Lest there be some mistake - Aurelia is Cethin's prisoner.

Not his guest. Not his sweeting. Not his lover. Not his concubine, either. She serves the overlord's rampant desire as a chained detainee inside his solar.

Ah, but her gaoler is rightfully called the Beast, for Cethin is an animal in his unrelenting urgency to have her, as she is an animal in her unrelenting urgency to have him. Regardless of what he does to her, how he unsheathes his claws and goes at her, she protests not, for he is her prisoner as much as she is his.

And lest there be some mistake - her unsheathed claws are every bit as sharp.

Aye, she will serve out her prison sentence under the Beast's rule. Atop his rule, as well, be that his demand. 'Tis all the same to Aurelia, for beneath her pale silky flesh, she is a Beast too, a she-beast on the prowl to mate...

him.

* No beasties were harmed in the telling of this tale, No shape shifting done... strictly a human love story.