Read Goldenlocks and Her Forbidden Desire Online
Authors: Julianne Reyer
Goldenlocks and Her Forbidden Desire
By
Julianne Reyer
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Copyright 2012 Julianne Reyer
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This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters are at least eighteen years old.
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Chapter 1 - Punished in the Forbidden Forest
Chapter 2 - Pleasured in the Highlands
Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Mist
Chapter 5 - Ravished by the Beasts
D
ARK clouds shrouded the sun and hung low over the damp forest. In the distance, a single plume of smoke reached up from the tree-lined horizon like a shadowy claw damning the heavens above.
As I stumbled over a loose root in the mud, I shot worried glances at the black blemish through the trees. My village was burning and I had nowhere to flee but these murky, forbidden woods.
The wolfmen often wandered south during the winter, to raid and pillage the rural tribes who lived in the lower grasslands. But the cold season lingered too long into the spring and the vicious half-beasts were becoming bolder.
I jumped down into a rocky creek, splashing my scratchy gray wool skirt and startling a fox, who bounded into the brush. My rough leather boots were already soaked and the skin on my legs was numb from the cold. But I ignored the discomfort as my fear drove me onward.
They struck in the dim light of the early dawn, flowing across the grasslands in a tide of gray fur. I stood and watched with frozen horror as the wolfmen slaughtered our livestock. Then, as the townsfolk ran from the hamlet onto the plains, the raiders tossed burning torches into the peat and straw covered huts.
My shocked disbelief caused me to hesitate as a burning stick flew through the door to my home, and ignited the rush-lined floor. Smoke stung my nostrils and the heat choked my lungs. But I was stuck, wide-eyed, fixated by the destruction of the only place I'd ever called home.
The fire quickly spread out to the dry, insulated walls and grabbed for the timber-framed roof.
Dancing in the flames before me, I witnessed a flickering image of a woman, growing into a tall shadow that crept up the wall and towered over me. She was naked and the long hair danced around her shoulders with the thrashing of her head. Horns grew from the top of the phantom and her arms reached around me, as if she would consume me in her searing embrace.
A piercing howl woke me from my mesmerized state with a yelp. Then I turned and scrambled through the doorway as the room dissolved in the inferno. Dressed in their rough-hewn leather and dangling, bone decorated belts, the gray-furred wolfmen dashed from hut to hut, snarling and keening in their bloodlust. But I managed to slip out of the village in the chaos and into the grassy pasture beyond.
Hopefully unseen
, I prayed as I crawled up a soft embankment. Their wolf senses were sharp but they became narrow-sighted when they worked themselves into a frenzy.
And I didn't want to find out what they did to the women they stole back to the snow-packed north.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. The guardians were bound to protect us and bring forth the warm spring.
Why have my fathers forsaken me?
I lamented as I fled deeper into the woods I'd sworn never to enter. But I had to find them.
And my mother.
She always knew what to do.
The villagers called her "Rowan the Wise Woman" when they addressed her directly, but all my life I'd heard the muttered gossip, "witch." My mother knew, of course, but she was unfazed by their judgment. She was beautiful, kind-natured, and connected to the living earth in ways I couldn't understand. Their scorn was trivial compared to the greater mysteries she'd spent her life studying.
Growing up as an outcast hadn't been so easy for me. As a young girl, I'd been taunted by the other children, called "Aurea the Witch's Brat" as they yanked my blonde hair until I cried. And I found no refuge from the adults who'd sneered down at me, claiming that I was an unnatural child who had no father.
The shame brought on by those insults hurt worse than the bullying of the other children. I
didn't
have a father, and my mother only shook her head sadly when I prodded her with questions of his whereabouts. So eventually I learned to swallow the pain and accept what life had given me.
Then my mother's magic turned our lives upside down. She bound the three demigods to both herself and the land, in an ancient ceremony that wedded her power to theirs. It was an attempt to bring peace and prosperity, bountiful crops and protection from the wolfmen who raided our borders.
For a span of several years it worked. The fields yielded record harvests, and the villagers' attitudes changed. They accepted, even admired, both my mother and me—and I began to feel that I belonged.
The powerful bear guardians roamed the forest, keeping the wolf raids to a minimum. And, as men, they cared for the village, looked after me, and took their patriarchal turns in my mother's bed.
My deepest dreams had come true: I'd found three strong fathers who were as handsome as they were mysterious. And I watched them with adoration as they courted my mother.
But our happiness didn't last.
A howl echoed through the trees and my blood turned to ice, as the cold fingers of dread clawed up my back.
They found my scent!
Young, unsullied women were the wolfmen's favorite target. And I was eighteen summers still a virgin. They would not stop until they had me tied and carried back to their caves, I was sure of it.
I quickened my pace, digging my leather-lined shoes into the mud as I hiked further up the gentle incline of the forest floor. As I reached higher ground, I saw the valley plains of my home but the smoke was obscured by the low clouds. Through the leafy trees, I caught sight of gray flashes and I recognized the beasts who pursued me.
The wolfmen are getting closer.
If I can only find my mother or my fathers, they will help me.
But the guardians had been silent all winter and late to wake for the spring. Since my mother's union with the demigods, each would venture down to the village at the start of their given season.
During the spring, the eldest and strictest of the three would hunt and help my mother prepare the crops. In the summer, the wise and peaceful father would sit with me, sharing fanciful stories before tending to my mother's needs in her bed.
