“Go,” he commanded her.

‘Yes, Master,’ she whimpered.

Her breastbone throbbed as she stumbled out of her master’s cottage with her bag of clothes. She knew the burning of her flesh was necessary for the next part of his plan, but the pain burrowed deeper than the other times she had been burned because he had broken one of her bones this time. Chills passed through her body before she could get a pair of Dragon wings to come out of her back. The man she was to see was powerful and her master wanted him in his corner.

Crouching down and lifting her wings, she jumped and flapped her wings hard to keep herself airborne. The pain in her chest hurt enough that she didn’t want to use her usual running take off. Once she was high enough off the ground, she twisted her body and flew toward Palion City to the Crunching Otter Inn.

When she was close, she dropped into the woods just outside the city. She shrugged to pull her wings back in, then transformed into a dog. She tucked her bag into a burrow then entered the town, so she could find out which room belonged to Prince Kelton, sole heir to Greywolf Kingdom’s throne. She remained vigilant as she approached and slowly circled the building. The innkeeper didn’t like strays near his garbage. She ducked into the shadows when she heard a door open. It wasn’t the back door, so what door had opened?

She crept around to the east side of the building just in time to see Prince Kelton lean against the railing of the balcony. She remained where she crouched, her heart beating hard in her heart, sending tingles of numbness through her breastbone, as she continued to ogle the most handsome man she had seen in some time. Her thoughts started to drift from the present as familiarity niggled at her mind. Iredys had almost grasped what her heart was trying to tell her when movement on the balcony pulled her back to the present.

Prince Kelton left the balcony and closed the doors. The dim light of the candle faded away as he left the room. Now was her chance. She left Palion City to retrieve her bag. She returned to her human form and let her Dragon wings come out again. She ran across the clearing to get into the air. The thrill of being close to Prince Kelton thrummed through her veins. Despite her excitement, she kept to the shadows so she wouldn’t startle any of the city folk before she could reach her destination.

Once she was on the balcony, she shrugged her wings in and pulled on the dress she had brought with her. She brought her hand up to the closed balcony doors before transforming her hand and wrist to slip through the gap and unlatch the doors. She opened the doors and stepped inside just moments ahead of Prince Kelton’s return. She watched him step into the room then lean against the door. The smell of mead was strong and she could tell he was quite drunk.

This mission just kept getting easier and easier. He looked at her then away again with a shake of his head. Only when he looked up again did she speak to him with her mind.

‘Hello, Kelton.’

“Iredys,” he whispered, as tears filled his eyes.

The name he called her made her heart flutter and ache for him as he staggered over to her. He pulled her close and kissed her deeply several times before she pulled back. She wanted to lose herself in his kiss, but not just yet. She rested her forehead against his, so she didn’t arouse his suspicions.

‘Have you kept the vows we made to each other a year ago?’ she asked, since what she had been tasked to do would not work otherwise.

Prince Kelton nodded as more tears slid down his cheeks. “H… have you?”

‘Yes,’ she smiled.

Prince Kelton gasped in relief before he kissed her again. His body staggered as he continued to kiss her. She understood that he was on the verge of passing out, but she could feel his erection poking her lower body.

She shifted her hold on him as she whispered to his mind, ‘Trust me.’

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“I trust…,” he mumbled before his legs started to give out.

She staggered with him toward the bed and lay him down. He pulled her down into a kiss before he lost consciousness completely. A mix of sorrow, concern, and desire stirred her heart as she worked the clothes off of his body. His member stood firm, despite him passing out. Iredys caressed it and watched it twitch and squirt some clear liquid. A giggle passed through her lips before she pulled her dress off then settled herself over him.

She needed to shift several times to get the head of his member in the right spot. Once he was in place, she sat. A gasp and a moan escaped her lips as pain, and a hint of pleasure, tore through her lower body. Tears pricked her eyes, but she steadied her breath. Her breath hitched and she shifted above him, but after a while, the stimulation wasn’t enough. She sped up her movements, then rolled her hips to get even more stimulation. She hummed and moved even faster until she felt her body start to jerk and tense, but she kept moving.

She felt Kelton’s member shift inside her and give her more slide, but she still hadn’t yet reached what she felt was still to come. She continued her motions, shifting a little more until her lower body trembled and the most amazing sensation encompassed her body. She shivered and moaned before she collapsed on top of Kelton. Her heart was beating hard and her lungs were heaving. The base of her left ring finger felt warm and twitched with a pin prickling that was marching around her finger in a counter clockwise direction.

She was still catching her breath when Kelton’s arms wrapped around her. She turned to face him and he kissed her. She kissed him back, feeling a greater love for the man beneath her. He shifted. The firmness of his member was returning and she moaned and kissed him with a vengeance. He kissed her back as he caressed her body. Kelton rolled her onto her back and pulled away. She frowned at the loss of their connection, but then Kelton kissed her again.

His kisses traveled down her neck and to her breasts. She arched her back when he sucked on her nipple and twirled it around with his tongue. She ran her hands across his chest, feeling his own nipples tighten. She smiled when he moaned then lowered himself further to plant kiss after kiss all over her abdomen. An itching started to grow between her legs the lower his kisses went.

‘Kelton, she called softly in her mind. ‘Kelton, please.’

He shifted above her, pulling her close to him before he pushed his hardened member into her tender body. She gasped and groaned, but wrapped her legs around his waist as they kissed. They rocked and grasped and moaned as they pounded their lower bodies together. The release left her mind blank for several moments. It wasn’t until Kelton settled beside her and caressed her cheek that she came back to herself.

“I love you, Iredys,” he panted.

'I love you, too, Kelton,' she whispered.

They kissed a few times before he pulled her into a firm embrace and fell into a deep sleep. Iredys closed her eyes for a short time until the shaking of her muscles calmed. Then she got up and opened the doors leading out to the balcony. Turning back to the bed, she lifted Kelton into her arms and shifted to get her Dragon wings to come out. It was time for them to go. Her master was expecting them.

She had taken no more than a few steps when the door opened and two knights entered the room. She tried to flee with Kelton, but the first knight slashed her arm with his sword forcing her to drop him. She dashed for the balcony and leapt into the air before he could take another swing at her. Her heart ached at leaving Kelton behind, but she had a feeling that he would come after her. In the meantime, she could report to her master that the deed was done.

“Where is he?” her master demanded after she’d entered the cottage.

‘I was forced to leave him,’ she replied telepathically, showing the scabbed over cut on her arm. ‘Two knights came in as we were….’

Her master growled and grabbed two stones from beside the fire and slammed them into her chest, pinning her against the door, before she could explain further.

She screamed then struggled to catch her breath as the Emerald and Alexandrite stones on the chain around her neck were pushed into her flesh. The pain was too much. She felt nauseated and she was losing consciousness. The pressure against the stones was held longer than any of the times he had burned her before. Her head jerked backward, smacking the door hard before her body collapsed into a fit of spasms.

Her guts cramped and she threw up. She choked and gagged on her putrid vomit, until she couldn’t breath. She threw up some more, but it wasn’t enough to get enough air into her burning lungs. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head before she felt her spirit start to slip out of her still convulsing body. The memories she had lost so long ago started to come back to her in tandem with other random images. Her spirit was almost completely separate from her body, when she felt a force grab hold of her spirit.

‘No! What…?’

Iredys struggled against the force, but it only seemed to give the force a greater hold on her as it dragged her back into her broken, but no longer black, body.