The Dark Forest: A Collection Of Erotic Fairytales

by Zoe Blake

  “Ha. Ha,” responded a bemused Bea.

  “So a Beauty and the Beast with two beasts. Did we do anything kinky like that time you dreamed you were Cinderella?” asked Rhys with a knowing look.

  Bea blushed in response. “Maybe.”

  Rhys took her mug from her and set it down on the bedside table before crawling on top of her…growling.

  “Stop! Stop! You know I have a busy day today,” laughed Bea as she beat against his naked chest.

  “How I could forget? Your first day as CEO of Yensid Perfumes.”

  “Yes, and we are launching our new perfume, Primal.”

  “Is that the one that smells like roses?” asked Rhys as he reluctantly rolled to his side, allowing her to rise.

  “You think they all smell like roses,” laughed Bea as she tossed her gold silk nightgown over her head.

  Rhys sat up and growled again.

  Bea started to slowly back away, holding her arms out to ward him off. “Now Rhys…I told you I have a busy day!”

  “Then you shouldn’t have awakened the beast, love,” teased Rhys with a look down at his fully erect cock pushing against his royal blue pajama pants.

  Bea giggled as she turned to run away…knowing he would give chase.

  Just like in her dream.

  The End

  About the Author

  Zoe Blake

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  #1 Best Selling Author in Victorian/Historical Erotic Romance

  We are all attracted to the forbidden. Addicted to the rush we get from reading something naughty...something kinky. We love to lose ourselves in the fantasy. The powerful lord who sweeps the lady away to his remote estate to ravish her. The cowboy who takes the sassy city girl over his knee to teach her a lesson. The devilishly charming pirate who seduces his beautiful captive. I write those erotic fantasies.

  Don’t miss these exciting titles by Zoe Blake and Blushing Books!

  His Dark Obsession

  Papa’s Little Pain Princess

  The Submission of Little Emmie

  Disciplining the Maid

  Penelope’s Punishment

  Chosen to be His Little Angeline

  The Duke’s Possession

  A Captive of Chance

  Ride Hard Series

  The Cowboy’s Revenge

  Check out Zoe’s blog at www.zblakebooks.com

  Twitter: @zblakebooks

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/zoe.blake.58511

  Sleep, My Beauty

  A Sleeping Beauty Story

  Alta Hensley

  Sleep, My Beauty Warning:

  Sleep, my beauties. But when you dream, be warned. You will discover dark taboos, delicious fantasies, and sexual delights you may never want to wake from.

  Alta Hensley

  Chapter One

  Briar

  Once upon a time, there were blue skies, and bright sunrays. But today, and any other day from this point on, the ash fell from the sky, casting a thick layer of darkness and despair. I leaned against the open doorway, reached out with my palm, and allowed the grey particles to fall into my hand.

  “I have to. There is no other choice,” I said in a low voice. I looked over my shoulder at the three women I had grown to love who sat by a low burning fire, and swallowed the large lump in the back of my throat. “I don’t want to leave you. But if I don’t leave now, they will come and take me anyway, punishing all who try to stop them.”

  The frailest of the women nodded in understanding. Dear Jane could barely stand nowadays, but still had a strong spirit I admired greatly. “They will come for you regardless, true.” The other women, Anna and Ruth, nodded silently in agreement. You could see that it pained them to do so, but these women had always been honest and direct with me since the day they found me and offered shelter in their home.

  Word had spread that the Maleficent Army was moving in, and it was a matter of a day, maybe even hours, before they would storm our small village, looting and killing all to get what they wanted.

  Women.

  They wanted women.

  They were on the hunt for all the young, beautiful females under the age of twenty-five, by order of the most powerful man left standing on this charred and destroyed earth—Grimm Maleficent. Decades of war, bombs, violent attacks, and a ruthless way of living had left very little of what once was a modern, high-tech society. The thick layer of grey destruction dripped from the atmosphere, casting what was left of civilization into a deep and dark slumber from the life we once lived. The world had changed drastically. People merely survived. Their souls cast in an eternal sleep.

  Nothing but simple existence.

  Nothing but emotionless breaths purely to meet the basic needs of life.

  Nothing but a walking nightmare underneath the doom of suffocating air.

  The weak became weaker. The poor even poorer. Very few people of power existed, but the few who remained were the most evil of them all.

  Chills ran up my spine at the mere thought of Grimm Maleficent. The tales of a pure monster were enough to have the man feared by all. He and his army had risen from the ashes and had become even stronger with the embers of the world sizzling around him. I knew his army was marching my way, and when they reached my small village consisting of less than ten structures, they would slowly and mercilessly kill all who stood in their way.

  I had no choice. I couldn’t run. Where would I run to? I couldn’t hide. They would find me. I couldn’t fight. They would win. And since I was the only woman under the age of twenty-five who resided in Hollow Valley, I needed to surrender without a fight, for the sake of everyone else. It wouldn’t be fair to the women, who watched me with tears in their eyes, to attempt to harbor what Maleficent would eventually obtain anyway. They would die trying—I knew this—but I couldn’t allow that to happen. I would sacrifice. I had no choice.

