The Superman & Wonder Woman Fan Archive

Chapter Two

(with a quote from Sun Tzu)

I moved on instinct, using my training well. Phillipus, my mother’s General, who had trained me from early childhood, would be proud of me.

I melted from shadow to shadow, alert to any sound, anything at all.

Maybe I would find Kal, maybe I wouldn’t. No matter, the plan was simple, the first male I found would be my prey. The little voice in the back of my head, the sane one, said leaving it to fate was insane, that I had to run like hell if I spotted Kal.

But I couldn’t make that promise. An Amazon learned to adjust to the vagaries of the whims of the Moirai, who spun the threads of destiny. Thousands of years ago, the fates had spun golden threads around our lives, leaving us a small band of women, who were ageless, almost immortal and who were entrusted with a duty to keep the peace among the peoples. Over time, we developed and honed our warrior skills – unlike the women of other peoples, who were most interested in the womanly arts of cooking, weaving and sewing. There were very few Amazon women who preferred to sit by the fire and sew a fine seam, when they could be out in the training field, testing newly forged steel and practicing different martial arts.

As their first princess, I was trained in every art of combat known since the dawn of time. Not satisfied with just frontal combat, Phillipus made sure that I had learned the science of hunting and the finer art of guerilla warfare. I only hoped that I had learned my lessons well and would bring honor to my teachers. I had proved myself in many a battle – with the dragon kraken, with the gods of apokolips, with the Kryptonian General Zod, alongside the heroes of the Interplanetary Justice League, but that was then.  For now, I was an aikaterine and I needed to use all my skills to snare my mate. What were Phillipus’s exact words to me? I tried to recall them, “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.”

That’s exactly what I wanted to do. Control the fate of the one I really wanted – Kal. But who was I kidding? Kal was difficult to snare. Seven sklavas stood witness to that fact. And as if that was not proof enough – just the identities of the aikaterines  that had  turned into sklava should have had a sobering effect on me. Among them were Princess Lori of the hydro-planet of Atlantis who had set her cap for Kal eight years ago and lost, and also, the Countess of Silverage – Lyla Lerrol, an aikaterine of the old Kryptonian royal line, though not the same as Kal’s.

Kal, I had heard had a special fondness for two Terrans from the controversial planet Terra – while not strictly aikaterines of royal blood, they had been allowed to participate in the mating ritual, some years ago, as part of the conditions and terms of their treaty with Krypton. The Terrans had wrongly thought that Kal would succumb and one of the two women, either the Terran leader’s daughter – Lois, or her cousin, Lana (as different from each other as cheese and chalk), would ascend to the Sky Throne. But Kal had proved resistant and stubborn, while reducing the two ladies to submission to him. He had easily overcome them, placing his red and gold collar around their necks.

Fate had been good to me, I was–

There. I thought that I spotted a male, could even smell the tangy, musky scent that males exuded…

I stopped and willed myself to be silent, needing to focus. Cool breezes washed over me, prickling my skin. Behind the closed doors lining the wide corridor, the hurried beat of too many hearts, soft groans and the wet slap of bodies had my breath short.

Some had already found partners to bring in the new moon, I swallowed, the pulse of the night’s events finding the beat under my own skin. My blood tingled with the keen anticipation of the wild release that the Hunter’s Moon would bring. Crushing my eyes shut, I denied the thoughts that filled my mind.… I failed, as I entered a darkened room, heavy with the scent of desire which swept through me. I passed a hand over my hot face, fiery emotions stirring my blood with an ache that only my mate could resolve. Damn it, I had to focus on the male’s scent, find him and turn him into submission.

“So this is what you like.” A well muscled male body pressed hard against mine. Large hands caught my fingers and lifted them, pinning them to the silk-covered wall. I groaned at the press of my breasts into a hard, muscled chest. How in Hera’s name had I missed him? “To watch and listen.”

“Kal…” His name was a sigh, of bitterness or relief, I didn’t know. “Kneel.”

His laughter rumbled. “Are you serious, Diana?” His mouth hovered over mine, his breath sweet and hot. I ached to close that short distance and taste him. “Do you really think I’m that easy?”

I lifted my focus from the insane temptation of his mouth to his eyes. “Yes,” I said.

The corners crinkled and a spark of amusement gleamed. His eyes glowed red for a nano-second. “I’ll enjoy sliding my personal collar around your neck. Then I’ll chain you to my bed and you will wait on me.”

His body rubbed against my abdomen and I tried to ignore the pulse of need, thick and heavy, low in my belly. “Deny that’s got you wanting, Diana.”

“Deny you don’t want to taste me”, I snapped back.  

Kal caught both of my wrists in one hand, using the other free hand to explore the length of my body. I let him do what he wanted – I wanted to feel him touch me too. All too quickly, he reached the sensitive area just below my shoulders. His thumb began a dance all of its own, all over my sensitive breast, brushing against the skin, pebbling it…I moaned and hissed as I drew my breath in.

Dropping his hand lower, he started to bunch the silk of my dress. He exposed my thigh, my hips and his fingers slid across my belly.

My muscles shivered under the slow brush, the light scrape of his nails under my navel. I was so proud of those muscles – taut lines that had been hard won in training, muscles that seemed to fail me now, as my entire body slumped, seemingly made of jelly.

I sucked in a breath, my gaze fixed on his. Heat flared in the centre of his eyes, promising power and sensual delight. His thumb pressed lower, lower, teasing me…

I gasped and Kal’s mouth covered mine, his tongue hot, sweet and I arched my hips into his clever fingers. He tasted of peaches and honey…heady and addictive.