But the fall was the time I truly looked forward to. For it would bring the youngest and most compassionate of the guardians. Many years he would stay past the first freeze to protect the people of my village from the start of the cold weather raids. And he always gave me a warm smile before he left for the long winter.
"I will see you next year, Goldenlocks. May you be safe until the spring thaw," he would say.
Then he'd scruff my curly blonde hair before shouldering his shield and sword for the long walk to his winter cave in the hills.
Even though I would only see one of my fathers at a time, during the warm seasons, all three were bound to protect my people. And my mother. And me.
Oh, where are you, father bears?
I thought as tears streamed down my cheeks and my chest burned from my exertion.
Then my foot slipped on a moss-covered stone and I tumbled down a rocky embankment. My legs splayed and my arms flailed as I somersaulted over sharp sticks and soggy earth. I landed on my stomach with a groan. As I spit dirt out of my mouth, my muscles shivered uncontrollably. My skirt had flipped up in the fall, exposing my backside to the cold air and icy drizzle. I was exhausted and bruised but I had to keep going.
Ignoring the ache in my limbs, I jumped to my feet—and froze as I stared up at the glistening eyes of a wolfman.
The beast crouched on his haunches at the top of the ridge. His long snout curved into a savage grin as he gazed at me with restrained hunger. And the loose, patchy leather he wore did little to hide his dangling, fuzz-covered balls. Or the red, veiny hard-on protruding from the gray fur between his legs.
I turned to flee but the steep slope surrounded me, trapping me in the little ravine.
That is why he isn't rushing.
I thought as I backed into my corner.
As if sensing my vulnerability, several more wolfmen appeared around the ridge, their bone decorated belts clicking as they moved.
Then one by one, they leisurely descended the embankment and stood upright, in a tight half-circle around me.
It was fruitless, but I spun and clawed at the damp soil, trying to gain purchase to pull myself up out of the hole.
Clawed hands gripped my ankles and dragged me back down to the ground. I twisted onto my back, writhing and screaming.
But one held my legs taut as another pressed his furry knee to my chest, pinning me with his weight. His loincloth dangled half over my face and I had a clear view of his slick, blood-filled cock. The musky, salty stench of his crotch invaded my senses and I cried again, thrashing my head with my eyes squeezed shut.
Jackal-like chuckles rattled out of their throats as my struggles only seemed to excite them more.
They bent my knees up and the last wolfman crawled on top of me, licking his sharp teeth with a bluish-black tongue. My eyes widened as he leveraged his pointed cock over my exposed opening.
I was barely aware of the strange whistling sound when a wooden spear sank into the mud with a loud thunk, next to my head.
The wolfmen froze and glanced at each other with confusion as the shaft quivered in the dirt. Then the beast on top of me yelped as he lifted up and flew backwards into the air. I caught the glimpse of something large and black as the wolfman crashed into a tree, high up on the ridge.
His companions jumped to their feet and scrambled at the dirt walls, whining desperately with their ears back, as they tried to escape.
In a flash of black claws and large white teeth, the creature mauled one with a vicious bite, then smashed the other with a crunching blow to the wolf's ribs. The panicking beasts dashed around the cramped space and fled up the shallow neck at the other end of the alcove, amid pained cries and sharp whimpers.
I watched in awe as they disappeared back into the woods with their long tails curled under their bellies. Then my eyes fixed on the looming black shape in front of me.
Its back was turned, but as it rose up from a kneeling position, a tan deerskin cloak appeared over its shoulders. Leather-lined boots sank into the mud and when it lifted its head, a rack of buck antlers rose over long black hair, protruding from a metal skullcap helmet.
Where once an animal stood on all fours, a man in hunting leather and fur clothing towered above me. And as he turned to me, a cry of relief shot from my lips.
"Elder!" I shouted as I sat up from the earth.
His dark green eyes focused on me, glinting from his stern, angular face. With his short-cropped beard curving up his strong jawline to prominent cheekbones, he was a welcome comfort to my frantic mind.
"You should not have come, young cub," he scolded. "I forbade you from entering this forest."
"I'm sorry, Elder Be—" I stopped myself.
He hates when I call him "Bear".
But it was hard to break old habits.
His nostrils flared and his brow knit. "You will leave now. For your safety as much as the forest itself."
"But mother is missing and the wolfmen have burned our village," I pleaded.
His eyes subtly softened and he glanced up at the gray sky. "I cannot help you. I love your mother, but the forest needs me right now."
"But you promised to protect us," I said with exasperation.
With a snarl, he rounded on me. "Your mother made a pact to unify man and the wild. And after healthy harvests and fresh huts, the forest as seen nothing in return!" He shouted.
I jolted from his rage and my body shook, more from the onslaught of his anger than the chilly ground seeping through my wool skirt. He was acting strange. I never saw him as soft, but he was being especially cold and moody.
He straightened his back and gripped the long spear, yanking it from the ground. "Now do as you're told. Leave here and never enter the woods again." Then he turned away and stalked up the shallow side of the embankment.
I leapt to my feet and dashed after him. With both hands I tugged at the buckskin around his neck. "But Elder, I can't do this alone. I need you."
He paused, and from my vantage point, I saw his brow crease. Then he sighed deeply. "It is not wise for you to be here right now, young cub. The seasons are out of balance and the forest is calling for me to..."
He turned suddenly, his eyes flashing wide with anger. "Do what I told you. Go. now."
I placed my hands on my hips and looked away stubbornly. "I'm not leaving you."