by Sky Winters
“Bolstoy!” an older woman shrieked as they appeared from the edge of the woods beyond.
“Mother!” The Huntsman replied. “Come and meet Alice.”
His mother walked toward her in greeting, a broad smile on her face. As she drew closer, she stopped, a look of recognition on her face. Alice realized her gaze was focused on the compass just before she dropped to her knees in front of her.
“Oh, great mother of our new leader,” she said, her head bowed.
“What? Wait. No,” Alice replied, reaching to help the woman to her feet. Alice noted that she looked toward The Huntsman as if to ask an unspoken question. He nodded his head, but then gave her a look as if to tell her to remain silent.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Alice,” his mother replied as other members of the village began to gather around and dropped to their knees before her as they took note of her compass.
“No, please. I am not special and not worthy. I’m just Alice. Please rise, all of you,” she told them, looking toward The Huntsman as if to ask what this was all about.
“They recognize the compass, Alice. They know its meaning,” he told her.
“But I’ve no intentions of fulfilling that prophecy,” Alice replied.
“I’d say you’ve no choice now,” his mother began, but she was quickly cut off by The Huntsman.
“Mother, Alice is very tired after our journey and needs her rest. Can you please make her a place to lie down for a while and perhaps a bite to eat? I’m sure she is famished.”
“Of course, Bolstoy. If you will take her to the house, I’ll fetch her a hot soup and broth while you show her to the spare guest room at our house.”
“That would be lovely, Mother,” he replied, leading Alice to a large stone house not far from the center of town where they had arrived. Alice noted how everyone watched her as she made her way along with him. They truly believed in this foolish prophecy, it seemed. Another thought occurred to her as they walked and she chuckled as she turned to him.
“Bolstoy?” she chided.
“A truly awful name that continually got heckled as “ball’s toy” when I was a child. Is it no wonder I prefer to let people just address me by a generic huntsman nomre?”
“I suppose we all have our childhood traumas,” Alice said softly, placing her hand on his arm and stroking it softly with affection.
“I could ravish you right now if we weren’t about to step beneath my mother’s roof,” he replied.
“Don’t tell me that you are one of those men who can’t be naughty under his parents’ roof?” she teased.
“Oh, it’s not that at all,” he said. “It’s this.”
Pushing open the door, Alice was immediately aware of the noise level in the house. There were kids everywhere, running wild through the house and laughing playfully.
“Sisters and brothers?”
“No. My siblings are grown. These are my brother Lewis’s children. His wife had one of the largest litters in village history. Twelve, all surviving and, as you can see, thriving. He and she are away on a quest and mother has the children until they return.”
Alice considered this, her mind wandering to an unforeseen future with The Huntsman. Is this what she could expect if their relationship grew? What if they got married and decided to have children? No way did she want twelve children at once. Two at once was too many. She dismissed her thoughts, reminding herself that she was reading far too much into their sexual trysts.
“I hope you have some earplugs if I am to sleep,” she laughed.
“You won’t need them. Come on,” he told her, taking her hand and leading her to an elevator in the center of the house.
Alice looked around as the glass cylinder lowered into the ground and stopped on a lower level. She was quite surprised by the modern convenience in what had struck her as a stone house that had most likely been standing for centuries. Still, she noted that once they stepped out and the door closed behind them, it was cool and quiet on the lower level.
“See? You’ll be down here,” he told her, walking down a hallway and showing her to a rather large, richly decorated room that would rival even the finest suite at the Ritz Carlton.
“Wow, this is something else,” she replied.
“Yes and the children aren’t allowed down here, but it is frequented with other boarders and staff, so severely lacking in privacy. Still, I will be just down the hall if you need me. No one will bother you here.”
“Thank you. I do appreciate your help, though I know I haven’t always been pleasant to you.”
“You were pretty pleasant to me this morning in the shower, as well as the night before,” he replied, pulling her to him and kissing her. Their kiss was disrupted by a woman clearing her throat behind them. Alice snapped back to see his mother standing in the doorway with a tray in her hands.
“I’ve brought you some food, Alice,” she said, her face a bit flushed.
“Thank you so much,” Alice replied as The Huntsman stepped forward and took the tray, sitting it on a nearby table.
“I’ll leave you to eat, Alice. I’m going to step down the hall to speak to my mother for a few moments, but I will be back very soon.”
Alice nodded and sat down to eat. The food tasted delicious. She had not realized just how hungry she had been, but now realized that she was absolutely ravenous. Finishing off the entire bowl of soup, the bread and a large glass of lemonade in a matter of minutes, she went to lie down, falling fast asleep. When she awoke, she realized it was very quiet and that The Huntsman sat in a chair near her door, watching her.
“How long have you been there?” she asked.
“Long enough,” he replied.
“Did I sleep very long?”
“Almost a full day, but that’s okay. You needed to rest.”
Alice jumped up from the bed. A whole day! That was ridiculous. Why hadn’t he woke her up and why was she starving again?
“I can’t believe I slept so long!”
