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Feb 15, 2025 8:08 am
Hello Happy Readers!
It's time for an appreciation message to all you who support me! I really appreciate all the kind words and reviews you give me, so now I want to give you something back. Please, feel free to share it with anyone who you think would enjoy the story.
WATER HOLDING PROPHECY, Is a gripping fantasy filled with fierce friendships, high-stake battles, and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance. This standalone novel delivers heart-pounding action and a touch of destiny.
BLURB
The Frost Castle lies in ruins, its walls reduced to ash by the Fire Fae. Princess Alyssa’s parents are dead, and now the Fire Fae King wants her to meet the same fate. But before the killing blow can land, she freezes the stolen Frost Crown, sealing away its magic – and with it, her execution.
Unable to kill her, the Fire King imprisons and tortures her, determined to break her will and reclaim the crown’s power. For three years, Alyssa endures, until she seizes a chance to escape, vanishing into the human realm. But when her best friend is kidnapped, she knows she must return and face the war she’s been running from for so long.
Leading a daring rescue mission through the Fae realm, Alyssa is captured once more – only this time, it unlocks memories she thought were lost. And at the centre of them is the Fire Fae Prince. Once a boy from her past, now a formidable warrior – lethal, devastatingly handsome, and dangerously unpredictable. Can she trust him as an ally, or will falling for him be her and her kingdom’s downfall?
As promised in my previous newsletter, here comes another bonus chapter.
CHAPTER 15 - MASTER DYLAN'S POV
The turn-out of those returning to the Wolfsbane court was better than I had expected. So far, thirty-eight of one hundred and ten students had shown up and there was still a long line in front of my table. I kept looking up to see if I could see Selena, who was one of those not who had not showed yet. She must return. I would hunt her down if she didn’t. Although, I had tried to ride past the River District during the summer where the records in City Hall said she lived but hadn’t found her. Everything about her was so secretive and alluring.
I ticked off a few more students on the register, who all greeted me with excitement. Renings, Vrea, Sarro, Harac… I ticked them off, and looked up again. Ah, there she was. I couldn’t keep my smile down.
“Have you had a nice break at your house in the river district, Miss Grav?”
“River district?”
Why did she look so puzzled? Maybe that is not where she had spent her summer.
“You didn’t think I would look up all my students to find out more about them?”
She smiled that delicious smile that I just wanted to kiss. My cock twitched, and I was happy I was sitting down.
“Yes, thank you. I hope yours was… quiet.”
It had been. It was like the demon prince had lost track of her too when she had left the court. And she couldn’t begin to comprehend how boring it had been to stand guard during the dinners at the castle when all I wanted to do was get out of there, mount a horse and go look for her.
“Yes. It was almost too quiet, little hummingbird.” The queue was building up behind her and pushing forward with anticipation, so I ticked the paper and looked at the next student behind her. If I wouldn’t, my affection for Selena would become obvious to everyone around us.
“Miss Hollan,” I greeted when Selena didn’t move.
I carried on ticking off all the students and had to blink the tiredness out of my eyes from having been staring at the words on the list. Only five more and I could go for lunch. I was starving. I ticked off the last student in the line. Fine. That’s enough. Ninety-three. Good result. Grand Master Valentio would be pleased. If there were any latecomers, they could find me during combat class after lunch. I tapped the papers on the desk and dropped them off in my apartment before making my way to the canteen.
I walked through the swinging doors and immediately saw Vesso sitting next to Selena together with Kreia and Givina.
“Selena?” Master Vesso’s brother called her, as she seemed to have her mind on something else. It irritated me that I couldn’t hear what they were talking about. She really seemed to be fond of Vesso. Admittedly, he was a worthy rival, knowing his sister’s ambitions. He was handsome, strong, and always happy. He would be a good match for her.
And I’m her master. I reminded myself.
Something hurt in my chest when thinking about her with anyone else.
Suddenly, she jumped over Benny, throwing her arms around his neck, and she kissed his cheek. “I love you!” she called out.
Anger burned inside me. I couldn’t handle hearing this. I needed to walk away… and punch something, so I barged out of the canteen, heading for the weights room where I went loose on the punching bag hanging from the ceiling. It was unthinkable that I could remain in the Wolfsbane Court if they completed graduation and became warriors on my floor. I’d have to see them together every day. That thought made me even more furious.
I hadn’t been able to pacify my temper by the time class started and I noticed the students entering the gym. Only, my hunger and jealousy had grown stronger. I tried my best to avoid looking at Selena, but the way her leathers hugged her curves made that task hard.
“Warm up! Ten laps around the mat!” I shouted, buying myself some more time to calm down. When everyone returned from their laps, I still hadn’t calmed. “Actually, another twenty laps!” Let’s see if I could get Vesso to look weak in front of her.
