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it?”
    “I could do it because I had not yet taken you. Worry not, your thoughts are now your own. Though I must warn you of trying anything foolish. I will give you great pleasure if you stay true. But if you betray me, you will only wish you were dead. Now roll to your knees. I find I’m ready to take you once more.”
    Phillipa glanced down at his cock and watched as it swelled before her very eyes. She knew by looking that this was the cock of the wolf. It couldn’t have been the same member he’d taken her with only a few hours before. Her hand couldn’t have closed around it and it was at least the same length as her forearm.
    “Please, Wulf. I am sore,” she said, thinking frantically. “I heard a stream behind the cottage when I first arrived. I would like to wash. And I’m sure the water would feel pleasant.”
    “If I give you a reprieve, you must agree to anything I wish. You won’t deny me.” His voice brooked no argument.
    She nodded once, trying not to think of what he could possibly have in store for her, and scrambled off the bed. There were no clothes in the wardrobe, and she didn’t see the gown she’d discarded earlier. Her cloak hung on a peg on the wall, a bright slash of red against the pale walls.
    “You need no clothes here. There will be no need for them, and no one will see you. As I said, this area is protected and you will only be able to venture so far before you can go no further.”
    He handed her a small ball of rose scented soap. Phillipa took it and nodded once before she fled out the front door of the cottage. A small reprieve was better than none. She had much to do before she succumbed to Wulf’s touch once more.

 

     
     

Chapter Seven:
     
    Trickery and the Taking
     
    A clear path wound from the back of the cottage down to a small creek that flowed into a pond. By the position of the sun, it was already late afternoon. Time had been lost since her abduction and the night she shared with Wulf. She wasn’t even sure how long she’d slept.
    She moved quickly, looking around every time she heard the slightest noise, afraid that someone would see her nakedness. The feeling of moving so freely was unusual and a bit unnerving. She would have been ridiculed and seen as nothing more than a disgraced trollop among her own people. But here she could be as she pleased. Only it was her body that had to be sacrificed for the payment of such freedom.
    The gurgling sound of water grew nearer, and she hoped that she would find just what she needed along the water’s edge. Her mother had told her of a special root that could be eaten raw or boiled to make a tea that would protect a woman from pregnancy until she was ready. Her mother had been quite forward in her speaking to her children, much like Phillipa was, and not even the most unconventional of topic was ignored. According to her mother, the root was most often used by married ladies who didn’t wish to spawn the children of their lovers off on their husbands.
    The water was crystal clear, so she could see the pebbled bottom and exactly where it dropped off to deeper waters. Autumn would make way for winter before the month was out, but today the sun was out and beat down on her bare shoulders. Even cold, the water would be a welcome relief to her body.
    She stepped through the tall grass that edged the pond and into the water, the frigid temperature stealing her breath for just a moment. And then she saw it. The plant sat in clumps all along the water’s edge. She plucked it out of the ground as she would have a weed and snapped off the small, marble-sized roots.
    She waded the rest of the way into the water until she stood waist deep, and washed the dirt from the roots. Once they were clean she divided one in half with her thumbnail and swallowed it whole, shuddering at the bitter taste.
    “That should take care of things,” she said to herself, tossing the rest of the roots to dry land to take back to the cottage with