The Superman & Wonder Woman Fan Archive

I walked quickly towards the one area that I knew very well in the Empress’ Palace. Young men would have gathered there to celebrate and to bond. I would find a young consort, one eager to please me and be done with this night, with this hunt.

Then I could focus on my mission and my duty, the mating ritual just another tick-in-the-box for me and my destiny.

Once I had fulfilled this ridiculous requirement, I could then continue my work for peace, continue to build hope for my people.

Behind me, Kal’s measured footsteps echoed over the walls.

I stopped and glared at him. “You’re dismissed, Kal.”

His brief burst of laughter prickled over my skin. “That’s not how it works, Diana. You know that you’ve dallied with me long enough for me to be the male you intend to hunt. You can’t hunt another.”

“Watch me.”

Kal gripped my arm, fingers digging into muscle. Shadow lay heavy over his face, but I couldn’t mistake the pulse of anger surging through him. “You can’t hunt another.”

“And I told you. I’m a queen.” I wrenched my arm free.

“Now, it’s been fun, but you want another sklava. So wait for the next aikaterine. In the meantime, I find Wayne very appealing.”

Kal cursed and a muscle jumped in his jaw…but then an eerie calm broke his anger. “Empress Lara has ordered this.”

My jaw dropped and I stared at him. The five quiet words punctured me. He’d been ordered to make me his sklava. His fingers slid from my arm and I fought the urge to wrap my arms around my body, protecting me from the unexpected pain cramping my gut. It hurt. To him I was an order to be obeyed. Nothing more.

My temper flared and the anger and indignation burst through me. I was filled with the desperate urge to run. Run far away from Kal, into some dark spot and scream my anguish out aloud – scream and wail to my heart’s content about how unfair it all was. I had to obey my mother and my destiny.

Kal had to obey the Empress.

But there was one more thing, while in the Kryptonian Empire, even I had to obey the dictates of the Empress.

Donna had warned me about this – there would be trickery at play.

I gripped the wild, petulant emotions that filled me. They couldn’t rule me. Whatever I became after, at this very moment I had the pride and dignity of a queen. And I was an Amazon. We had never bowed our heads to any man. I was certainly not going to be first.

Now, if only I could control my raging emotions. I blanked out my mind and inhaled deeply. I let out my breath slowly and allowed a smile to tug the corners of my mouth.

My pain would not let me be still, I had the need to be sarcastic. “Kal, the obedient son.”

His jaw muscles tightened. “Every Kryptonian is bound to the Empress and must obey her in all things. As her only son, I can do no less.”

“Even who you mate with? So this is what you do? Make sklavas of aikaterines because your mother said so?”

“No.” His heart thudded slow and I felt the weight of his lie lifting from him. “I wanted my sklava, all seven of them appealed to me in their own way. Each of them has a special something that fires my blood, especially the Terran, Lois.”

I’d thought his previous words had cut deep, but this fresh announcement, this dismissal, this rejection, twisted a knife in my gut. “This must be torture for you. An unwanted sklava.”

I couldn’t keep the sarcasm from my voice. I’d marked a man who didn’t even think me worthy of being his concubine.

I wanted to howl, to fight, to hurt someone, to give me something other than the agony of my humiliation, but he’d wounded my spirit. There was a knot of pain deep in my soul.

I lifted my shoulders. I could never turn this man. He would never kneel at my feet and request my compliance in mating with him.

“Why?” I smoothed a palm over my hair, but the gesture didn’t calm me. “Why did the Empress order this?” I had to know.

Very few could disobey her will, and even I, as an Amazon, needed to think twice before doing that.

For any one of the peoples of the Kryptonian Empire, disobedience meant death. For my own people, it would mean yet another war – and this time, Themyscira might very well fall.

My mother had warned me to keep my cool before I left for Krypton.

Kal let out a slow breath. He glanced behind me, his eyes narrowing. “Not here.”

“Why?”

“Because I won’t discuss business in the corridor.” He stood back and waved his hand towards a chamber. “After you, Diana.”

I willed myself to walk past him and into the chamber at hand. I looked around me – another opulent room, reeking of ostentatious wealth – this one was done in black and gold.

“I suppose I’ve saved myself some humiliation. If I’d given in, become your sklava at the first touch, then I’m sure you’d have shoved this order into my face.”

“You would never have known.”

I snorted. “And that’s supposed to make it better?”

The warm fragrance of white plutonian lotuses drifted through the cold bite of the stone walls of the chamber. It had been only minutes since I’d flirted with Wayne and felt the power of being a hunting queen.

Now I found out that Kal was under orders to make me his unwanted sklava. His hand brushing my spine jolted me forward, further into the chamber. “Where are we going?”

“My rooms.”

“And we still have to…” I waved my hand vaguely…not willing to continue my thoughts.