When they were done, sweat coated Selena’s forehead, making her look even more sexy.
Shit! That didn’t work in my favour.
“Maybe a few more,” I muttered.
“No! Please!” everyone begged in succession.
“Fine. Combat training, then. This season we start with knives. I want to combine the exercise with wrestling. Head locks. Arm locks. Leg locks. Pair up, and the challenge is for one of you to guard a knife and for the other one to wrestle you into a grip where you can remove the knife from your opponent. So, no cuts or stabs, just guard and discard. Use your bodyweight or twist limbs into pain points. Is this understood?”
“Yes, Master!”
By this time, I was ready to size up my competition and walked up to Vesso. I began testing his arm, twisting it behind his back and removing the knife from him instantly. Even though I brought his arm up so high he had to raise up onto his toes, he didn’t cry out. That aggravated me. I returned the knife to him, and quickly spun around and threw him over my head, making his back bounce twice on the mat. Kneeling on his chest, I plucked the knife out of his hand and returned it once he had stood up again. He blocked my next attack, swiping away my hands, safeguarding the knife, probably having realised that I was in no mood to take it easy on him. It was probably also the reason he hadn’t said a word to me.
We locked arms around each other’s heads and stepped in a circle, but he was actually too strong for me to bring down. I let go and took a new grip over his waist, tackling him to the mat and secured him in a leg lock, squeezing hard at his lungs, almost forgetting this exercise was about claiming the knife. His sister must have told him how to get out of it because he didn’t stay down long. That fuelled my determination to put him in his place.
“Step it up a notch! We train for war, not for sport. Go harder on one another.”
“No!”
My head spun around. It was Selena who had shouted out from a few metres to my left.
“You’re pushing Vesso hard enough!”
I turned to face her, pinning her with my eyes. She had challenged me once more in front of everyone. It put me in a bad position, as I couldn’t let her get away with it, nor did I want to cause her any grief.
“Disobeying another order, little hummingbird?”
I sauntered towards her carefully, not sure how best to handle this without making her hate me. I saw her swallowing. She feared me. Good. Maybe she should.
“You think you’re ready for war?”
“No,” she whispered.
“You think you can survive beyond the wall if you don’t push yourself to be better?”
My chest burned. I didn’t want to think about her going outside the wall.
“I just think you should match your skills to someone your own level, is all.”
I stretched tall. She thought I by far outmatched Vesso. Good. Now, I just needed to make her aware of how dangerous it was for her out there, which might make her transfer to another court… or hopefully guild. She could be a good asset to Master Sarah in the infirmary. Or in the scribe guild. She liked the library and books.
“In war, do you size up who of the attackers you choose to fight? You’re going to be out there with everyone else and having to fight men like me. I wonder, what will you do then?”
I closed the gap between us, circled my arm around her neck and simply lowered myself to the mat, only using my weight to bring her down, so she could see how weak she was compared to demon men who could attack her beyond the wall. Squatting, she wasn’t lowering herself to the mat completely, so I swept my legs out to fell her onto her side. I tipped myself gently onto her, easing her down to lie flat on her back. She didn’t struggle against me this time, which was odd and rather sexy. I laid down squarely on top of her, pinning her arms and legs to her side. My arousal level was off the chart, and I didn’t know if I could control myself during this exercise. I definitely didn’t want the other students present when I taught her this lesson. I had already regretted having got on top of her.
I’m her master!
“Everyone is dismissed for dinner. I’m going to teach the little hummingbird a private lesson about surrendering to superiors. She must yield before I’ll let her up.”
The gym cleared of people, and we were alone.
“By the way,” she muttered. “You owe me two knives.”
“They are in my room. You can come by and get them whenever you want. Room four.”
I had kept them in the hope it would give me another chance to see her if she would come by and get them. We lie in silence for a while.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her? I was so attracted to her. But why her? There had been many women interested in me and I had always managed to keep to myself. But not with her. She challenged me. Intrigued me. She was gorgeous.
“You can stop the charade and let me up. Ground me to my room, if you must, but this is degrading.”
There it was. Her submission.
“Sure. Not a problem. Just say you yield.”
“But I’m not yielding. I can lie here all day.”
Okay, maybe not. She didn’t fail to challenge me.
“Fine. So can I.”
“I doubt it. You have other ‘master’ chores you must do. I’ll never yield and eventually you’ll have to surrender, and you’ll have been wasting your time. And besides, this isn’t combat or wrestling, as you’re just squashing me with your weight. Let me up, and I’ll kick your ass. I’ll get every point in a fair fight.”
So, she hadn’t listened to my lesson about how the demons didn’t fight honourably.