The first kiss deepened, melted into another and I moaned again. I needed him, I needed only to join with him and then he would fall to his knees and that oh-so-talented mouth would find me—

He pulled back, and his hot whisper brushed my ear. “When you’re my sklava, nothing about you will be denied to me.”

The words jolted sense back into my brain. I licked my lips and gave him a wry smile, ignoring the pull of my body that wanted Kal buried deep, deep inside my body. “Of course, you’re making the assumption that I plan to hunt you.”

“Aren’t you doing that right now?”

My smile grew. “I was happily listening to an orgy and even enjoying some of it. I did not make a move, Kal. You hunted me down and pinned me to the wall.”

He stilled. He knew that I had him. I was the recipient of his attention; I had made no move on him. As the hunting queen, I was the one who had to initiate contact. I couldn’t resist taunting him a bit, “A little too eager to bed me, perhaps?”

His hands slid away and he stepped back. The sudden loss of his warmth almost had falling to the floor in a heap, but I drew strength from the cool wall behind me and plastered a smile on my face, just barely managing to stay on my feet.

Quickly my fingers smoothed down the front of my gown, adjusting so that all was seemly once again.

“Thank you for firing my blood. I’m sure my mate will appreciate it.”

His lips firmed and his hands balled into fists. I was not afraid that he would strike me but I had to wonder if this was the first mistake that Kal had ever made. And with a lowly aikaterine, too. I patted his cheek, his skin smooth and warm under my fingers. “Better luck with the next aikaterine.”

“I still have time. We’ll see how long you can resist me.”

I laughed. “Arrogant male”, but I lifted an eyebrow and conceded, “But then the same could be said of me.”

Using the wall to leverage myself forward, I waved a hand towards the grand hall. “Go and play with your sklavas, Kal. They may have a use for you.”

Fury pulsed off him and I delighted in it. My grin widened. “Go on, run along now.”

The sudden slide of his lips exposed his gleaming white teeth. Kal’s hard chest lifted as he drew in a deep breath. “Run,” he muttered, his low voice no more than a growl.

My pulse jumped, but I had to keep my ground, “I’m the hunter here, Kal. And I choose not to hunt you.”

Moving faster than I could think, in the space of a single heartbeat, he pinned me to the wall again, his fingers tight bands around my wrists. My heart skipped a beat.

Athena, help me, but he was fast! Would that he could lose some of that speed when we finally mated…

His lips hovered over the base of my neck, my pulse beating erratically as he lowered his head to gently nip me there, sending a wave of pounding hot need through my body.

“I can take you right here in the corridor, against this wall. Perhaps, I’ll mark your clear skin so that any other male will think it an imperial offense to mate with you.”

His tongue teased my skin, quickening the beat of my blood. “Tell me you don’t want me to touch you. That you don’t want to be mine.”

Mine.

I had to exert every last bit of my will power (much deplored by my mother and her council, but oh, so handy now), to prevent myself from hooking my leg around his and rubbing myself against his body.

Mine… “You want me? Get down on your knees.” I shoved against him and wrested myself free. I was a bloody Princess, soon-to-be Queen—no man threatened me. “Well?”

Kal ran his tongue over his lips. He gave me a tight smile. “I’m the natural first son of the Empress. Do you really think you’re worthy of me?”

I wanted to rise to the challenge, declare I was and throw him hard against the wall. But I had more sense than that. This was not some training joust or some tourney of arms to prove myself. As Donna had reminded me, tonight, I needed to use all my feminine wiles instead, and combine that with a healthy dose of common sense. I had to hunt a man I could conquer, after all, if I was to remain true to the prophecy and bring about peace, as Queen.

“Trying to impress me, Kal?” I closed the distance between us and ran a light finger over his lower lip. The remembered taste of him burned on my tongue hotter than nektar. My head tilted. “Beg me…and I’ll hunt you.”

Kal stepped back from me, his eyes glittering.

I wet my lips and found him watching the deliberate slide of my tongue. “Then down through the years you’ll always wonder, won’t you?”

I could feel his body stiffen under my gaze, could sense the deepening breaths that he took. Wanting to tease him a bit, I continued, punctuating every word I spoke, “Wonder how sweet and hot and responsive I am. Wonder how it would feel to have me next to you, to be your mate in bed, to hear me cry out with pleasure.”

My smile curved and widened. “Because you will wonder…but of course you’ll have your sklava, so compliant, so happy to please, so desperate to meet your every need.”

I backed away from him slowly, widening the distance. Every inch a labor as my body fought me.

“Only my true mate and favored Prince Consort will know what you never will.”

His mouth had thinned again. “By dawn, you’ll be one of those compliant women, desperate to meet my every need.”

I quickly took more steps, separating us further and already I was losing him to the darkness of the corridor.

His body still called out to mine, but I fought the overwhelming need to throw myself into his arms and beg to please him.

“And yet you don’t sound so confident of that.” I waggled my fingers in a short, sarcastic wave. “The Night of the Hunter’s Moon is my time, Kal. A time to indulge, to have fun and to revel.” I smirked at him. “And I know I will.”

Turning, I sprinted down the long corridor.

As I ran through the dark shadows, I could hear the thud of my heart against my ribcage…I could hear Kal’s low yet distinctive feral growl, could feel the heat of his eyes following my every step…

I couldn’t help the grin that burst across my face.

Donna would kill me.

I’d started to hunt Kal.