Something that had always crept out from my most secret desires had suddenly become a reality, but the thought of mating with Kal had my stomach cramping.

His fingers teased a slow path up my spine and I hated that a rush of heat fired under my skin. I wanted something out of my humiliation. “We must seal the bond, Diana.”

“Whether I want to or not?”

“Oh, you want me.”

The promise in his voice washed bittersweet through me. And I couldn’t deny my primitive needs and body parts that still ached for him. His hot hand on my lower back burned through the thin silk to my skin. I swallowed, unable to stop the ache tight in my flesh at just that simple touch. The man had made me insane for too many years, ever since I first saw him all those years ago, when I had accompanied Artemis.

Kal leaned in close, his breath brushing my ear. Goose bumps flashed over my skin. “And you’ll have me. All of me. I promise you.”

The doors to the royal apartment opened before us, ancient hinges creaking as the ebony wood swept over gilded tiles.

The Empress’ inner sanctum, a place where only her immediate family lived, stretched out before me.

A great network of doors leading off into brightly lit corridors.

My heart thudded. How had I got myself into this? But I hadn’t, had I? Empress Lara had sent her son after me. Even if I’d had no interest in him, Kal would’ve hunted me down.

“Fast work.”

I froze at the soft, cultured voice and the humor that undercut it. Kara, his sister. I didn’t turn around, but stood with Kal’s hand stinging the base of my spine. She knew what her brother had been commanded to do, and thought it funny.

“Gloating doesn’t become you,” Kal said.

Kara glided in front of me, her silk gown caressing the marble tiles. Tall and fair-haired, she almost held the same incredible beauty as her brother. Almost. Something around her mouth and jaw appeared oddly sharper, increasing as she gave me a smirk. “I’m just congratulating you, Kal.” She tilted her head, her long hair tumbling over her shoulder. Her dark gaze flitted over me, bright, condescending. My emotions flared, licks of anger firing my skin.

I wasn’t sklava just yet. “Though there’s still a smoldering fire to her. Tut, tut, Kal. You haven’t fully tamed her yet.”

“Kara, shouldn’t you be hunting?” He sounded calm but the hard press of his fingers against my spine screamed his tension. “You need to find someone worthy.”

“There are several.” She glided behind us on silent feet, her lush body moving with liquid grace beneath her sheer gown. “They’re making it too easy, which is no fun at all. I may go for one of the old ruling houses. They’ve always hated us. Should be more of a challenge.”

I glanced at Kal and found his mouth thinned and a hard light in his blue eyes. “Don’t mess this up, Kara.”

Kara’s pulse jumped at her throat and she retorted angrily, “You’re the weak link in this plan—”

“Kara…” Kal spat her name out through gritted teeth. My skin prickled and for a quick instant even his sister stayed quiet. “Go hunt.”

“And you, do your duty.”

The sharp reproof in her voice cut through me. Was I his duty? The aikaterine he had to turn into a sklava on the orders of his mother. For what reason? So that his sister would have the single glory of ascending the Sky Throne, standing alone to receive her new province from her mother?

“Diana.”

Kal’s firm touch at my lower back had me stumbling forward across the corridor. Kara had gone, drifting back down the long gallery and away from the royal apartments.

“Am I your duty?”

More heavy doors opened, swinging back against pale, silk-lined walls. They closed behind us with a soft whoosh of air. Kal let out a slow breath. He shrugged out of his cape and padded over the thick carpet to the circular sitting room at the end of the short corridor. No thick velvet or heavy, baroque furniture for him. Soft golden light splashed over sleek, unpretentious furniture and I watched as Kal threw his cloak over a long couch.

“You’re my duty,” he said.

And that broke my thoughts on his taste in interior design. I tried not to think about what would happen now, what had to happen by order of the Empress. Naturally, I failed. Kal exuded sex and power and I couldn’t ignore that combination.

I wanted more. Kal looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Despite everything, you still want me.”

No gloating tainted his voice and that made it worse. It would be easier to hate him, but it would be ridiculous to deny the need I had to get him naked. I shrugged. “Yes.”

A brief smile tugged at his mouth. Something in it, an intimacy, a connection between us, kicked my gut.

“Nothing if not honest, Diana.” The smile faded, his expression sobering. “And I should be just as honest.” His shoulders straightened. “The Empress bids farewell at dawn.”

I flopped onto the neared chair and stared at him. Clutching my hand to my chest, panicked, my heart pounded under my tight fist.

Kal’s words could only mean one thing – the Empress Lara was retiring, was handing over the Sky Throne? The Empress Lara was going to bid farewell and enter the preservation chambers? Was she really going to choose her successor?

“She retires?” More thoughts flared. “She can only retire at a time an aikaterine hunts…” I closed my eyes, “as the crown passes on to that new queen and Empress.”

