away. Watch this.”
The Huntsman let out a shrill whisper and several women appeared from nowhere. Alice couldn’t help but notice the way they were looking at him with complete adoration. Much to her surprise, she felt what seemed to be a pang of jealousy and quickly dismissed it. What did she have to worry about from women who hung out in the woods when it came to a man like him anyway?
“Go ahead. Pick one of them and hand her the compass. Whoever you choose to give it to will be fine.”
Alice looked at the three women. They were equally beautiful and all very fit. How they stayed in such great shape in this strange world baffled her. She tried to just make things simple, removing the necklace from her neck and placing it around the neck of the woman in the middle. The woman smiled and opened it, but the needle didn’t move. She turned in circles and it stayed pointing in the due north position.
“Go ahead, Naomi. Take it with you. I’ll see you back at the village.”
The three women sprinted across the field and back into the woods. Alice wondered if they would continue to follow them as they made their way back to the village.
“How did you know they were out there?”
“They are always out there. Wherever I go, they follow.”
“Why?”
“They are in heat, eager to mate, and I’m the one they want to mate with.”
Alice blushed, not having considered that they might be shifters from his clan or that they had such primal urges. She suspected there was little romance in The Huntsman’s world. The thought of having sex like an animal caused her to shiver, in the most delicious way. Something inside of her was already changing in this place, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“Are you okay?” he asked, though she suspected he understood completely what had just happened.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“That’s a beautiful necklace you have,” he replied, reaching out to pull the compass upward and opening it, smiling as it once again rotated to point directly toward him.
Alice was speechless. Where had it come from? She had put it on the woman herself and watched as she ran away to a far bank of trees wearing it. How had it gotten back to her?
“It will never leave you, Alice, not until you take your last breath. Even if you don’t hand it to a daughter of your own or bear the new leader of the shifters, the necklace will always find its way to your offspring. They will find it in an old box or it will turn up in a drawer by the time they come of age.”
“And if I die childless? If I’m eaten by a flower or drained by a giant mosquito?”
“We will die with you.”
“What? What do you mean, we will die with you?”
“I mean that your world is tied to our own and
our existence is dependent on yours by the compass. As long as the compass lives on with your bloodline, then so does this world. If the cycle ends, we all end.”
“That sounds like superstition. Surely, in all the time this compass has been in existence, someone has died without a child while wearing it.”
“No. Never, not before they bore a child to which the compass would pass. Let me ask you something, Alice? Have you been lucky in life? I don’t mean financially, emotionally, stuff like that. Have you had near-miss accidents, ever been really sick?”
Alice thought about this for a moment. She had to admit that she had never had a sick day in her life. Even when her friends were getting chickenpox or viruses were going around among friends and family, she had never gotten even a hint of them. There had never been a time when she had been hurt physically, though she had once barely escaped being run over by a truck. Remembering it now, she considered the events of that day.
Walking along the sidewalk, she had been lost in thought. She was a teenager, barely sixteen and had just been kissed by Billy McLemore, a strapping Scottish lad from down the way. Without thinking, she had stepped out onto the road, not having looked either direction. A truck horn had snapped her out of her blissful haze as it bore down on her but she was frozen in place. Then, it was if something had lifted her up and placed her back on the walkway, out of its path.
In the aftermath, Alice hadn’t thought much about it. She had assumed she managed to get back to safety on her own and things just seemed different because everything had happened so quickly. Had it been something else? Had there been some force protecting her from harm that day? Snapping out of it, she found him waiting expectantly for a reply.
“I suppose not,” she said simply.
“Face it, Alice. You are a chosen one. You will either be the mother of the new shifter leader or you will pass the compass down until fate decides it is time for a new leader to take his rightful place in this world.”
Much to Alice’s surprise, his comments were punctuated with a kiss. Rather than resisting, she leaned into him and kissed him back. If she was going to be in this crazy world, with bizarre tales and outlandish creatures, then she might as well get some enjoyment out of it. Besides, he was brutishly handsome and the thought of having sex with a wolf shifter somehow enthralled her.
“It’s getting dark, Alice. We need to find shelter before the night falls,” he said, pulling away and brushing a strand of hair from her face.
“Okay,” Alice replied, at a loss for words.
She felt weak in the knees. No man had ever had such an effect on her. Even Enrique had not melted her like this; not even when they first met and were crazy for one another. She followed The Huntsman toward a grove of trees, wondering if his she-wolf groupies were still tailing them, watching them. The thought melted quickly away as he guided her into the mouth of a deep cave buried in the side of a rock cliff that overlooked the nearby sea.
The warm temperature of the day dropped quickly as night fell and she found herself shivering inside the cool interior. He pulled some bedding from a recess in the cave wall and lay it down on the slate floor beneath them. Alice watched, wide eyed, as he began to strip down to just his underthings right in front of her.
“Well? Are you going to sleep while you have a chance?”
“You’ve only made one bed!”
“I only have enough tucked away in here for one bed. I spend the night in this cave quite often.”
“I’m not sharing a bed with you. I hardly know you!”
Alice knew that she protested too much. Though she didn’t want to seem like an easy mark to him, she was more than willing to share a bed with this handsome creature. Still, a part of her was uncertain and it was that part that spoke up now, foolishly pushing away a man that she knew she wanted in the worst way.
“Suit yourself. You are welcome to sit in a corner somewhere and wait for daylight, but you are going to get very cold once the temperature begins to drop. I fancy myself a gentleman, but I can’t be freezing to death because you want to deny your urges. Come on, you know you can’t wait to curl up with me.”
