by Alta Hensley
Her body hummed by the time the spanking ended. She didn't fight this one. She didn't beg for him to stop. Although the spanking hurt, it wasn't what she would consider a punishment. She needed it. Her body craved it. Her soul required it to heal. Donte spanked, allowing her to feel an emotion she thought she would never feel again… safe.
Her world was spinning hard upon the axis of desire. She wanted him more than anything. "Take me, Donte. I’ve never needed anything more. I need you more than I needed water crossing the desert to get here."
He pulled her off his lap and pressed her wanting body against the bed. In fluid motions, he removed his clothing before her eyes. "I only take what is mine."
She licked her lips in anticipation and spread her legs, beckoning. "I am yours. I have always been yours."
His eyes darkened. "Yes, that’s true. And not just because I’m the prince. But simply because you are. You are mine and will remain mine always."
He lowered his nude body on top of hers and pressed his mouth firmly to her moistened lips. Claiming her mouth, sending warning bells of what he would be claiming next, he moaned against her gasp.
He growled as he spread her thighs wider with his legs.
His hand that had just delivered pain, now lowered to her pussy to deliver pleasure.
"Donte…" she breathed, her eyes closing as she pushed her hips to meet his thrusting finger. Her juices coated his hand as he readied her.
He pressed his cock at the opening and whispered, "I want you to relax. This may still hurt like before. I’m not a small man, and this hole of yours is tight." He placed kisses all over her neck with great tenderness.
Cinder tried to do as he said, but as he slowly entered her, the pressure built until a wave of intense sensation erupted inside her. She cried out as he pressed all the way in. He paused and kissed her deeply, not moving, allowing her pussy to accept his girth. He pulled away enough so their gazes met and united just as their bodies did.
"Slow, we are going to take this very slow," he whispered hoarsely.
He began to thrust in and out of her in graceful, sensual movements. Every move left her breathless, giving her a pleasure almost too much to bear.
His lips caressed the skin of her face as he murmured, "No person has possessed my heart as you do, my sweet Cinder."
To feel his body take her so completely took her to a level of joy that brought tears to her eyes. His tender movements moved in and out in such a slow dance of seduction she didn't realize the crescendo of ecstasy was sneaking up on her. Without warning, her body exploded around his plunging cock as she screamed out his name.
"I am yours," she screamed against his chest. "I am yours!"
20
The morning sun dipped behind the clouds, chilling the air with its shadow. Cinder sat on a wooden bench on the back side of the main structure with a blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders. A gentle breeze blew her hair into her face. Blackbirds cawed in the sky—their fragile wings carrying them through the air above the palms with ease. The yard was quiet, peaceful, and serene. It reminded Cinder of the palace. A life she wasn't sure she would ever live again.
She missed the life of the harem, and everything she had experienced at the palace. She couldn't help but feel that a chapter in all their lives was over, never to be read again. She worried for all of them. Worried that the rest of the harem would not survive an attack by Jaden. The unknown haunted her.
The closing of the door behind her shoulder broke the silence. "It’s time we teach you how to fight." Donte pulled a bow from behind his back, his devious, coy smile making her nervous. "Are you ready to learn how to shoot it?"
The hair on her arms stood, and her stomach churned with the thought of holding a weapon in her hands, let alone shooting it. Weapons and violence were against everything she believed in. She was a fighter, but not a killer… at least not by choice. But she supposed she actually was a killer now after she had killed her attacker brutally.
Why did she need to learn even more ways to kill? She knew she was foolish by even questioning. The war had just begun.
"Why? Do you think Jaden will come here next?"
"We are safe for now. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to learn how to defend yourself."
The thought of killing another person nearly made her want to vomit. Her most recent kill would haunt her for the rest of her life.
"Do you see those trees over there?" he said, pointing north from where they stood. Ten or twenty yards away, two small palms were spread a few feet apart from one another.
"So do you truly do believe there will be a war? One where I’ll be expected to fight?” she asked.
He ignored her first question and handed her the bow. "Everyone should know how to shoot an arrow, Cinder. Never depend on someone else for your survival. Never."
He truly had no idea what she had been through, but she wasn’t exactly going to share the details. She feared her fragile mind could break again.
He began explaining his technique, his fingers gliding over the wood, string, and arrowhead, pointing at different parts as he described their function and demonstrated how to stand and release. He slipped a bracer on her left arm and tightened it, then assisted her into a leather breastplate as well.
"This is just to protect your delicate skin from the sting of the bowstring," he cautioned her.
Next, he stood behind her, his hands on her hips as he guided her into position at right angles to the target trees. He nocked an arrow just below the bead, and helped her to draw the bowstring back fully to the anchor point. His arms were around her, distracting her. His breath was warm on her neck.
"Relax. Archery has more in common with art than war. It’s a dance between you, your target, and the tools in your hands. Feel the breeze in your hair. Where’s it coming from? How will it affect the arrow's flight path? Breathe in, breathe out. Hold your back straight, keep your posture tall, proud, as if you had a crown on your head."