“You have proven yourself a worthy ambassador of your people, and your skills in the wars have been noticed. If you should succeed tonight, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that you are the natural heir to the Sky Throne. By all rights, you can stake a claim to the throne. You have some radical ideas that may well bring change to the Kryptonian way of doing things. That is why the Kryptonian Senate and my mother want Kara to follow her. And the Empress’ word is law. Besides, Themyscira has been a thorn in our side for a long time now – moreover the ideals of Themyscira are alien to the nature of the Kryptonian Empire. The Senate and the Empress resent the idea that any one can hold out for so long against the Kryptonian army. The Senate fears that your ideals may well catch within the Empire and lead to revolt and rebellion. In any case, there is one more invasion planned against your home state, which may well be deferred if you turn sklava.”

I bit my lip.

What would my mother have me do? What would her counsel be? I tried to think back to what my closest friends would advise. No matter which way I sliced and diced my thoughts, I came back to only one thing.

The Empress Lara and the Senate had never meant for me to succeed tonight. And they had got Kal to do their will. If the Empress died and more than one aikaterine hunted, then it forced a duel, till one or the other emerged the victor to claim the Sky Throne. My tested skills in battle would have me declared the victor easily.

“You didn’t want me fighting Kara.” A bitter laugh escaped me. “It would hardly have been a contest, you know, Kal. You could’ve saved yourself the effort of…” I waved a vague hand at him, “of this.”

“Your mother rules a small island, but it’s still within the borders of the Empire. And you are descended from an unbroken royal bloodline. Your gods, though lesser gods, have blessed you many times over. Your powers are at their peak. You know all of this. An ancient prophecy foretells your destiny – you were born on the night of the Hunter’s Moon.”

I stared at Kal, “How do you know all of this?”

His mouth twisted, “Wayne found out all the details. As Captain of the Guard, its his job and in any case, he loves all this spy glamour stuff. The Senate came up with this plan to invite you here, let you participate in the Hunt. This way, you came here of your own accord, and if you lost the Hunt, then Themyscira could not protest. There would be no retribution or invasion from your mother or your people. You would have lost the Hunt in accordance with the ancient laws.”

Kal continued, “Whether it’s true or not, you had a right to try for the Sky Throne. My mother had the idea of my making you sklava.”

I stared at him, working his words through my brain. “Was there an insult in there somewhere?”

“Would I insult you, Diana?”

But my reply dried in my mouth. He’d slid free the last of his shirt buttons and pulled the shirt from his back. Kal’s naked chest—something I’d only imagined. His skin gleamed as smooth and clear as honey and I wanted to lick him, to taste him. In a blink, a speed that surprised even me, I stood in front of him.

Would he be worth it? Giving it all up and sharing him? My stomach knotted at that thought.

Sharing him, when he should have been my mate, meant only for me.

A trembling finger traced the defined muscles of his abdomen, the touch light but intoxicating. He twitched under my caress and I couldn’t help the growing smile. I released the softest growl.

I wanted him, however I could get him. I lifted my gaze to his and found the heat of his eyes staring back at me. It had me swaying into him, the sheer, warm silk of my gown the only barrier. His hands slid hot down my back, and my chest hitched, need pooling low in my belly. “I want to touch you. Taste you.”

“Diana…”

“What?” I licked a slow path along his collarbone and he hissed. Kal tasted salt-sweet, a mixture that had my fingers inching across his body, stroking over his hot skin. “I will be yours.”

My admission broke an unexpected growl against his chest. Anger or satisfaction, I didn’t know. Maybe both. Open-mouthed kisses trailed down over the solid muscle of his pectoral, my teeth tugging at his nipple.

Kal’s moan had my nails digging into his back. “All yours.”

He tasted—I had to will myself not shout with delight – he tasted, sweet, hot, like peaches and honey, all over.

I groaned, wanting him horizontal and completely naked. “A bed. I need you on a bed. Right now.”

“Diana…”

I tore my mouth from his skin. “A bed, Kal. I—”

His mouth covered mine, the fierce kiss robbing me of all thought. I linked my arms behind his neck and I gripped him. Hard.

He broke away. “A bed?”

I ran my tongue over his lips, tasting their sweetness again. “Big square thing? Mattress, sheets, pillows? Enough room to mate with you on?”

“I think I have one of those.” He strode back along the short corridor, more doors opening quietly over thick carpet. Soft lights flickered on, revealing a curved room dominated by a large four-poster bed. Kal turned toward it and the doors to the bedroom closed with a soft click.

“No expense spared.”

He laughed, the sound a soft rumble against my breasts.

I bit back a smile. Damn it, I didn’t want to like Kal, not now. “Is this where you bring the other women? Sleep here with them?”

He lifted a dark eyebrow. “Sleep? No.”

