Claimed by the Elven King: Part One

by Cristina Rayne

  CLAIMED BY THE ELVEN KING

  PART ONE

  CRISTINA RAYNE

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2014 Cristina Rayne

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  To my family for all their support

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was the middle of the night when they came for me. Even now I can’t be sure of the time, whether they waited for me to have been asleep long enough to ensure that I would be super confused if accidentally awakened, or if they had waited until after midnight when my roommate usually headed out for her graveyard shift at the hospital. I can’t even be sure if all the fantastical things I experienced afterwards really happened or was the mother of all delusions that is still ongoing. A small part of me has never been able to let go of that small fear. All I know is that it sure felt damned real to me that night.

  Being a light sleeper, I immediately awakened, at first not certain why. I felt them that night. I know that now, but back then it was like I had awakened straight into a nightmare. I didn’t even have time to blink the sleep from my eyes before the shadows of my room seemed to come alive, forming into human-like shapes and surrounding me as silently and ethereally as fog approaching a coastline.

  Before I could make a sound, I felt the shock of several cold hands on me, lifting me from my bed, and it was suddenly like the chill of their touch entered my body in an abrupt, shocking burst that washed completely through me, making my lungs seize painfully and leaving me unable to breathe for a few terrifying seconds. As I gasped frantically for air, the little sight I still possessed in the darkness abruptly winked out until all I could see was a blackness so absolute it was as if I had suddenly gone blind.

  What was happening to me? Yet, for some reason, it never occurred to me to scream. Maybe it happened too quickly; maybe I was in shock or thought that I was still dreaming. I didn’t even struggle.

  I could feel their hands binding my arms like living manacles, others holding my legs like I was a log to be carried away between them. Then there was a sensation of traveling very rapidly, of wind blowing in my face like I had just stuck my head out the window of a car going seventy down the interstate, though I could almost swear none of us had actually moved. I still couldn’t see, and at that moment, that was more terrifying than the realization that I was being abducted.

  Then the wind abruptly ceased, and it was over. Just like that, between one breath and another.

  The shock of feeling something solid, smooth, and cold on my bare feet was akin to being doused with ice water. I had been set down on my feet, it seems, and had the shadow hands not have still had a firm grip on my arms, I would have surely collapsed.

  Only then did I find my voice, but all I could manage to ask was, “What?”

  I still can’t believe that I had been so brainless at such a crucial point, but I guess I’m as human as the next person after all. I had always fashioned myself the type to think quickly on my feet and always ready to react to whatever crisis life would throw at me, but it turns out I’m just as prone to freeze in the face of danger just like the majority of people. A major blow to my ego, for sure, but in my defense, the possibility of waking up still very much existed because what was happening was just too crazy to believe.

  Adding insult to injury, my kidnappers didn’t even bother to answer my confusion. I was simply forced to walk forward, the hands imprisoning my arms gently, but insistently, pushing me onward.

  Blinded, I saw no gain in resisting, so I walked for what seemed like hours before the hands holding my arms pulled me to an abrupt halt that nearly sent me to my knees. My captors still didn’t speak or make any sound. I couldn’t even hear any audible breathing, which completely creeped me out and made me begin to wonder whether I was still even alive.

  I heard the creak of a door swinging open, and I was once again urged forward. I immediately noticed the sound of running water, but I had no time to contemplate what this meant before I was thrust into the hands of others, and I felt the satin material of my nightgown being swiftly lifted up my body.

  “What are you doing!” I cried, finally finding the fight in me. I struggled uselessly against the surrounding bodies imprisoning me like iron bars. “Why are you…where am I? Why can’t I see?”

  “You will not be harmed,” a soft, melodic female voice near my ear assured me. The shock of hearing someone speak silenced me into immobility. Hearing a woman’s voice was as out of place as a clap of thunder in a cloudless sky.

  “Why?” I pleaded helplessly, unable to put my confusion into words.

  My captors refused to say anything more, but they quickly removed the rest of my clothing. At this point, I knew it was pointless to resist them. Where would I run? I was freaking blind!

  I gasped when I was lifted into something warm. It took a moment for my frightened mind to realize that it was water. My confusion increased when I felt my captors begin to wash me with something that felt both coarse and soft, like sponges. No inch of my body escaped them—my ears, my breasts, my groin. I knew I should have felt violated by what they were doing to me, but I couldn’t really think straight, like everything happening was as surreal as a dream. Yet some deep voice within had finally started to shout out through my confusion that all of this was very real.

  I was removed from the water, dried, and clothed in what I could only guess was a lightweight robe that glided over my skin as cool and smooth as silk, although they didn’t bother with any undergarments. I was placed on a flat, but still somewhat soft, surface, and what happened next was something that I shudder to remember now even after so many years.

  Pain!