  “When I think about the things they will do to you,” Ruth said as she dabbed the tears in her eyes with a handkerchief that had long lost its stark white color only to be replaced with a dull grey. Grey like the world. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing, knowing… well, just knowing.”

  “Ruth! Hush,” Jane scolded. “She doesn’t need to be thinking of those awful things right now. We need to help her stay strong. They’re coming, and there isn’t anything we can do about it.”

  My shoulders sagged in defeat as I watched the older lady scowl. They knew. I knew. Every single woman who wasn’t diseased or maimed—which was rare—would eventually belong to Maleficent. His appetite for sexual pleasures that crossed into a realm of dark erotic horrors were tales that kept any innocent awake with nightmares. Devious kinks, perverse taboos going beyond the most devilish of imaginations. Maleficent was a sadist, and although I really did not know what that truly meant, I did know that it was something to fear.

  “It’s time, child,” Anna said, motioning for me to come sit on the small wooden stool that rested at her feet.

  I knew what the woman wanted, and what all the women would want to do as well. It was custom. A tradition. A way to say goodbye but forever mark the person leaving. The people saying goodbye would all leave a lasting farewell. A slice of the skin—a scar forever to remind.

  Walking over to the stool, I unbuttoned the top buttons of my tunic while taking the slow but deliberate steps toward the final parting from the only women I knew and cared about. Silently sitting down, with my back facing Anna, I lowered the fabric of my shirt, exposing my shoulder blade fully. From the corner of my eye, I could see Ruth reaching for the only knife in the house. The one we used to carve the dried meat of old wild game carcasses we stumbled on while foraging, or to divide a discovered root into four equal parts for the daily meal. It wasn’t the sharpest, but it would do for what its purpose would be today.

  Anna held her hand out, and Ruth placed it on her open palm. “As I say goodbye to you forever, I give you the gift of courage.” She sliced the knife in a straight li
ne down the flesh of my shoulder, ignoring the hiss of pain that escaped between my clenched teeth. “May you always have it.”

  Jane pushed her chair over with her feet, grunting as the extra exertion took whatever reserves of energy she had left. She reached for the blade, and sliced another line down my shoulder. “As I say goodbye to you forever, I give you the gift of endurance. May you always have it.”

  The searing sting from the cuts brought tears to my eyes, but I refused to allow them to fall. The cuts were gifts of love, and I needed to fight the superficial pain and concentrate on the deeper emotion and energy connecting me to the women as they offered the only thing they had of any worth, though not of monetary value. As tradition dictated, the loved ones would offer a trait of theirs that they valued greatly but would be willing to sacrifice to another. This farewell ceremony consisted only of three bloody slices to my flesh, a far cry from what others had endured. As a child, I could remember when villagers would say goodbye to the soldiers, both men and women, leaving for battle, and each remaining person—not able to fight—would mark the back of the departing with the same bloody knife, offering their farewell gift. The sign of a true warrior who had left behind all that they once loved would be a shoulder or back scarred with marks from people who were forced to say goodbye forever.

  In this world, everything was forever. The belief of hope had long expired, and no one believed or lived by looking toward the future for a possible good outcome. Hope dissipated right along with the sunrays—nothing but grey, dread, and despair in its place.

  Ruth helped Anna out of her seat and to another so that she could sit behind me with the blade. She placed the tip of the metal to my flesh and pressed firmly, barely breaking the skin. “As I say goodbye to you forever,” she slowly lowered the knife down the length of my shoulder, “I give you the gift of submission.” As Ruth reached the end of the cut, I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the blood from my wounds drip down the side of my back, running along the grooves of my ribcage. “May you always have it… and understand it fully.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to stare at the woman, slightly confused as to why she would alter a time honored tradition and ceremony by changing the verse. Although, when I looked into Ruth’s eyes, I could see the woman had wanted to offer something extra. It was her final farewell gift, and she simply wanted to give a little bit more.

  Raising my tunic—not caring about the bloodstains that would occur—I watched my dirty fingers fiddling with the buttons as an excuse not to look at the women. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want to break down and shake with fear. It was my duty to remain strong. I was no different than all the others who had left before me. Everyone would eventually leave one way or another.

  Taking a deep breath, I made my way to the doorway and paused with my back to the women. Without turning to face them, I said, “As I say goodbye to you forever, I give you the gift of memory. May you always have it.”

  Walking out the door and down the dirt path, I knew it would only be a matter of time until I walked right up to the army to surrender. I didn’t know what that meant, or what consequences would occur from such an act, but I had no other choice. I didn’t look back once as I crested the hill that would remove any sight of my village behind me.

  Never look back. Never look back.

  Those were words I told myself time and time again when I had to leave or say goodbye to others. Those were the words I chanted when I walked away from my charred childhood home, knowing that not a single soul but myself had survived. Those were the words I recited as I tried to block out the image of my mother’s eyes, closed as if she were only asleep, but while my bloody father stared lifelessly up at me, eyes wide open. One parent looked so peaceful while the other looked so tortured, even in death.