His words floated around her, embracing her. Under his guidance, she sighted the arrow and relaxed her fingers. The string snapped, striking her breastplate and bracer, and she was suddenly grateful for the protective coverings Donte had given her. The arrow flew with only a slight waver, striking the closer tree near its base.
"Again," Donte said. He stepped back, guiding her to nock the next arrow on her own. His face beamed with pride.
She released five more arrows before Donte led her out to view the targets. Different colored feathered arrows stuck out from the target.
"You have great aim, Cinder. You’re a natural as I had no doubt you would be. You’ll always be my perfect fighter, my warrior," he said.
She liked pleasing him. "Thank you. But you need to tell me the real reason for this lesson."
Donte smiled. "I can’t get anything by you." His expression grew serious. "The last of our allied forces is coming."
"You say that as if that’s a bad thing." Cinder grew anxious.
"You knew this day would come." Worry blanketed his face. "They’re marching through the desert to relocate here. Then, as you asked, we will prepare for war. For complete annihilation of Jaden." He reached for her hands and held them to his chest. "I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I also have reason to believe that Nico is alive."
Her loud gasp came simultaneously with her tears. "What? He is? Oh my God!"
Donte swiped at her tears she didn’t even know were falling. "We believe so. He’s injured a bit, but my men are bringing him here." He kissed her tear-stained cheek. "We’ll know for certain when they arrive. If indeed this man is Nico, I’ll forever be in his debt for saving you."
Cinder released the breath she had been holding. "But? I see there’s more in the way you look."
"It is time we get ready, Cinder. It is time we conquer Lazar and make the palace ours once again."
"We?"
He nodded. "Yes, we. I’ll never send you away again. I need my fighter standing
by my side."
Cinder watched the faces of the other harem women as Donte spoke to the higher ranking commanders in hushed tones of the war's developments and as, with intense remorse, they named all who had died, breaking her heart even more. Fear, anger, denial—she saw all of it written large on their faces. Donte did not seem to see it on them, for he only looked at her as he explained what would come next: they were to prepare for battle. All that the prince had built and worked for was in the hands of Jaden; who came to ransack the palace and claim it as their own. These beasts were now in her gardens where she loved to tend to her flowers and walk peacefully, listening to the call of a peacock or a coo of a dove. Her paradise was no more.
Cinder cleared her throat and unfurled one of her shapely legs from beneath her, savoring the cool kiss of the room's tile on her skin. She thought of how much she missed the warmth of the ornate rugs she sat on at the palace as she spoke. "Are we safe? Will Jaden come and attack Casen like they did Lazar?"
She watched Donte's face contort with the pain of telling a hard truth. He finally looked away from her and took in the expressions of the other women.
He inhaled deeply before answering Cinder's question. "You will all be guarded thoroughly. My men and I will not let any harm come to any of you again. We have soldiers to guard you around the clock. All of you. They are among our best, and are the strongest men we could find. They’ll let no harm befall you," he said.
"And what if we are taken anyway? What if by some strange fate one or all of us is left unattended and we’re stolen? It will mean certain death, you know this!" Cinder did not mean to be insolent but it was her fear that spoke through her. Gruesome thoughts of Maysa’s death washed over her.
"That’s what I wanted to tell you all. For the next few weeks, we’ll dedicate as much time as possible to teaching you how to defend yourselves. You’ll learn how to fight," Donte declared, clearly hating the words himself.
Elbi gasped and asked, "You want us all to fight? To kill?" Her voice was high-pitched and shrill, like that of a terrified girl.
Cinder watched as Donte looked at Elbi, his eyes pleading that she, that all of them, understand. "Only if you must. I can’t bear the thought of you being at the whim of a Jaden soldier." His eyes now scanned the faces of all of the women and finally came to rest back upon Cinder.
"Do you know when Jaden will be here?" Cinder asked.
The other women watched them speak, their eyes flitting from Donte to Cinder and back. Cinder had earned their respect and though she was typically quite timid in her speech, especially to Donte, she spoke now with a fervor and a fear they all felt.
"We sent men to spy at the dunes and see if they were close. As of last night, they couldn’t be found. Our other men are skimming the desert, looking for them. We believe that they are still a few weeks away. Even on the fastest horse, the journey here is long. And we are hidden well," Donte answered.
"What about the training of the harem?" Mistress Lana piped up. "If they are busy learning to fight, when shall we have time to train them in their duties as a harem girl? If we teach them dominance, how are we to teach them submission at the same time?"
The women began to whisper all around, and Donte did nothing to silence their mild clucking.
"The harem must change. Survival is what we must focus on or the harem will no longer exist. The best way we can protect all of you is by teaching you how to protect yourselves." He took a deep breath and looked around at the commanders who nodded in agreement. "If something were to happen to us, we don’t want to leave you all helpless," Donte added. "We assure you, we’ll do everything we can within our power to restore the harem as it once was. But for now, I ask you to respect my men. I also expect to you to respect me. Not as the prince who ruled the Palace of Lazar, but as the general of this new army," Donte said with a renewed sense of authority.