“A fair fight? Like the demon prince does?”
“I would never have ended up underneath the demon prince.”
That created a horrendous image in my head.
“It pleases me to hear that.”
“In an actual battle, I would have run my sword through him. But apparently, I’m not allowed to use that method inside this guild.”
“Thank the spirits for that.”
We lay in silence for a while longer, and it was impossible to keep my eyes off her. After a while, my hand went numb, so I flexed it and put my elbow on the mat next to her head, supporting my head on my hand. “Hopefully, this won’t squeeze too hard at your lungs. Want to yield yet?”
“No,” she hissed out of compressed lungs, and it worried me that I was too heavy on her tiny body.
But even if I would crush her, she wouldn’t yield. The thought amused me and again I had to smile. No one had challenged me like this before having missed it the entire summer had been agonising. “Fuck, I have missed you.”
I shouldn’t have said that. It had just slipped out. Worse was that my glance was drawn to her lips, and I felt my head tip closer to them. I had to stop this. She had to yield soon, or it would be the end of me. I couldn’t let her leave here today, thinking I’d missed her in a romantic way.
“I have had no one all summer disobeying my orders. It’s been quite unchallenging, little hummingbird.”
She seemed contented by that comment. Good. Crisis averted. For now.
She forced one leg to the outside of mine and then the other. Maybe I was hurting her?
“More comfy?” I asked, wanting to know what she was thinking.
“Yes, thank you. My back is getting a bit sore. Just need to adjust it.”
She pulled her knee up and put her shin over my ass, grounding her mid-area against my crotch.
Horror struck. I couldn’t handle her doing that. “Stop that.”
My cock grew hard. She would feel it, too. Fuck!
She folded her other leg around me and locked her ankles behind my back. Fuck, that’s hot! But so dangerous. I rose onto my elbows to look over my shoulder, but then she snatched her arms out from underneath me and swang them to lie on the mat above her head. She looked so fucking sexy. I was losing this challenge. I would have to leave if she continued. This couldn’t happen.
I’m her master!
“Mockingbird, you’re fighting dirty.”
“And the demons wouldn’t?”
She was throwing that back at my face?
“That’s not the same.”
“Are you saying you’re yielding?”
“No. I’m informing you of the rules. And have given you an order.”
“Oh yeah. The orders. First day back from summer break and I’m aiming for a new record. Two, I think, in counting. Should we count three or do you want to yield?”
I don’t want to, but I might have to if she carries on like this. But the question was if I could stop when every piece in my body told me I wanted her.
Sweat beads were forming around my hairline, and my nerves twitched. I was losing control. I could fuck her right here and now, and I wouldn’t care who caught us. I would die a satisfied man.
Keep the oath. Keep your oath! The words echoed in my head.
“I warn you. Stop,” I growled.
“I’m just adjusting my back. Surely, you must allow me that if you’re going to lie on top of me?”
She perked up her round and firm breasts at my face and nestled her hands into my hair, stroking her delicate palms down the muscle-wings of my neck. It felt so good, prompting me to groan, but I focused on keeping it in. Her hands carried on down my back at the same time as she was grinding her sex at me, pressing me closer with her locked legs on my back.
How I had dreamt of this position, but not here. Not like this. I felt my breathing become strained from fighting my arousal. It was only a matter of minutes before I would ravage her.
“I beg you to stop that. I’m losing control of myself.”
“I guess you didn’t think this through when you made your lesson plan. It can end whenever you want. Just say the two small words ‘I yield’,” she whispered the two words seductively into my ear.
Only she could be feisty enough to mock me in my hardship and not meet me halfway.
I was near surrendering and lowered my forehead onto hers, closing my eyes.
The feral side of me took over, and even when I knew it was against everything I believed in, I couldn’t fight my urges. My hips moved almost as from a calling to her rhythm. “Problem is, little mockingbird, that I don’t want to stop.”
My heart pounded even harder as I let go of my restraints, feeling a calm settle inside me. I decided she was mine from now on. I would never let her go. If Vesso or Prince Nickel wanted to fight me for her, I’d accept the challenge.
I dipped my face to the curve of her neck and made small thrusting moves to her sex. It was possessive. She needed to know how I felt.
Suddenly, she pushed off the mat, and I lost balance, tipping to my side.
A cold dust of air filled the space between us, which had been warmed by our bodies, and I felt naked without her consuming that space.
She quickly got to her feet and hurried towards the doors, grabbed her shoes and left.
Had she not liked me on top of her? She would probably be the only female in the court not wanting me. Perhaps her pride went deeper than mine. That would be impressive. But if that was the case, had she been toying with me to win the challenge? I don’t know whether I thought that was attractive or cruel.
Until next time,
Therese
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