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   His hand was warm in hers, but icy air was also coming through his dark belted tunic. Fen's lips twitched as she realised that he was nervous. This was new to him as well and here she was, in his home and her father knew where she was.

   The climb took far less time than Fen had hoped. She wanted this camaraderie to last forever. Her body running hot, his running cold and their hands entwined. When he stopped at the top of the stairs and threw open the door to the roof of the tower, she gasped in surprise.

   Beneath her, the ground seemed a thousand miles away. Small lights dotted the area nearby, but as Fen looked out and around, the rest of the mountains and fields were dark, leaving the bright glow of the stars overhead.

   The stars were so close she could almost touch them. Raven's Rest was indeed huge, glowing blue in the sky.

   Fehniel walked to the edge of the crenulated tower and looked up at the stars, seeking Hickom in the vastness.

   Tynir came up behind her and wrapped an arm around the tight binding around her waist, pulling her against him. He raised her arm and lifted her fingers out until she was pointing to the skies. "Hickom is there."

   She sighed and leaned back against him. "My home."

   "Not for long, I hope. I do truly wish that you find your home here."

   His wishes seemed wrapped up with some other interest. His erection was prodding insistently against her lower back as he spoke. His voice rumbled through his chest and sent sensory reactions through her skin. Her nipples, in particular, were pushing against her bindings and a quick glance relieved her worry that they were visible.

   She sighed and leaned back into his embrace, his scent filling her nostrils with the crisp air of the mountains and the underlying muskiness of male. She exhaled through her mouth and her breath coalesced in front of her before drifting through the night toward the ground. They stood together in silence and as Fen thought about finding a warm bed in the keep below, a star streaked across the sky.

   She immediately held her breath and made a wish.

Warm breath caressed her ear, "What are you doing?"

   "Making a wish on a falling star. It is a tradition my mother taught me." Fen smiled as she thought of her temperamental mother and the Terran traditions that she instilled in her children.

   "What did you wish?"

   "I can't tell you that. It would ruin the power of the wish." She shivered and he tightened his hold, rubbing her arms with his hands. Fen kept her head down to hide her smile. She could warm herself whenever she wished, especially after a large meal. This was simply for his benefit.

   "Fehniel, you are cold. Let's go inside. The stars will be out tomorrow."

   She allowed him to escort her back into the relative warmth of the stairwell. Just that moment outside woke her senses. Fen breathed deeply and memorized his scent. It seemed to tick every box on her inner animal's checklist. Her skin tingled, her stomach was flipping and there was a pulse in areas that didn't usually make themselves known.

   Her thighs were starting to slip together as she walked down the stairs, her own nose wrinkled at the scent of her heat and she hoped his senses were not as keen as hers.

   Their hands held tightly to each other as they descended back into the keep. The small contact was having a riotous effect on her senses, but she didn't pull away. Back on Hickom, few if any men had dared to show an interest in her. She knew it wasn't flattering that his interest was merely the interpretation of a seer's prediction. Still, he did send her head spinning in the most fascinating way.

   Tynir escorted her back to her rooms. As he reached out to open her door, she lunged at him, knocking him back against the far wall. Fen pulled his head down and met his lips with her own in a ravaging kiss that soon had him growling. He turned her and held her against the wall, lifting her and pinning her pelvis into place with his own.

   She moaned as he rocked against her and she shivered as he broke their kiss and gave her a look of blazing white heat. "Are you sure?"

   "Sure that I want to stay here? No. Sure that I want you? Yes."

   He gave her a feral grin, "Good enough for me."

   Tynir lifted her and wrapped her legs around his hips as he

walked quickly to his rooms. The doors opened at his touch and he locked them behind them, striding swiftly to the bed. "How do I get you out of this?"

   His hands were caressing her body through the wrapping. She stood where he placed her and tugged the wrap loose. "The rest unravels." Her voice was so husky that she had difficulty recognizing her own words.

   "Excellent." His hands spun her loose and she was so dizzy when she finished twirling that only his hands were steady as her head spun. She moaned as his hands now cupped her breasts through the soft silk of her gown. His thumbs stroked her nipples and she looked up to see him watching her intently.

   Nervous, she licked her lip and his face went from observing to intense, the skin darkening on his cheeks and his jaw clenching. Tynir licked the lip where her tongue had recently appeared, stroking his way along the seam of her lips until she parted them on a moan.

   He took her mouth slowly and as they explored with their kiss, his hands caressed her curves, cupping her hips, stroking her back and pressing her against his chest, abs and aroused flesh.

   The thin gown was no defence against his touch, the pressure of her wrap only served to sensitize all the skin between breast and hip. The traditional clothing suddenly made sense to her in a way it never had before.

   The lightest touch on her sides made her shiver, the strokes down her spine made her moan and the pressure of his cock against the soft skin beneath her navel had her shaking with something she knew but was afraid to name.

   He gathered the silk and started to haul it upward. He broke their kiss only long enough to whisk the fabric over her head. Tynir groaned as her body was exposed completely.

   "Get on the bed." His voice was so guttural as to be almost inhuman, but she complied.

   His boots flew to either side, his tunic and vest were whipped off over his head and finally, his trousers were opened and shoved down with only minor snagging when he had to pry his erection free of the leather. Naked and aroused, every inch of him was hard muscle and pulsing skin. A drop of precum welled and threatened to drip off the tip of his cock.

   Fen scooted back on the bed to make room for him, but he gripped her ankles and pulled her toward him. His kiss was more devastating now that her hands touched flesh and not leather and fabric. High-pitched sighs came from her throat and as he moved from her mouth to the side of her neck, her hips responded by arching against him.

