Chapter One

Innocence Broken

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Autumn, Year 1264

Diana, princess of the Mau Kingdom, watched with horror-filled eyes as the massive, unstoppable army began sweeping like ants through the city.

The young Mauian had been rather sheltered for most of her life. The privileged heir to her matriarchal kingdom, Diana had rarely worried about anything more than what she would wear from day to day or where to laze away the warm, sunny afternoons in her palace home. Her fiercely protective parents had kept much of the ugliness of the world from her. The wars had been a distant thing to the princess, a troublesome story soon forgotten. She had been barely twelve when her mother allied them with the stronger Lunaran Kingdom, in order to finally gain an edge over the powerful, wicked Aerians. So young, she barely remembered that fateful decision, and had very little to do with the consequences that had come after.

The battles had always been fought far away from her home, after all. Diana was never forced to face them herself. In fact strongly encouraged by her parents not to worry herself about it. Yet now, however, that ugliness was suddenly staring her right in the face.

After that battle in the Nostia forests, the Queen of Mau had not directly allied with the Lunarans again. Largely in part to the civil unrest that plagued the kingdom, with their King dead and twenty power-hungry nobles all vying for the title despite the fact that the man had left a perfectly capable wife and daughter behind. Thus the Mauians were wholly unprepared for what remained of the Aerian strike teams to descend upon them with the combined might of the Elysian Empire’s far-superior army. The smaller cities that surrounded the capital were decimated first. Despite her parents’ best attempts, Diana had heard the frightened whispered tales that had been coming to them for the past week. Tales that told of a countless death toll, with what few remained afterward being imprisoned and enslaved.

And now the battle had come to the gates of the capital itself. As she watched it unfold below her, the young seventeen year old was struck with how utterly helpless and useless she felt. Her mother and father were great warriors, yet they had raised her into a more gentle, softer creature. They had thought it would be for the best, yet suddenly the girl was wishing with all of her might that she knew how to do more than run and hide in her changed form.

“Diana!”

The princess turned, eyes wide, to see three figures approaching. One was her mother, Queen Luna, her long dark hair pulled back and golden eyes sharp, yet haunted. Another was her father, Prince Consort Artemis, his equally long white hair pulled back into a messy tail, his blue eyes frigid. Beside them was a young, handsome Mauian male by the name of Eolis. Tall for nineteen and decently built, with long red hair striped in black and green-gold eyes, he had been her betrothed for as long as she could remember, hand-chosen by her parents to become her mate next year when she came of age. They had always been fairly close, though Diana felt more of a brotherly love for him than any grand romance. The princess had kept this to herself however, hoping against hope that it was just because she wasn’t considered fully matured yet in the eyes of her people that she was unable to feel romantic feelings for him.

“Diana, come,” her mother urged, motioning sharply with her hands. “You must go with Eolis, escape the city. It is no longer safe here.”

“But . . . mama,” she protested quaveringly, taking a step toward them. Her eyes were huge in her pale face, uncertain and terrified. “Wh-what about you and daddy?”

Both of her parents’ faces tightened with pain and remorse. Eolis watched from a distance, expression torn as well. Luna reached out and cupped her face in both hands, tears gathering in her eyes. “Our fate has been sealed, little one. It will be no different than that of our people.”

Her mother already knew, then, that defeat was inevitable. Diana ignored the tears spilling down her own cheeks, her quivering chin firming with determination.

“Then why am I being made to run and hide?” she demanded, her tone only faintly more assured than it had been a moment ago. “I am the princess! The future queen! My fate should be no different than yours.”

Artemis shook his head vehemently. “You are too soft, Diana,” he responded, somewhat hoarse with emotion. “You would not survive the cruelty that awaits us at the hands of these bird barbarians. I could not bear to see you at their mercy.”

“Nor I,” Luna seconded. “You must flee, escape to the safety of the Lunara Kingdom. The Queen will shelter you and give you sanctuary, for she is an old friend of mine.” Diana opened her mouth to protest again, but her mother grabbed her shoulders and pushed her toward Eolis. “Go! Now! Flee, and survive.” Her mother stared at her for a long moment, eyes sad but fierce. “Live so that you might one day return and avenge our memories.”

Diana watched as her mother shifted her shape into her war form then, a large black panther. Her father was quick to follow her lead, his form consisting of a massive all-white lion. Both great cats leapt from the balcony onto a roof-top below, and then after another series of jumps they were on the ground and racing toward the thick of the battle now raging in the streets.

“Di, come on,” Eolis suddenly urged, tugging at her hand and pulling the princess away from where she stood rooted to the spot, sobbing softly.

“I can’t just leave them to die, Eolis!” she whimpered. Her betrothed tugged her after him anyhow, seemingly oblivious to her protests.

