1. Once upon a moonlit night

Once upon a moonlit night

~Valerie Contempt~

T he moon is my only friend on a night like this. She stares down at me as I lay writhing in the moss, hoping the next wave of desire will be less intense. As I reach my peak once more, the relief is meager. Pathetic. Unhelpful. There would be no relief while it was breeding season.

I groaned with disdain as I sank back into the moist clovers. The spongey earth was the only mercy. Thankfully, I wasn't trapped in my sorority bed like I had been last night. Too afraid to break free and run through the trees like my bones begged me to do. Why did it have to happen now? The season wasn't supposed to be for another month! But no, what else would be my luck.

Luck, pffffft , more like bad omen. I was a fly in someone's only free drink. I was a rock in their shoe. I was the bad witch.

Valerie, first of her name, House of Contempt. A coven of hags given social grace due to our matriarch. Scarlet Contempt, a countess merely because she slaughtered the last one and took her place. I am her great-great-great-grand daughter, and the next in a long line of witches to come to Gatillion College and take a degree in the form of a husband. Or a baby, whichever came easier.

No matter what I actually wanted.

So, there I was, tits out, spread eagle, dripping wet and agonizingly unsatisfied as I stared up at the only friend I had, the moon. She was unphased. I draped a sweaty arm over my forehead, panting for air. How do I stop this curse? Can I quicken it? Can I make these horrors end sooner rather than later? It was my fault, really. I was the one who opened her big mouth to her grandmother over summer break. While I was worrying about grad school classes and my grades, my grandmother asked if I had any viable candidates for my hand. Or for my belly. You've spent too long in school! Time to come home!

I was the one who told her I had no interest in breeding or marrying. Fucking whoops. She revoked my breeding season protections that day. Which was fucking vile of her! I wanted to bite her head off but, as the current matriarch, she would have whooped my ass. I knew better than to pick dumb fights.

"Well, we're not getting any relief out here." I sat up in my moss, letting it soak up all the cum I'd spilled in the last three hours. My fingers ached from how much I'd been masturbating. I reeked of sex and I was still grossly untouched. While my protections were revoked, fucking anyone was off the table. It was celibate city for this witch. I snatched up my nightgown off the log where I left it and pulled it over my head. Bent over, hair in my hands, I was pulling my wild mane into a bun when I heard the first shriek of my name.

My blood turned to an iron slushy. Inch by inch, I stood up straight. I dropped my long, chestnut mane, and stared through the trees. Pitchforks and torches were headed my way. That's never good. I've been in the sorority for two years; all the tricks and pranks were already played out on fresh meat. I heard the second yell of my name and it made my heart skip a beat. I stumbled away from my love nest, forgetting my panties and boots I'd worn into the trees. Grabbing up the front of my nightgown, I tiptoed through the forest.

"Valerie! Come out, you fucking hag!"

Ope, well, that's an even worse sign. People only call witches 'hag' when they mean it in a derogatory manner. I swallowed over my tongue as I slipped back into a heavy cluster of trees.

"You monster! You murderer! Valerie! " That was head of the sorority, Amber McClanes. A tall, blonde goddess of a Tiefling who used to smile at me so sweetly. She would clasp both my hands in hers and giggle as she spoke. Purple horns that curled back around her chic haircut, those lavender eyes of hers studying mine. I was a legacy, and they'd poached me to join…despite my heritage.

Witches aren't liked because, well, we're not as nice as wizards. We're closer to sorcerers, where my magic comes from a lineage of magic users. But, unlike those fuckwits who are descendants of dragons or elemental storms, I'm from a long line of women who used to breed with fae. That's it. Scarlet Contempt was the daughter of some fae prince and priestess of the moon. Fae magic isn't cute, it's gnarly. It's fingers in graveyard soil. It's teeth through flesh. It's hair boiled in vinegar. Fae magic is spiteful and mean, just like my grandmother.

But I didn't murder anybody—not yet, anyway. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I crouched down into the brush. The hunting pack that bellowed my name was made up of my sorority and our brother fraternity. I recognized all their faces as they searched the woods for me. My heart screamed for me to do something, but my body was stuck to the soggy ground.

Murderer? I didn't…but I haven't…

"Gotcha!" A massive hand snatched me by the hair and wrenched me off the ground. I screamed. Hands slapping, clawing, tugging on those that exposed me were nothing compared to the strength of the person scruffing me.

"There you are! Witch," Amber hissed, sticking a torch in my face. I winced, trying to push it away.