“I can. If you want to get a shower and get dressed, we will go up to dinner with the family. Mother bought you some clean clothes to wear at the market.”
“She didn’t have to do that.”
“She didn’t mind at all. Trust me, she was more than happy to do it.”
“I can’t believe how kind everyone is being to me. Are they always so nice to strangers or is it only because they believe the lore about the compass I am wearing?”
“Both, but you still don’t believe it?”
“No. I’m afraid I just can’t.”
“You will, in time.”
“We shall see.”
“Yes, we shall. I’ll let you get your shower and then I’ll be back to collect you.”
“Thanks,” Alice replied, kissing him softly on the lips before he left. She was surprised when he returned only a short time later, when she was barely out of the bath.
“We have to go, Alice.”
“Okay. Just let me get dressed.”
“You need to hurry,” he said impatiently.
“Why? Are all those children going to devour all the food before I get there?” she teased.
“No time for that, I’m afraid. We will get you some food on the run. There is trouble brewing.”
“What trouble?”
“No time, Alice. We need to get going.”
Alice dressed hurriedly and followed him, instinctively heading back toward the elevator they had come down on. Instead he pulled her in the opposite direction, directing her toward a small stairwell.
“We need to go out through the tunnel entrance. We can’t afford to be seen leaving through the front entrance.”
“Are you okay? You seem a bit . . . different.”
“I’m just trying to get you out of here in a hurry and you don’t seem to grasp the urgency of the situation,” he said in an annoyed voice.
“Okay,” she snapped back, following him quickly and quietly up the stairs that led to a serie
s of tunnels and eventually, an exit hidden in the ground that led to just beyond the village perimeter. Taking her hand, he pulled her from the hole and ran rapidly to a waiting carriage. Too late, Alice realized that something was quite wrong with this. She watched as The Huntsman shifted shapes, taking the form of a very petite woman with an abnormally large head. On the top of her head sat a ridiculously bejeweled crown and, in the center of it, the image of a bear.
“You aren’t a terribly bright one, are you, my dear Alice?” the Evil Queen said, snapping her fingers. Alice turned to run back toward the tunnels, but two large men in armor snatched her up by either arm and forced her into the carriage, where she was quickly shackled to a metal pole. The Queen climbed in on the other side, lifted by her guards, and sat across from her with a smirk.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“I’m afraid I just did,” the Queen replied, tapping on the side of the carriage to indicate she was ready to go. The carriage lunged forward, carrying Alice toward an uncertain fate.
Chapter Eight
The carriage had moved quickly through the forest as Alice’s distress grew greater. Not only was she frightened out of her mind, but she felt quite nauseous and everything seemed to ache. No doubt it was a result of the long journey in the days before and stress. Of course, at present, she didn’t see the stress getting any better. Unless, of course, she lost her head – something that seemed like an actual possibility based on the endless chatter of the Evil Queen.
“They tell me that you are the mother of the future leader of all shifters. You do realize what that means, do you not?”
Alice refused to speak a word to the woman, instead focusing her gaze toward the little light that filtered in through the covered window. She tried to concentrate on her memories of The Huntsman. She could see his face, feel his touch, and almost smell him. But as much as she filled her head with more pleasant things, the shrill voice of the oddly shaped woman pricked its way in.
“You seem like a very dull girl to me. I find it shocking that the universe would select you to give birth to such an important figure in our history. Why, you aren’t even of this world, are you now? You’re an otherworldler. I’ve seen your kind here before. There was a young woman named Elizabeth who came from there to here once. She had flaming red hair and bright blue eyes like yours. Of course, she left with a very unfortunate scar where one of my guards lashed her with a sword.”
Alice’s head jerked suddenly in the Queen’s direction. There was no doubt in her mind that she was talking about her grandmother, the one who had handed her the necklace shortly before her death. She had a long scar that ran just above her breasts and she had often placed her fingers on it, as if to remember its origin, but never told how it had come to be. She had been here and had gotten home. How?
Another question quickly came to mind, and Alice wondered why she hadn’t considered it before. For some reason, the compass had skipped a generation, but why? Hadn’t The Huntsman told her it was passed from mother to daughter? Why had it skipped her mother? Alice puzzled over these thoughts as the Queen continued to speak.
“I must say that you are, by far, the most boring travel companion I have ever had the misfortune to travel with. I can’t for the life of me understand why either my son or those musty wolves would want to be with you. Of course, I suppose that it has more to do with carnal desires than conversation. I’d say that is a good thing considering your obvious dim wits.”
Alice thought she might pull her hair out before she got out of the carriage with this vile woman, who never shut up. It was if that large head of hers was filled with useless commentary that she felt must be shared, no matter how offensive or unimportant it might be to another.
“I don’t suppose it matters. As long as you are able to give me a proper heir to the throne. Oswald is my only son, but I’m afraid he is unfit to rule. Such a bumbling idiot that boy is. Once he puts a boy in your belly, he can be dispatched and his son can take the throne. I’m afraid it’s the only way to ensure that the legacy of my bear clan survives. I can’t just let the new shifter leader be born into the wolf clan. It would completely spoil my day, I’m afraid.”