“You have to,” was his grim response. “Now shift your shape! We’ll be faster on four legs than two.”

The nineteen year old let go of her hand to shapeshift into his war form, a large red tiger. Diana hesitated only a moment longer before doing the same, shifting into a lean and somewhat petite silvery-gray snow-leopard. The two cats sprang away from the terrace then, darting through the halls and heading for the kitchens, which spilled out into the wide-open gardens that surrounded the rear of the palace. Apparently Eolis thought to lose any pursuers in the foliage.

It seemed to be working for the most part. Heart hammering against her ribs, breath hissing past her muzzle in wheezing pants, Diana followed after Eolis as quickly and silently as she could as he led her through the maze. They had nearly made it to the exit, when suddenly their path was blocked.

Diana pounced backward with a frightened hiss, while Eolis hunkered down and faced off with the human, his ears folding back and a frightful roar letting out of his chest. The tall, slender man dressed in green and silver armor merely smirked, absently twisting a curl of his reddish-gold hair around a gloved pinkie.

“Down, kitty,” he murmured, sneering. In no way intimidated by the young Mauian’s bluster. “Make this easy on yourself, hero.” The human suddenly produced two silver collars etched in obsidian runes and tossed then down into the grass in front of them. Eolis instinctively pounced a little back from them, eying them distrustfully. The human—an Elysian warrior of some considerable rank, if his resplendent armor was any indication—smirked at them, expression eerily calm and condescending. “Be good little kitties and shift back into humanoids, and put those collars on.” His mildly pleasant expression suddenly became ice cold. “Don’t make me put them on for you.”

Diana shifted her weight nervously, casting an uneasy glance toward Eolis. The male had lowered himself farther toward the ground, a rumbling growl rolling out of his chest, obviously preparing to pounce. The Elysian sighed somewhat loudly. “Damn stubborn cats,” he muttered.

A moment later Eolis was launching himself toward the human. Had he connected, his powerful teeth and claws would have torn the other man to shreds. Unfortunately he didn’t connect. The Elysian danced nimbly out of Eolis’ path with frightening ease, doing it so fast it was hard to follow his movements. In the same motion he also pulled a long, deadly rapier from the scabbard on his hip. Before Eolis could do more than land on empty grass and Diana could do more than gasp in alarm, the Elysian warrior was slicing a wide, vicious wound diagonally across the tiger’s broad back. From shoulder to hip. Eolis reared back and let out a long, pained yowl.

“Strike one, kitty boy,” the warrior called, tone a mix between playful and annoyed.

Diana cowered further, whimpering as she saw Eolis whirl about and prepare for another charge. In cat form, the princess let out a loud whine, attempting to deter him but her betrothed was oblivious to her. She jerked and whimpered again when Eolis’ second ill-advised attack got him sliced across the chest.

“That’s strike two, furball. Strike three is the end of the line.”

Eolis was panting heavily from pain and blood loss, but the stubborn fool looked to be crouching down for yet another foolish lunge. Diana finally couldn’t take anymore. She shifted back into human form.

“Eolis, no!” she cried, causing both men to turn to her. The tiger stared at her in a mixture of anger and desperation, while the Elysian smirked somewhat triumphantly. She ignored the latter for now, red eyes glistening with desperate tears. “Please,” she begged. “Stand down. I . . . I do not what to watch you die. Not over me. Please.”

The human warrior motioned toward the collars with the tip of his blade. “Put it on, princess,” he demanded then, revealing that he knew exactly who she was. Diana flinched, but slowly inched forward on her hands and knees and reached for one of the bonds still lying in the grass. Trying her best to ignore Eolis’ ravaged, somewhat betrayed expression while she did so. The metal collar was about an inch thick, surprisingly light for its size. The young girl stared somewhat apprehensively at the black runes that decorated it’s surface, knowing they were magic but not quite certain what that magic would do once she put it on. Not to mention the fat loop in the front of it, where the end of a chain was meant to be fitted.

A slave’s collar.

At her hesitation and the tiger’s sudden tensing—as if about to spring toward her—the warrior suddenly lashed out, and the tip of his sword sank into Eolis’ shoulder, pinning the larger cat to the ground. Diana jerked at her friend’s loud, screaming howl of pain. “Put it on,” the Elysian demanded then in a low, somewhat urgent and frustrated tone, “or I skin your friend here while he’s still awake enough to feel it.”

Hands shaking, Diana finally raised the collar to her neck and carefully slid it in place, locking it with a faint click. She felt the magic bind her immediately. While wearing this, she would be unable to shift her shape, stuck in the one she now wore indefinitely. Even though her shifted form wasn’t all that fierce, the young princess still felt immediately bereft and uncomfortable, weakened in some indefinable way.