  From one moment to the next, my whole body was saturated with pain. It was like a million tiny needles were stabbing into my body simultaneously and trying to tear me apart. Even then, I didn’t scream. I gritted my teeth and suffered my agony in silence. I did it for a sense of control, even though I knew that screaming was a release that would help ease a little of my pain. I had no clue why I had been taken, what my captors were doing to me that was causing every single nerve ending in my body to light up with pain, but I would be damned before I gave the bastards the pleasure of hearing the torment they were inflicting. “You will not be harmed” my ass!

  I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks, scalding against skin that had gone ice-cold despite the warm bath. My body felt as if it were being torn apart atom by atom.

  Only when the excruciating pain abruptly ceased what felt like two eternities later did I realize that the thing I was gripping tightly was someone’s hand, though there was something wrong with it. The skin was too soft, feeling as silky and pliable as the garment I wore.

  I felt a hand with the same texture as the one I clutched rest on my forehead as if checking for fever. The natural reaction should have been to flinch away, but instead, I felt a curious peace flood my body, spreading a pleasant warmth and washing away the lingering spasms of pain throughout my body.

  “You are strong. That’s good,” I heard that same woman say somewhere behind me.

  “For what?” I whispered, muddle-headed and fee
ling as if I were waking from a half-remembered daydream.

  “Soon.”

  Someone lifted me from the surface where I lay and carefully placed me onto my now extremely unsteady feet.

  “Why can’t I see?” I anxiously asked again, then frantically grabbed onto the arms of the person still holding me by my upper arms before my wobbly legs could give out.

  I suddenly felt like a newborn foal taking its first steps. My chances of escape were quickly falling towards zero.

  “Soon,” the woman repeated maddeningly.

  They once again forced me to walk down what felt like an endless maze of corridors, my legs still weak and unsure. What was going to happen now? Why was I taken, and by whom? What had my kidnappers done to cause me so much pain? To what end?

  I never cry just for the sake of crying, but by the time they brought me to a halt, I was damn near tears. But I didn’t give in. I nearly gave myself a headache holding my tears back. I would stay in control of at least my emotions if nothing else. At this point, it was either that or go mad with fear.

  Distracted by my internal battle to keep my emotions in check, it took me a few moments to realize that I was looking at a large door of ornately carved wood. My sight had returned!

  I immediately turned my head to catch a glimpse of my captors, but my head was instantly turned back forward before I could see anyone. One of them knocked on the door, so quickly that I didn’t even have time to turn my gaze to see the action.

  “Enter,” a deep, muffled voice called.

  The door swung open as if on its own accord, and I was ushered through so abruptly that I stumbled a bit as I crossed the threshold. I saw the figure immediately, sitting in a large armchair before a blazing fire, but still somehow almost completely hidden in the shadows. Only the light of the fire illuminated the room.

  “Leave us,” the person said, turning his head.

  I still couldn’t make out anything other than the figure had the build of a man, a useless observation when his deep voice had already given his gender away.

  Rooted in place, I was watching him so closely that I didn’t notice that my captors had released me until I heard the door shut behind me. However, I couldn’t take my eyes off him to take advantage of this fact as I watched him rise and step out of the shadows.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Sidhe,” I heard someone whisper as I stared at the entirety of the man before me with a mixture of awe and alarm—then startled, realized it was me that had just spoken.

  The man’s expression was also surprised. “Interesting,” he said, a smile lighting up his face. “To know my people—I had not anticipated this.”

  In that moment, I couldn’t have spoken to save my life. What I had unconsciously named him was more commonly known as an elf—and he was the most beautiful being I had ever laid eyes on. His hair was a golden blond that spilled loosely over his shoulders to mid-torso, the dancing flames behind him casting a contrast of orange hues and shadow throughout the ludicrously long locks that was almost hypnotic in its beauty. His eyes seemed to glow yellow-orange in the gloom that surrounded him, but I couldn’t tell if it was just a trick of the light from the flames. But what really captured my attention were the two pointed ears that were peaking through his hair.

  This had to be someone’s bad idea of a joke. There’s no way that elves could be real, that the ears I was currently looking at weren’t prosthetics. There’s no way this beautiful, impossible creature that was now staring at me curiously could be real in anything other than my dreams…

  To this day, I couldn’t tell you what he had been wearing. Once my eyes had latched onto his face, it was like all previous thoughts and memories had been seared away by the sheer realization that I was looking at a being straight out of a fantasy story.

  “Do you know why you have been brought here, Emily?” he asked.

  My heart seized hearing my name coming from that mouth. This had to be a dream, because there was no way he would know my name otherwise. Right…?

  I swallowed thickly. “I have a pretty good idea,” I replied more steadily than I thought possible.

  And I did have a good idea. One quick glance around the room was all I had needed. Why else would I have been brought to his bedroom?

  To my surprise, he chuckled. “Perhaps,” he said. “Come to me, Emily.”