Despite the fact Cinder was uncomfortable with the idea of learning how to fight, after learning the art of submission and seduction, she saw Donte hurting with all the upheaval, and her heart opened to him. "You’ll always have our respect. And if you say to us now that you believe this will protect us, then that is what we’ll do of course," Cinder said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Mistress Krin leaned forward and rose to her feet, gracefully. She brushed some of the dust from her silk robes. "The training begins tomorrow morning?" she asked.
The other mistresses began to rise, following her lead.
Without hesitation, Donte replied, "Before dawn."
The mistresses motioned for all the women of the harem to follow them and began to file out but Cinder stayed, looking at Donte for a moment hoping he would ask her to remain. She didn’t want to leave his side ever again, and hoped he felt the same way.
"You’ll be safe with the other women, Cinder," he reassured her.
"Of course. Good night, sir," she said as she hurriedly left, the echoes of her footfalls reverberating through the empty halls. His words hurt, but she struggled to push them aside. He had a war to fight, and she had to be patient and understanding that his focus had to be directed elsewhere. Although with the memories of the night before still lingering, she couldn’t help but feel greedy and want more.
21
Cinder awoke to the sound of men beneath her window, talking quietly. Their voices were far away at first but as the sleep left her body and the fog cleared from her mind, she could hear a heated discussion. She heard Donte, whose voice she knew, as well as a commander, and then another one. As she tried to discern what they were discussing from afar, she watched the moonlight dapple the walls of her chamber. The sky was still dark, and morning was a few hours away yet. She heard the locusts chirping in the wasteland, mixed with the heavy breathing of the women of the harem. They were all scattered about on makeshift beds in an empty, cold room. She stood and wrapped her half naked body in a heavier piece of muslin. Cinder tiptoed toward the window and leaned against the edge. She did not want to be seen, but she eavesdropped anyway. When she closed her eyes to concentrate on the third voice, she could hear him more clearly.
"You informed me that we’ll be training the harem tomorrow. To be honest, Donte, I don't know if they’ll ever be able to learn what we can teach them. Especially in such a short period of time, and if we are forced to leave here earlier than planned…" the man spoke with a quiet urgency.
"I understand your concerns, Nico, but you’ll do with this time whatever you can to make these women strong. If the Jaden army somehow manages to take them, the only hope they have of survival is going to be whatever ferocity they can manage in the first few minutes of their capture. Even if they do escape, they’ll need the fortitude to make it through the swaths of the desert for any amount of time and then find their way back to us," Donte said.
Nico! Nico! It was him. Cinder had no doubt by the sound of his voice. Nico had survived the attack!
"These women have never even known the outside world… or at least not in a very, very long time. They’ve never gone a day without food in ages, or at least since joining the Palace of Lazar. They avoid the hot sun by bathing in the pools of Lazar's garden or lounging under the palms. If they’re captured, death might be a better fate for them than traveling through the desert alone with no water, no food, and probably not even some idea of what direction they should be going." Nico said this with more urgency, and Cinder shuddered at the thought of what the man was implying. In her mind, it did not really seem that far-fetched; the fate he was describing.
"I’m forever in your debt, Nico. You saved Cinder's life and almost lost your own in doing so. I’m asking if you’ll help us train them. If you say no, I’ll respect that. But don't question my decision that I made with some of the best commanders and soldiers in what’s left of this world," Donte warned.
There was a long pause and then Nico spoke. "I’ll do what I can. I just hope they’re prepared for what it will take."
Cinder slid down the side of the wa
ll until her knees were curled up to her chest. She hugged herself in consolation. The men's voices fell away from her ears now, and she felt the tears well over her eyelids and track down her face.
She was happy for Nico still being alive.
She was scared.
She was overwhelmed.
Her body didn’t know how to process the onslaught of emotions other than to just cry.
She lifted her head and looked around the bare chamber. She had grown accustomed to tapestries, elegant pillows, jewels, and gifts from the prince… Donte, that always dotted the room. She remembered how the golden trinkets and baubles would gleam in the moonlight. When the Palace of Lazar was safe, they had all lived in peace. Would that day ever come again?
Cinder had fallen asleep on the floor of the chamber, beneath the window. When she heard the footsteps coming toward her, it broke her fitful rest, and she immediately noticed that the sun had not yet risen. Her eyes still filled with sleep, she sat up straight and began to take to her feet as Nico came toward her. For a moment, she considered rushing to him and embracing in a hug, but she could see that he meant business, and had been ordered by the prince to complete a task. She didn’t want to get in the way of that. She had already caused the man such grief and had nearly gotten him killed.
"Ladies, forgive me for barging in. But there’s no time to waste. Can you all get ready please?" Nico asked, as he surveyed the waking harem.
The lanterns and candles had blown out while she had slept on the floor, and the room was still mostly dark, which she was grateful for. It didn't bother her that Nico had come in unannounced, but she didn’t know how he would react to seeing her which it was clear he hadn’t yet.