“Good girl,” the Elysian murmured, tone almost pleasant. “Now grab the other one and come here. Slowly,” he advised in a faintly warning tone.

Still trembling a little from shock and uncertainty, Diana did as she was told, afraid of what the Elysian would do to Eolis if she disobeyed. She stopped only a few feet away from them, swallowing a little. The warrior turned down to the tiger still pinned to the ground at his feet.

“Shift back, furball.”

Eolis let out a loud, defiant snarl even nearly passed out from pain and loss of blood. Diana whimpered.

“Eolis, please!”

“Listen to the lady, furball,” the Elysian seconded. “It won’t hurt my feelings much to kill another one of you damned cats who’s too stubborn to accept the inevitable.”

Eolis finally shifted back into human form at that, letting out a loud cry of pain as he did so, since the Elysian’s sword was still spearing through his shoulder. Diana swallowed convulsively, the sight and smell of the blood turning her stomach, not to mention her sympathy at the pain he was in. The warrior jerked his head slightly.

“Put the collar on him.”

Diana slowly knelt to him. Eolis met her eyes briefly, his own filled with anger, regret and just a faint hint of condemnation before his head bowed in defeat. Lips trembling, Diana carefully fit the collar around his neck and snapped it in place with a warbling, “I’m sorry.”

The Elysian smirked in triumph, and finally wrenched his sword out of Eolis’ shoulder, winning him another yelping cry. Diana tried to reach for him, but the warrior caught her arm right above the elbow in one smooth gesture and wrenched her to her feet, then began pulling her away.

“Wait!” she cried, stumbling. “W-we can’t just leave him there! He’ll bleed to death!”

“One of the sweep teams will pick him up,” the Elysian replied, tone almost bored now.

“But—,”

Her arm was suddenly wrenched back painfully and Diana let out a loud, pained cry. When she was able to somewhat force her eyes to reopen through the discomfort, it was to come face to face with the now furious-looking warrior.

“I don’t think you quite understand your position here, princess,” he bit out. “Your city is in ruin. Your people are thoroughly conquered. You don’t have the right to protest anything. So keep your mouth shut and do as you're told before I cut your tongue out. Understood?”

Her parents’ dire warnings still ringing in her ears, Diana just managed to nod shakily, more tears gathering. The Elysian was heartless to them. Instead he pulled her arm back into a more natural angle and then continued to half-lead, half-drag her back through the gardens. He raised a device to his mouth and murmured into it, though it was in a language she didn’t understand. The response was in this same language, though whatever was said made him smirk wide. Something that made her shiver somewhat, though Diana wasn’t entirely certain why.

Moments later they arrived back at the palace. Diana stared around with widened eyes, somewhat disbelieving. In just the short time she had been away, the proud edifice had been completely overrun. Every Mauian she saw still alive was wearing one of the rune collars, and put in chains. Their arms and legs were bound by no more than a foot and a half of give between them, both connected in the middle by a third chain that would keep them from lifting their arms any higher than chest level. The Elysian warrior she was with procured a set in short order. Diana could only stand there and let him lock the silvery cuffs around her ankles and wrists, trying to ignore the stares of horror and rage she could feel from her people as they watched him do so. Which only grew in intensity when he suddenly produced another chain, and clipped that one to the front of her collar, like a leash.

Diana glared at him in mute outrage but the Elysian merely smirked, in no way intimidated.

“Come along, princess,” he hummed, tone almost pleasant. “Someone wants to meet your acquaintance.”

Diana very much didn’t want to go with him, but she now had very little choice in the matter. The tug around her neck from her ‘leash’ either demanded she follow or get pulled to the ground in a graceless, painful heap. The once-proud Mauian princess shuffled after her captor, her chains rattling noisily as he led her into the palace and down the central hall. There were a number of Elysian and Aerian warriors filling the entry way now, all of which laughed and hooted their victory at seeing her bound so humiliatingly. A part of her wanted to cower and cry, but her mother’s pride decided to surface then, so that Diana held her head high, her chin lifted defiantly despite the tears still glistening on her cheeks. Refusing to let herself be cowed by them.

Her brief stab of courage lasted her until the Elysian led her into the throne room. The first thing she saw was her parents. Diana let out a small, wounded cry at seeing them covered in blood and wounds, still in their war forms but bound in collars and chained to the floor. The two great cats were huddling together for warmth and comfort, their heads hanging with defeat.

“Mama! Daddy!” Forgetting herself, Diana started to rush toward them. And was then cruelly wrenched back by the chain around her neck. The princess stumbled and nearly lost her footing because of the manacles, but barely managed to catch herself in time. The black panther looked as though she tried struggling to her paws, letting out a low, angry yowl of protest at seeing her daughter bound. Another warrior near-by was quick to subdue her again, however, striking the queen with a set of bladed whips. Diana started crying openly at the sound of her mother’s agonized scream.