Alice was appalled that the Evil Queen intended to force her into having relations with the vile Prince Oswald, but what could be expected of a woman who also planned to kill her own son in order to have a more fit heir to her legacy? No way was she letting that disgusting man between her legs. She’d rather die and would elect to do so if it came to that. A gray cloud settled over her head, the rest of the chatter uttered by the Queen not registering as her thoughts drifted to a very dark place in her mind.
As the light drifted away, the carriage slowed and came to a halt. Alice could hear the clanging of what sounded like iron gates and assumed they had arrived at the castle. She needed a plan if she were to survive this and escape the claws of Prince Oswald.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked the large guard who unshackled her and forced her up a long flight of steps leading to a tower on one side of the castle.
He pushed her into the small round room at the top and locked the door behind her without speaking a word. Once he was gone, Alice jumped up from the floor where she had fallen and looked out the lone window on one side. There wasn’t much she could see from there and no other exits were apparent. Things suddenly seemed incredibly hopeless.
Alice had expected that the Prince would come for her almost immediately, both he and the Queen eager for him to impregnate her. She was prepared to fight and hoped he was stupid enough to bring some sort of sharp object with him. If nothing else, she would use it on herself rather than allowing him to take her. Instead, several days passed. During them, she was treated well, with chamber maids arriving to bathe her and very nice food being delivered for her to eat.
On the fourth day, she was surprised to hear a commotion coming from beyond the wall. There were shouts and the sound of screams, but she couldn’t make out what was happening from the tiny window. Suddenly, a voice called out from behind her. She turned to see Prince Oswald standing there, key in hand.
“Seems my mother lacked confidence in my ability to take your wolf clan friends out and sent her own party to retrieve you,” he said.
Alice looked at his tattered clothes and broken armor. Her heart sank. How many lives had she cost The Huntsman’s village? Had he been one of them? She felt devastated at the notion that she might be responsible for his death and there was something even beyond that, a sense of loss, but how could she mourn a man she hardly knew? She looked again at the Prince.
Though he appeared to have had a very rough time of it, there was no doubt he had been able to come out victorious or he would not be standing here in front of her. Her eyes scanned his person for anything she might use as a weapon, now determined to kill him and escape rather than take her own life. If her grandmother had found a way out of this place, then so could she. Opening the door, he sneered at her, his lust evident on his face.
“I’m going to fuck you like you’ve never been fucked before. They’ll hear you screaming all over this castle as I take you and fill you with the bear clan seed. I’m really going to enjoy this,” he taunted.
“You can try,” Alice said evenly, causing him to pause for a moment.
“Be as feisty as you like, it will only make things more enjoyable for me,” he laughed.
Alice noted that he failed to lock the door behind him in his eagerness to get to the business at hand. Outside, she could still hear the shouts and screams, now mixed with growls and the howling of wolves. It now occurred to her that he had not been successful in taking the village, but had run away once he discovered she was already gone. It would seem that he hadn’t anticipated the wolves following and storming the castle. He was here to try to produce an heir before any of the wolf clan could do so. A thought struck Alice and she smiled knowingly, causing him to pause once again.
“What are you smiling about?” he a
sked menacingly.
“You’ll know soon enough,” she replied.
“Enough talk. I’ve not much time,” he responded.
“I suspect you won’t need much. You strike me as the sort with equipment as diminutive as his brain. I’m guessing it doesn’t take long, so let’s get it over with,” she replied.
Though her voice sounded cool, she was much more ruffled underneath. The thought of his filthy cock inside her sickened her. He was in for the fight of his life. She took a deep breath as he approached her, reaching for her dress and ripping it open down the front to reveal her bare breasts. His hands reached for one, just as she lunged forward and head butted him with all her might. He jerked backward, reaching up and touching his busted lip where she had managed to hit him.
“You bitch! You want it rough, do you? I’ll give you all the roughness you can stand and plenty more that you can’t,” he barked at her, suddenly shifting into bear form.
Alice’s alarm rose at the sight of the bear. She hadn’t anticipated that he might change and take her in bear form. Dealing with him on a human level was one thing, but a bear could do damage beyond what she was willing to even try to imagine. Finding no weapon visible anywhere, she prepared herself to fight him off as best she could, bear or not. Instead, he morphed back into human form and launched himself at her.
“Just keep in mind that I can change whenever I want. You can cooperate or I can tear you apart from the inside out,” he growled.
Alice prepared herself for the worst. There was no getting away from him. He reached for her again, grabbing a handful of her torn dress and pulling her close to him. She could smell his foul breath and body odor and almost gagged at his repulsiveness. Ripping away the rest of her clothing, he pinned her against the wall, taking in her naked body with lustful eyes. Holding her hands above her head with one hand, he quickly used the other to snap on the shackles that dangled from the wall just above her head.