Alice scowled at him. She could already feel the chill of the night air seeping in and knew he was telling her the truth. It might get much colder and she was dressed for warm weather, with no shoes or socks to even keep her feet warm. Reluctantly, she climbed onto the bed, careful to keep a distance between them as he pulled the heavy fur covers over her. She fell asleep quite quickly, despite the circumstances. She was exhausted.
In the wee hours of morning, she awoke with a start. She could see her breath as the cold surrounded her and she shivered, even beneath the heavy furs. The Huntsman also stirred a bit in his sleep, but seemed more acclimated to the bitter cold that surrounded them. Alice tried to go back to sleep, but found she couldn’t. Though she wasn’t thrilled with the idea, she snuggled up to his back in an effort to keep warm.
“Come here, Alice,” he said, rolling over to face her.
Pulling her into his arms, he held onto her, keeping her warm against his muscular body as she tried, once again, to fall asleep. This time, her efforts were hampered not by the cold, but by the way her body seemed to ache for his as she lay there in his powerful arms. So much so that when he leaned down and kissed her, she didn’t resist, kissing him back and letting unbridled lust flow over her. There was no use fighting how drawn she was to him.
“I will stop if you want me to,” he told her, pulling away and looking down at her.
“Please don’t,” she managed in a raspy tone and it was all the encouragement he needed.
Alice moaned loudly as his lips found their way down her neck, planting heated kisses along the way as he drifted downward to explore her shoulders. Her hands tangled in his thick hair, pulling him closer to her as he continued moving down to her breasts. Pushing her dress aside, he pulled one of her nipples into his mouth, suckling at it hungrily as she arched her back beneath him. It seemed like forever since someone had touched her with such desire, since she had felt truly wanted. It felt like her entire body was aflame with desire.
His hands drifted down her sides as his mouth lingered on her breast, still licking and nibbling at her erect pink buds as one hand found its way between her legs to touch her already moist folds. She cooed beneath him as he found her center and manipulated it expertly, quickly bringing her to an orgasm that seemed to shatter along her entire being and leave her only wanting more from him. He was more than happy to accommodate her needs, bringing her to several more climaxes before pulling up her dress and kissing his way down her belly.
“God, you are so beautiful, Alice. I’ve wanted you from the moment I lay eyes on you.”
“You mean from the moment you lay on top of me,” she said in a raspy voice.
“Well, there is that, too. I must admit that, despite the situation, I wasn’t completely oblivious to your curves beneath me.”
Alice’s attempt to respond was cut off as his mouth landed on her clit, sucking it in and pulling at it with his teeth. Her nails dug into his back, desperate to have more of him inside of her. His tongue slipped slowly inside, lapping at her juices as he drank from her like a fountain. She bucked and spasmed beneath him as she came forcefully against his skilled tongue.
“Please, I want you inside me. I want to feel your cock,” she begged.
“That would certainly be my pleasure,” he replied, stripping off his undergarments and slipping the head of his cock inside of her, teasing her with its large, throbbing head.
“More, please, more. Fuck me,” she begged, eager to not only have him inside her but to feel every single inch pounding into her like a wild animal. It was if the old Alice who had enjoyed quiet, tender lovemaking had disappeared. The new Alice wanted to be fucked until she was screaming and begging incoherently. The new Alice wanted to be taken by this handsome, powerful stranger.
“I’ll give you everything you want and so much more,” he brea
thed, burying his cock fully inside of her as she let out a loud cry of pain. It hurt and yet felt incredible as he began fucking her with wild abandon, pumping in and out of her harder and faster with each stroke. His hands tangled in her hair, his mouth pulling at her nipples as he fucked her deeply.
“Yes, yes . . . Oh, God, yes!” she cried out, her moans echoing along the cave walls around them. He showed no signs of slowing as he filled her with his cock over and over, fueled by her cries for him to fuck her harder, faster, deeper. She felt like a wild animal in heat, only wanting more of him with every stroke. She couldn’t get enough.
Soon, she had forgotten the cold night around them. Instead, she found herself soaked with sweat from their heated encounter. She let out a scream of delight as he suddenly flipped her over, putting her on her hands and knees and taking her from behind. It felt like he was ripping her pussy apart as he buried himself in her so deeply he must surely be puncturing something. Still, she found that she enjoyed everything he was doing. She pushed back into him, meeting his every thrust with one of her own until she felt herself exploding once again.
“That’s a good girl. What else have you got for me, Alice?” he groaned, still fucking her hard and fast as she trembled with back to back orgasms that shook her small frame and spilled out around his thick cock.
Her words faded into a series of moans and groans as he slammed into her over and over, his large hands on her tiny waist to pull her back onto him with each stroke. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take as her body began to fail her, feeling weak and tired from the exertion of all her orgasms. She felt near collapse as she heard a low growl coming from his throat.
“I’m going to come. God, you feel so good, so tight. Our bodies were made for one another, I’m sure of it.”
His words were punctuated with a shudder as his body quaked against hers. She could feel the warmth of his cum as it flooded heavily against her insides and he fell away from her, exhausted. They lay there quietly in the dark for a moment, enjoying the aftermath. Then he pulled her toward him, curling her up into the crook of his muscular arm and cradling her as they fell asleep in one another’s arms until daylight began to spill into the mouth of the cave.