The princess was then yanked forward again, giving her little time to dwell on this new horror. In due time she had been brought to the dais, where several men in armor stood.

One was dressed in deadly black armor trimmed in gold, a thin gold band around his brow beneath the bangs of his ink-black hair proclaiming him to be the Lord King of Elysia. His dark blue eyes assessed her with a cold, heartless calculation that made her shiver. There were three others dressed in armor similar to her captor as well, one trimmed in pale blue, one trimmed in yellow and the other trimmed in red. Their expressions ranged from indifference, to curiosity to cruel humor. The last figure was what caught most of her attention, however, with a mixture of faint horror and disbelief.

He was very tall, dressed in the light-weight leather armor of his people, leaving his arms bare and form-fitting everywhere else, revealing the muscle beneath his faint-gold tan to be well-toned and firm. His hair was a bright reddish-blond, pulled back into a thick, wrapped tail that fell to his lower back behind him. Two huge feathered wings were folded across his back, mostly white with the edges of the flight feathers fading into a deep green—looking almost as if he’d dipped them in paint. This as well as his facial features pronounced him to be Aerian; the hawk-like, fine-boned facial structure, and the eyes—a pale silvery-green—slightly larger than a human, almond-shaped and almost lamp-like.

There were three things that struck her the most about this male Aerian as she stared up at him. The first was the most confusing, and that was his scent. All Mauians had very acute senses of smell and hearing, even in humanoid form. The Aerian in front of her smelled like the wind, feathers and an indefinable maleness, but it was tinged with something else, something unique. Something that made her nostrils twitch, made her want to squirm without knowing why. The second thing about him was the thin, intricate silver band that wound around his forehead beneath his thick hair. Which meant that he was royalty, no doubt the leader of the Aerian strike-teams that had allied with the Elysian Empire after the burning of the Nostia Forest. The third and last—and also the most frightening—thing she noticed about him was the expression of utter contempt and hatred that twisted his features while he stared back at her.

The Lord King of Elysia sighed after a moment, turning to cast the Aerian prince a smirk. “I hope your new home is to your liking?” the dark-haired monarch pronounced, loud enough that everyone in the hall could hear. Diana gaped somewhat.

He meant to give their home to the Aerians?!

The Aerian Prince merely sneered somewhat. “It stinks of cat, but I think I can make it presentable.”

The princess clenched her fists at the open slur, but made no other move than that, knowing it would be foolish and suicidal at the moment, surrounded as she was by warriors who were all a lot stronger than her. Something on her face must have given her away, however, because the Elysian King suddenly chuckled and came forward. He reached for her and Diana flinched somewhat fearfully, but the man merely took her chin in his hand and forced her face up.

“This is Princess Diana,” he mused softly. “Queen Luna’s only daughter. Heir to the throne. The Mauians’ most prized possession.” Diana swallowed again, nervous and uncertain, not liking the predatory tone of his voice. Her whole body stiffened in shock when the King suddenly turned to the Aerian Prince with a smirk. “She’s yours, Jorowyn. Consider her a gift, for your loyalty.” His smirk widened. “Use her as you see fit.”

The other Elysian warrior suddenly offered the end of her chain to the Aerian Prince with a grin of his own. Jorowyn took a hold of it with an unsettling amount of sneering amusement in his eyes.

Behind them, Luna suddenly let out a loud roar of protest and lunged forward. Seemingly uncaring of the chain and collar that held her back, straining against it with all of her might. The Aerian near-by with the whips immediately began laying into her, striping the black panther’s broad back with bloody tears. Luna, half crazed, ignored them and pulled harder, letting out another screaming yowl.

“Stop it!” Diana cried, sobbing. “Please!” The Elysians and Aerians didn’t seem too inclined to listen to her, so Diana turned her pleadings to Luna instead. “Please Mama, don’t!” she cried achingly. Though she didn’t feel any such thing, Diana forced herself to continue with, “I-I’ll be okay. Please. Don’t worry about me.”

Finally Luna subsided, collapsing back to the floor. Whether or not from defeat or sheer agony and loss of blood was uncertain. The cruel Aerian wielding the whips was forced to stop beating her, at least. Diana was spared a moment to feel relief about that before the chain attached to her collar was suddenly tugged, hard enough to yank her forward slightly. The princess stumbled, and this time she lost her footing, falling onto her hands and knees in front of the Aerian Prince. It took her a moment to work up the courage to lift her wide eyes from the floor and meet his narrow-eyed stare above her.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that one, kitten,” he growled softly, causing her whole body to grow cold with apprehensive fear. “I’d worry a lot if I were you.”