Prison Princess

my skin. The ground was made of small hills and valleys, and my weakened, buzzing legs groaned with every uphill step. I wanted to stop, but Cypress was unforgivingly strong.
“Can we just stop for a second? There’s no one even out here,” I complained, this time my voice even louder. Cypress cursed under his breath and crouched lower, tugging me down to the ground with him.
“Just because you can’t see anyone, doesn’t mean they aren’t there,” he growled. We were positioned between two hills. His nose was just inches from mine, and his hot breath traveled down my neck. This close, I couldn’t miss the fine scar on his upper lip, so faint as to be nearly invisible. It was almost as if a healer tried correcting the wound, but permanent magic kept it in place.
“What does that even mean?” I asked. Maybe it was my life of seclusion and loneliness, but all of a sudden, I found myself aching to reach up and run my hand along his chin. Whatever Cypress saw when he looked at me, he sighed in seeming annoyance and raked his gaze up and down my body.
“You need to change. You stand out too much in that NP uniform. I wish I had some dye to hide that damn Druid hair of yours.”
I snapped to attention, and I lifted a hand to run it along the bright green strands. “I’m a Druid?” I asked in awe. I’d never known what exactly I was. It was like everyone in the prison was forbidden from telling me.
“Fuck,” Cypress groaned before shifting through his leather pack. “Wipe that dreamy look off your face. We don’t have time for you to have heartfelt moments about who and what you are. You want answers? Fine,” he hissed while looking around once more and pulling out a black dress from his bag. I glanced at the fabric and nearly cried at the beauty of it. It was long and made of thin material. He tossed it at me. “Put this on. You really need pants and some good walking boots, but this was all I could steal.”
Steal? I really was breaking all the laws tonight.
I stood up and spun around, giving my captor my back while stripping out of the prison uniform. It was equally liberating and devastating to see the gray cotton pants and threadbare shirt discarded in a heap on the ground. The second my soft pale skin was completely exposed to the moon, my entire body burst with pleasure. I dropped the black dress out of shock.
Tingling warmth filled me up. Goosebumps broke out on my skin. I moaned when more power surged through me.
“Stop the moon lust and get dressed,” Cypress croaked at my back. Moon lust? Was that what this was? I wanted to sway under the moon. I wanted to run my fingers along my skin and—“I will knock you out if you don’t stop. We don’t have time for you to pleasure yourself.”
I blushed. His words made me quickly pick up the dress and shrug it on. I didn’t understand what exactly he meant, but every cell in my body reeled from whatever was happening to me. I’d never felt anything like it. “Your parents thought you were dead. You were captured at birth, but apparently they got some sort of beacon saying you were alive.”
My mouth dropped open in shock, and I spun around to face Cypress while pulling up my thin lace dress. He zeroed in on the movement.
“I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. And I’m not the one to tell you, Princess. Come on.” He signaled with his head. “I have one job and that’s to get you and bring you home. I’m going to do that. If you’d like to be conscious during the experience, then shut the fuck up with the questions and keep moving. I’m not a knight; I’m not interested in being your savior. You’re a job. Hustle along.” He lowered his voice. “Now.”
I was used to following orders...to a point. I’d gotten good over the years at knowing which ones I had to obey and which ones I could ignore or manage to thwart without getting in too much trouble. His tone right now? It told me that if I disobeyed, I’d be in serious shit. I rubbed my eyes.
Okay. If I wasn’t going to get answers, then I was going to figure out other things. I’d never been outside this long before. Ever. It was...exhilarating. There were people who might want to hurt me—and I had no idea why—but even that couldn’t hinder the fact that the moon was filling me up inside.
There was so much more noise than I’d expected, too. A chirping and buzzing I couldn’t ignore. I rubbed my arms. It was cold, as well. Chilly. My feet had gotten wet even with my shoes on. Prison slippers weren’t really conducive to this kind of walking.
He turned to look at me, his dark eyes somehow almost seeming to glow in the darkness. “Can you move faster?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t at all certain that I could, actually. “I’ve never...done this before?”
He blinked. “Walked?”
That was such an obnoxious thing to say that I wished I could break his nose for saying it. That was the kind of thing we did in prison. I’d seen plenty of people get their ass kicked in the yard. I’d always been sort of horrified by violence, which was why my response to him was so strange for me.
I swallowed. “I’ve never walked outside, except in the central area of the prison during the day. Small amounts. I’m...not used to this.”
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Listen…”
Whatever he would have said, he stopped and closed his mouth, tilting his head to the left just a little bit. I’d learned all the ways to read people’s nonverbal instructions over the years. His told me that he was listening to something that he really wanted to hear.