  As I trailed up another rolling hill, I concentrated on the cadence of my heartbeat to move my hungry and tired body forward. Beat after beat, I marched, until the sound of the beats grew in intensity. Glancing up toward the horizon, I realized that the sounds were not from me but from the approaching Maleficent army. I had found them, or they had found me.

  I stood in place, hoping that zero movement on my behalf would signal to them from a distance that I meant no harm. I would not attack, nor try to run. How one sacrifices to save others, I didn’t know. But all I could do now was stand in place and wait.

  Luckily, my plan seemed to work as a large caravan of men, both marching and on horseback, approached me. A large, covered, wooden wagon with bars on the windows was being dragged by mules. It slowly made its way behind the soldiers. At a glance, I assumed it was a prison transport of some kind.

  “So what do we have here?” a soldier asked as he rode up beside me, gazing down in both fascination and disgust. I knew I wasn’t clean, and my tattered clothes reeked of filth, built up over days of no access to fresh water. I had long ago given up looking into a mirror because the ghastly woman who always stared back at me haunted my dreams.

  “My name is Briar Rose. I am twenty-four years old and want to surrender myself to the Maleficent army. I come from Hollow Valley and am the only woman of age. Rather than wasting the time of your men to come fetch me, I decided it best to come and meet you instead.” I desperately hoped that my attempt to ward the army off with my practiced speech would save my home from any destruction from these brutes.

  The man laughed and called out over his shoulder to his men, “This little rat is by far the most foolish woman I have ever encountered. She is here to willingly give herself over to Maleficent.”

  The men laughed and mumbled their agreements in response, but I stood proud, refusing to let them take away the courage I was just given as a farewell gift.

  The leader of the army focused his attention back on me as I willed my body not to shake before him. His stare bored into my skin and seemed to sear my frail bones. He licked his lips slowly as he clearly was considering all his options. “Very well. Since you have decided to make it easier on yourself by not putting up a fight, the least we can do is spare you the pain of one.” He motioned for the man driving the mobile prison to dismount and take care of me. “Put this beauty to sleep, and let’s get her back to join the others. We still have a few more villages to hit on our way before nightfall.”

  The man rushed to me and reached for my hand. He grabbed my index finger and flipped it over. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out a small metal syringe, and pricked my finger with the needle before I even had the chance to pull away. A small drop of blood remained. I studied the tiny droplet, confused, trying to figure out why he would have done such a thing. He glared up into my face with a wicked smile as my eyelids grew heavy and my vision blurred. I tried to blink away the menacing fog, but the wave of defenselessness grew in intensity.

  The prick of the finger…

  Every muscle in my body weakened as the last words I heard faintly in the far off distance were, “Sleep well, beauty.”

  Chapter Two

  Briar

  My mind woke before my eyes could open. Whatever the man had pricked my finger with had put me in a deep slumber, and my eyelids still suffered the effect. Testing to see if I could move any other part of my body, I was grateful to see that I could, although my muscles screamed with fatigue as the simple motion of lifting my arm seemed to take every last ounce of strength I had left. Shifting my weight some, I could feel something warm on both sides of me.

  Skin? Bodies? Were there people lying beside me? Were they alive? Dead?

  I didn’t have enough strength to sit up or move much more than what I had just managed with my arm. I could hear the wheels of the wagon crunching on the gravel of the road as my body gently rocked and jolted with the motion of the carriage. I was being transported—this much I could figure out without the aid of my vision.

  It seemed like hours had passed, although I dozed in and out of sleep, so judging time was almost impossible. But with the passing of time, I was eventually able to open my eye
s and glance around the dark space. The warmth I had felt earlier was indeed from people, who appeared to at least be breathing. There had to be at least twenty or so women sleeping in all different awkward positions, as if their lifeless bodies had just been flung inside the moving cell with no regard for comfort. Each woman was completely nude, and with a quick glance down, I noticed I was no different than they were. Someone had removed all my clothes and my shoes.

  “Don’t let them know you are awake,” a voice whispered from a shadowed corner.

  I tried to make out the silhouette of the figure who loomed in the dark, but couldn’t clearly see. It had to be one of the captured women, though.

  “Lie down, close your eyes, and when everyone starts to wake up, do exactly what the men order you to do. Fighting them will be useless, and all it will do is make them prick your finger again, but this time they will give you a serum that you will not wake up from and they will toss you over Moher cliff.”

  Moher cliff? That had to be at least a day or more’s travel from where I had first surrendered myself. Had we really been traveling that long? Yet, the pungent smell of body odor and human waste told me that indeed a great amount of time had passed.

  “How do you know all this?” The rasp in my voice and the lack of saliva in my mouth had me desperate for a drink of water. Although it wouldn’t be the first time in my life I had a thirst that would not be quenched any time soon.

  “I was already one of the sleeping beauties. I escaped and tried my best to hide from Maleficent.” The woman paused. “I don’t know what he will do to me when I return.”

  “Maleficent?”

  “No, my trainer. Maleficent rarely doles out the punishment. He just commands it. Whatever Maleficent says, the trainer is the one to do it. Each beauty has one.”