"What is going on?" I snarled, trying and failing to twist my way out of my captor's hands.

"We're bringing you back to face justice, murderer!" Tavrin, one of the paladins from our brother house—and the last guy I kissed—spat in my face. Seeing his pretty features scrunched in fury was salt in the wound. I imagined maybe Tavrin would be the guy I took home eventually to make amends with my grandmother. We got along well enough, he liked the same books I did, and was the kind of guy to save cats out of trees. A kind soul that would do well to counter my raging typhoon. I once liked when he wrapped his hands around my neck, tugging me close to his face.

However, as he wrapped his traitorous hands around my bicep, I kicked out. A frightened horse, I spat and screamed and kicked with all my might.

"Let me go! Let me fucking go! I didn't kill anyone! "

"Shut up!" Amber slapped my cheek, spinning my world around. "Come quietly or we'll burn you here."

"You won't have the chance," I hissed. I wanted to ask who died. Who could I possibly want dead? I didn't talk to anyone. I was a nobody. Other than my legacy status, I was given no special treatment outside of a cute pin and help when pledging. My status did nothing to alleviate the hazing or the hardship of overworking myself. It didn't help when I was six essays deep with two hours of sleep and an exam at six am. Social life? Ha! I hung out at my sorority, but outside of what events were forced upon the house, I didn't go anywhere.

I woke up, went to class, did my homework, and went to bed. I was the quintessential boring kid in college.

But, they clearly weren't here to talk. I would get no answers from my personal mob. What I needed was to get free. Get somewhere safe and find out whose blood I was accused of spilling. It started with the moon turning red. The forest was drenched in ruby light. Visibility lowered as all their eyes snapped to mine. Their torches went out with a hiss as a sharp gust blew through the trees. The hand in my hair tightened their grip.

No, not today. I dropped to the mossy earth, taking them with me. As the branches snapped out of the underbrush, my captor was dragged through the darkened trees screaming. I fled. Their screams fell on indifferent ears as I bolted through the forest. I'd memorized it my first year. I knew where the campus touched the edge of the trees. Every rock, log, and tree were carefully locked away in my mind as I ran blindfolded by my own magic.

A party trick, really, but it was the best I could do in a pinch without hurting anyone. I pumped my arms at my side, feeling leaves and other petals brush against my flesh. Anxiety sparkled like fireworks in my veins. The second I stopped running, it would turn to lead. I'd be weighed down by the very thing putting speed in my step, but until then, I would use it to flee. Safety was the only thing that mattered to me.

Until I ran smack face-first into side of a massive brown bear. I shrieked, falling backward onto my ass. The bear roared, already rearing back as if to strike me. But we both watched their paws tug at glistening silver chains. A trap? My heart skipped a beat as I realized my new bear friend was chained. Two angry mouths full of iron teeth were clamped onto their front paws, keeping them forever reared back and unable to free themselves. I blinked rapidly, taking it all in. Then, like the fool I was, I scrambled to the nearest tree. The chains were embedded in the trunk of old oak trees. I wrapped my fingers around the spike holding them there and tugged.

And tugged.

And tugged until it broke free of the tree. With the forest still drenched in ruby shaded darkness, I worked to free the other being trapped here. Maybe the bear would maul my face? Maybe the bear would flee? Maybe my mother was right and my priorities were fucked up… I scrambled to the other tree, planted both my feet against the bark, and yanked the other, massive nail free.

The silvery chains exploded over my head as the arcana was broken. What was in my hand turned to mist. I twisted to face the bear, till roaring as it ripped the iron maws free of its paws and tossed the inhumane trap across the forest floor. As my spell began to wane, I watched in slow, horrified, motion as the bear turned to me.

I fell back to my ass, scrambling backward. You freed the thing! What did you imagine would happen? Didn't even think about it! Didn't even fucking hesitate! Regret wasn't exactly in my vocabulary.

As my back pressed into the scratchy bark of the tree behind me, I followed the bear back up onto its rear legs. The moon returned to its pearly glow over the forest canopy. The distinct, soft ding of the bell tower told me it was three am. I'd been out in the woods since sundown. Yet, the echo told me I'd gone further than I thought.

How far did I get before I died? Was the last thing I thought as the bear turned into a man.

A very naked man. A very naked familiar man. My eyebrows shot up. "Professor O'Hare?"

And then my penance for being frightened, dehydrated, and running at top speed through the woods came for me because I blacked out.