A laugh and a sob escaped me. “Oh dear.”

Kal tried to keep his face straight but his mouth twitched. “They have no stamina. One little bout undoes them.”

His spit curl fell over his forehead as his mouth did wicked things to my body. I melted, and all too easily he eased me down onto the bed, his mouth never leaving my neck.

He pressed his solid muscles against my body, his arms straining as he lifted his torso. His silky hair brushed my face and the rhythmic lap of his tongue beat an increasing ache through my body. No other man had ever turned me into a boneless mass of need.

Yes, only an Amazon Princess would match him, though I began to doubt that I would.

“Kal…oh, Kal.”

“You taste…” The soft groan of pleasure had my flesh tight. “I could spend the rest of my life tasting you.”

I growled and arched my hips…“You’re only talking.”

Kal’s laughter brushed warm breath over my wet skin. “Very true.” His tongue pressed against my neck, curling, before he lapped again. He let out a slow, satisfied sigh. “Get me naked.”

I hastened to comply with his command. Better get used to obeying and not giving the orders myself. And what a pleasure this training was…

Kal’s tongue had stilled on my neck, his breathing ragged. “No games, Diana, please.”

I shifted my hips, getting closer to him. His mouth broke from mine, his lips finding the pulse in my neck. The heat, the solid muscle surrounding, holding me, had my heart pounding. I traced my fingers down the hollow of his spine, making him tremble beneath my touch. “See where saying please will get you?”

He smirked against my skin. “It just became my favorite word.”

Kal rolled his hips and sensation buffeted me, the fire licking again, low in my abdomen. Damn him. I needed the release, could taste it, the burning ache of it, he just needed to…

“Your turn to say it.”

I didn’t hesitate, my body wouldn’t let me. “Please…”

“Good, you are mine, Diana.”

I met his eyes again. He could think that, say that—I really didn’t care.

He stopped and looked into my eyes, holding my face between both his hands, his deep blue eyes searching deep into my soul, fire lurking in their depths.

“Is this what you really want?”

I mustered enough strength to lift my own arm and gently brush his spit curl back into place. “Would please help?”

Soon primitive desire overtook us both in a raw, inevitable surge. Fire swept over my skin, hot, searing. I clung to Kal, absorbing him, wanting, needing…allowing waves of molten heat to crash over my body.

Kal’s muffled cry burned hot against my skin and the tight grip on my body eased, softened. My head fell back into the soft pillows, hands softening against his hot, damp skin. I ran trembling fingers through his thick, dark hair. “Kal…” I swallowed as my voice cracked on his name. “I have to…y’know.”

My other hand traced over his ribs and I couldn’t say the word. My life as a queen was over. But my home, my people and my mother would be safe. When the time came, perhaps Donna would succeed where I had failed. I tried not to think about the future. A future that had been so certain, but had changed so much now.

I had to surrender my power and my will to Kal, in the formal ceremony that the law demanded. It was very simple, all he or I had to do was to kneel and say the words, “Totus Tuus” or “ Totally Yours”.

And the other had only to respond, “Tuebor” or “I will protect.”

Closing my eyes, I let out a slow breath.

His tongue continued to lave over my skin, as he eased the damp silk from my skin, his clever hands teasing over my ribs shooting little aftershocks through my flesh. There was the soft rustle of his own remaining clothes and then he pulled me into his arms.

“We sleep,” Kal murmured, tugging warm, soft blankets over our bodies, and his breath brushed against my temple. “You can do that later.”

“Make it sound like a chore, why don’t you?”

His mouth curved against my temple. “Nothing about you is a chore, Diana.”

My stomach tightened. Damn it, I didn’t want to like him, but that had sounded like affection in his voice. I couldn’t deny that the sudden ache in my chest that felt like regret. “Is this what we’ll be like now? With me just one of eight willing and compliant women?”

“Diana…”

His arms tightened around me, but the offer of comfort only reminded me that I would simply be one of numerous bodies he enjoyed.

“Don’t make me watch.” The lump in my throat hurt and my throat tightened with sorrow. “Don’t…don’t make me join in.”

Kal pressed his lips to my forehead and the possessive stroke of his hands over my body eased the strain. “From now on, only I will see or touch you, I promise.”

My humor reasserted itself out of self-preservation. “Going to lock me in a box?”

His soft laughter brushed over my damp hair. “Don’t give me ideas, Diana. You’re mine now.” Kal’s large hand slipped over my waist to grip my hip. He pulled me tight against the heat, the strength of his body. “So sleep,” he murmured.

A slow sigh escaped me. He’d put off my final capitulation to him. I wanted to be grateful, but he was only putting off the inevitable.

“Happy Hunter’s Moon, Kal.”

“It’s not over yet.”

His words followed me uneasily down into a dreamless sleep.