   Each touch started a tension in her that built to a high pitch and when his mouth settled on her breast and he parted her folds with his fingers, the tension snapped, stealing her breath and twisting her against him.

   Tynir continued his exploration of her opening, sliding two fingers into her, drawing out the juices that her release had produced.

   Despite her lack of experience, she was not physically a virgin. Hickom women routinely had their hymens removed just after puberty to ease the trauma of the first time. Blood had an unfortunate effect on males and females of her race, so minimizing physical trauma was a common practice.

   Thoughts of her lack of a hymen fled as he withdrew his fingers and replaced them with his mouth. His tongue lapped slowly and deliberately and she felt his smile against her when she tangled her fingers in his hair.

   Tynir was dedicated to his purpose and with his tongue lapping, plunging and fluttering from her opening to her clit, she was soon at the edge of release again.

   He surged up and pressed the weeping head of his cock against her opening, pressing lightly until her untried flesh yielded to his. Helpless beneath him, her gaze clashed with his as he worked into her inch by inch.

   Just when Fen thought there couldn't be any more of him, he eased forward a little more. She hadn't realized that she had that much room inside her, but his slow entry was enough to keep her senses high while her body adapted to his.

   Sweat beaded on his back and as her hands slipped and slid across his skin, she tentatively arched her hips into him. His breathing was hard, as if he was running a race she couldn't see.

   Tynir closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, she saw a determination that sent a thrill of nerves down her spine and up into her channel where he was fully seated. Her body clasped him and it snapped something in his self-control, because he immediately withdrew and then slid back into her.

   He set a hard rhythm, his body flexing and bunching, the head of his cock dragging within her, waking nerves never before touched.

   Wanting him deeper, she wrapped her legs around his hips, tilting her pelvis until he was stroking something inside her that started breathless cries in her throat.

   He timed his thrusts to increase the speed of her cries and when she came this time, her nails dug into his rock-hard buttocks, pulling him into her as hard as she could.

   His groan of satisfaction followed her and he fought her grip to withdraw and thrust until she felt an icy jet inside her body. He pulled out and then thrust back in, jerking in short bursts as more cold cum was spilled.

   Tynir collapsed next to her and pulled her against him. His breath ruffled her hair and he snuggled against her as he fell asleep.

   Fen was energized. She had enough energy running through her body to cause a fine tremor in her muscles. She waited with impatience in every fibre of her being and finally she rolled away.

   She dropped her gown over her head, gathered her wrap and tiptoed out without finding her sandals. In all the intensity, she lost track of them.

   Moving as silently as possible, she snaked down the hallway to her room and opened the door. The gas that exploded in her face was confusing, but the darkness that surged up to swallow her was all too familiar.

Chapter Four

Cold. Everything was cold. Fehniel yanked on her wrists and heard a shackle rattle.

   A hard female voice broke into her analysis. "So,
Princess. H
ow do you like frost giant hospitality?"

   Fen focussed bleary eyes on the maid from Tynir's household. "Mari? What is this all about?"

   "You off-worlders coming here and stealing the men. Do you know how hard it is for a woman on Jotunheim to find a good man? And you take the one I selected for myself." Mari paced back and forth at the exit to the room carved in the ice that surrounded them.

   There was another sort of tension in the maid's face. The gas was still in Fen's system and it made her thinking difficult. "That isn't all of it, is it?"

   "Morgarn is slated to rule, but our tradition states that the fittest male or a direct heir is the only one to be selected for that position. With you here, we will ransom you for Morgarn's abdication."

   "I see and why would he do that?"

   "If he wants to keep his new mate happy, he will not want her best friend left to freeze to death in an ice cave in Jotunheim. There are air channels in this room, but once I am gone, the door will freeze shut. Hope that he gives in quickly and you might survive."

   Mari didn't let her say anything else, but stepped through the doorway, which was suddenly blocked by a wall of ice.

   Fen counted to one hundred. It wouldn't do to run into Mari in the hallway. This required more stealth.

   Her legs were cuffed and the chain was sunk into the ice the same way the manacles above her head were set. Fen heated the chain and pulled it from the ice, rolling her shoulders to release the tension for her next move.

   She was still wearing the light silk gown, so she tried to keep it on. Concentrating, she shifted her hands into paws and the manacles dropped off. It was one of the skills her father had always been upset that she learned. A partial shift was supposed to be reserved for warriors, but Fen had insisted on learning it.

   Her feet would be trickier, so she leaned her re-formed hands against the wall and as she shifted, she stepped forward. Her wolf legs were not designed to support a human spine, so leaning was the best manner with which to step out of the iron.

   With her feet back in place, her hands back to normal, Fen turned to the exit wall and melted a doorway in the ice.

   The water turned into slick ice as she stepped on it, but she kept her body heat up so that she wouldn't skid on the surface.

   Ice was an amazing carrier for scent. Mari had walked through the halls and Fen was going to find the way out by smell.

   Tynir. He may have wondered what happened to her. She concentrated as she made her way down the hall.
Tynir?

   He didn't respond, so she tried again. This time, she caught his startled emotions as she touched his mind.
Tynir?

   
Fehniel? Where the hell are you?

   
I was kidnapped. I am in some kind of icy cavern.

   
Kidnapped?
His rage burned along their connection.

   
Yes. Now stay calm, anger hurts. Mari had my room rigged and
when I opened the door, I was gassed. If I had opened it when you
escorted me there, we both would have been out.