  I began to steadily back up until I felt the door handle press sharply into the middle of my back.

  “I’d rather not,” I said tensely.

  Then quick as lightning, I reached my hand behind me, clumsily grabbed the handle, and tried to jerk the door open. It didn’t budge an inch.

  I dropped my hand and looked down in defeat. Honestly, what would I have done had it turned? I had been taken to Fairyland, or Underhill, or to freaking Middle Earth for all I knew. Where would I have gone?

  My eyes slowly rose to look at the elf who still stood a few feet away. Despite my escape attempt, he had not moved closer, nor had his expectant expression changed. No way out, there was only one thing left to do—I boldly obeyed his command, refusing to show him my fear. Up close, his resulting smile was like a punch in the gut, it was so stunning.

  “You are a rare one, indeed,” he said softly, raising his hands to encircle my face. “Do not fear. I won’t hurt you.”

  An elf’s hands really did feel like silk. That inane thought ran through my head as I raised my hands to his chest to feebly attempt to push him away, as successful as trying to move a brick wall since from the moment he had touched my face, a strange lethargy had begun to creep into my body. It was more reflex than anything.

  He responded by lowering his head until his lips firmly pressed against mine.

  The abrupt kiss was like hitting me in the face with a sledgehammer. My knees gave out, and I would have definitely fallen on my ass had he not caught me. I felt my mind slipping away further, my eyes closing, even as I felt myself instinctively open my mouth to accept his kiss.

  What was happening to me? His touch, his very presence was so overwhelming that it was like standing on the surface of the sun.

  I felt him lift me until I was cradled in his arms, seemingly as weightless as a feather, his lips never once leaving mine. His tongue aggressively twined with mine before it could shy away in surprise, coaxing me to join its sensual dance. Then the next thing I felt was an incredible softness at my back, and I knew that he had taken me to his bed.

  “It’s your choice now,” he whispered in my ear, making the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. “I will bed you. That is not the choice, but whether or not you wish to experience my touch or to be oblivious. It’s in my power to grant you either.”

  I couldn’t think; my mind was so hazy that his words flowed through my awareness like a whisper in the distance. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that he had done something to me. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or something that was just a part of his elven nature, but I knew I would have been seriously freaking out about my current position without it. Even if the elf had fuzzed my mind out a bit to make things easier for me, not knowing what was going on at all wasn’t something I would ever want.

  This is a dream, anyway, so what does it matter? my mind offered up with a mental equivalent of a shrug, and for some stupid reason, at that moment, I really believed it.

  “I don’t want to forget anything,” I murmured, and just like that, my mind cleared so completely that I finally was able to appreciate the fact that he was looming over me, yards of golden hair spilling down to tickle my face and neck, as large, beautiful, and majestic as an angel.

  “I did not expect this either,” he said, sounding delighted.

  He then proceeded to open my robe-like garment until my breasts were revealed. It took every ounce of self-control I had within me not to cover myself out of shyness; yet, I couldn’t look away from the intensity of the eyes I could barely see in the darkness, either.

  I felt the fingertips of one hand s
lowly, teasingly glide up my stomach until those same fingers curved around my right breast and squeezed playfully. However, instead of feeling aroused, I felt an almost overwhelming terror course through me. Although I’d had a handful of boyfriends over the years, this wasn’t something I had ever really done—lying so utterly bared and submissive to my partner, never mind be comfortable with any of them to even consider sex. I knew that all I had to do was ask for oblivion and the elf would grant my request, but for some inexplicable reason, despite my fear, I also felt that I would die if he stopped or I lost this experience.

  I closed my eyes tightly. Something definitely had come loose in my brain during the last few minutes…

  But then I felt the rose petal-like skin of his full lips firmly cover mine again, and the terror simply ceased. I hesitantly raised my hands and tangled my fingers in his hair, the delicate strands softer than even silk, feeling almost like water flowing through my fingers. I felt him smile against my lips, and that simple gesture made me shudder with pleasure.

  I was careful not to touch his ears. I don’t know why, but something about them made me feel that touching them without his permission was a big no-no, the equivalent of it being taboo for a stranger to grab a random woman’s boobs or a man’s crotch. Considering what we were doing right now and the inevitable sex that would follow, it was a stupid thing for me to worry about, but I felt I shouldn’t do it all the same.

  I could feel his thumb brushing lightly over my nipple over and over until it hardened. I moaned involuntarily and squirmed a bit as he teased the sensitive nub while devouring my lips as if they were a delectable meal and he had not eaten in months.

  It was then that I became keenly aware of the weight of his body over me—and that he was completely nude. Where one of my hands had been tightly gripping a handful of cloth at his shoulder, my fingers were now digging into soft, bare flesh. When had he taken off his clothes? I couldn’t remember a time he had paused long enough to remove anything.