Feral king, p.11
Feral King, page 11
I don’t know how many times I made her come for me. It didn’t much matter. She would come for me until I was satisfied.
“I’m sorry! I won’t leave the village without you again, sir!” she wailed, her words trembling with her exhaustion.
I smiled, knowing that she fully understood that pleasure could be wielded just as unmercifully as pain.
“I know you won’t, princess. I’m not through with you yet, though.”
I slapped her pussy lightly, and she wailed. Sweat dripped down between her breasts, her skin glistening with it. I’d pushed her body to the limit, and I was going to keep going until I went far past it.
“Yes sir,” she breathed as she trembled.
“Ask me to teach you the rest of your lesson with my tongue, princess,” I prompted her gently.
Her face twisted with anxious arousal and reluctant anticipation as she struggled to surrender to me fully.
“I’m going to give you a choice now, sweet girl.”
“What’s that, sir?” she whispered, biting her lip to keep her nerves quiet.
“I can either spank your pussy bright pink, hard enough to truly sting, or I can make you come with my tongue. Choose, or I will choose for you.”
There was trepidation in her expression now. It was clear that she was hesitant to choose either, and I knew that both options would be painful for her, no matter how much pleasure she derived from either one. Her thighs tensed beneath my arms, and I squeezed her waist a bit tighter.
“The clock is ticking, princess,” I warned.
“I choose your tongue, sir,” she blushed.
“Be specific, princess,” I continued, narrowing my eyes in silent threat. Immediately, her own face furrowed as she struggled to get the words I wanted to hear out of her mouth.
“I choose… I choose… to come on your tongue,” she whispered hoarsely, rushing to finish speaking before she failed to get the words out at all.
“That’s my good girl,” I praised. I held her eyes with mine, watching her lips turn up in a sweet smile. My heart pounded with emotion, and I pushed it away, deep down into the dark depths of my blackened soul.
This was a one-time thing. I would give her the time of her life and then this could never happen again. I would tell myself this a thousand times if I needed to. She was worth the world, and I wouldn’t be the one that ended it for her.
I couldn’t live with myself if I did.
I pressed my mouth back to her clit and I made her come again.
And again.
And again.
I made her come so many times that she nearly passed out. She screamed as tears poured down her cheeks, every muscle quivering with overwhelming sensation. When I finally had my fill of her, I pulled away and her body kept shaking with one aftershock after the next.
I gazed down at her, enjoying the subtle signs of her pleasure from the twisting of her mouth to the sweat beading along her brow, to the quivering panting breaths she pulled in as she tried to pull herself together.
She didn’t have to worry about that. I was here for her now.
I gathered her in my arms and pulled her into my lap, holding her as she cried against my chest. Her arms wrapped around my neck as she pulled in closer to me.
There was no reluctance now, only the sweetest surrender.
For a while, I just kept her close. Gradually, her uneven breathing started to level out and her tears dried. Her hold on me never wavered, and as much as I tried to stop it, I could feel my guarded heart softening with this little slip of a woman.
When I was certain she’d fallen asleep, I stood up and situated her on one hip. I gathered her things with my other arm and carried her back to the village, using my magic to create a lift for us up to the treetops.
I placed her down in her bed and tucked the covers in around her before I took a step back. For whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to walk away, at least not yet.
For a while, I just watched her sleep. She had this adorably cute, satisfied smile on her lips as she curled up in the furs and blankets. I leaned against the wall, studying the dark shadow of her eyelashes against her pale cheek.
I didn’t understand what she was doing to me. Whatever this was, I had to put an end to it before she got hurt.
With a sigh, I pressed the back of my head against the wall and stared at the ceiling as if it was an opening to the heavens.
What if she was… No. It couldn’t be.
I shook my head, steeling my heart and my head against anything that came after that. I wouldn’t think it or dream it or anything of the sort.
I wasn’t meant to find a mate.
I needed to get away. Putting distance between us was the only solution right now. I couldn’t risk bringing her to the cities to the east. That would put the people of Terraheim in danger. The only choice I had to keep her safe now was to guard her from afar.
With a hard swallow, I stared at her sleeping form, memorizing her pinkened cheeks, her dark hair, her glowing skin, and every inch of her luscious, gorgeous body. I’d remember the way she sighed when I put my hands on her and the way she’d moaned when I’d first put my mouth on her, how she clutched at me when I held her after it was all over.
I couldn’t keep her, but at least I’d have my memories.
I turned around and walked out the door.
I wasn’t going to let myself come back.
CHAPTER 13
Sophia
The soft musical chirping of the birds outside my window woke me the next morning. I hadn’t a clue as to how long I’d slept, but judging by the soreness in my limbs, I’d needed the rest.
I blushed, not only remembering why, but realizing that I was still fully naked.
I stared down at my fingers, recalling the feel of his mouth against my most sensitive flesh, and a wave of aroused shame passed over me. I pressed my thighs together for a second, but I couldn’t resist sliding my fingers between my legs in remembrance of his mouth on me there. My fingers grazed against my clit, and I flinched, more than a little sensitive from yesterday’s activities. My face flushed even hotter as I jerked my hand away, feeling naughty yet undeniably satisfied.
Something between us has changed in the forest. I could feel it.
I’d seen the emotion in his eyes when he’d looked at me, something that hadn’t been there when he’d first lost control and taken me in the forest.
He cared about me.
Even in the way he’d clutched at me after he’d driven me mad with pleasure and pain and everything in between had revealed how he felt for me. He hadn’t wanted to let me go, so much so that I could still feel the places where his fingers had dug into my flesh.
They might have even left a mark.
With a sigh, I looked around my cabin, but he was nowhere to be seen. To be honest, waking up without him felt sort of empty. I wanted him to be sitting over in the corner in his chair, where I could get out of bed only to settle safe and sound in his lap. I curled my knees into my chest and smiled when I saw my things gathered on the table.
I wondered where he was. Maybe he was out preparing something special for breakfast or gathering something sweet for me from the area of the village I hadn’t yet explored.
With a start, I jumped up and rushed over to my bag, looking for the scroll. I shuffled through my pack and breathed a sigh of relief the moment my eyes grazed upon the aged paper. I hadn’t lost it.
Unfurling it, I read it again, trying to figure out the mystery of what the prophecy could mean. Flashes of the vision the seer had cast over me raced before my eyes. I hadn’t seen anything like the enchanted grove it mentioned, nor the wizard’s keep, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that a part of it felt a bit unfinished.
Maybe once I found the grove and the wizard’s keep, I would figure out how to break Roken’s curse and finally free his heart.
I waited for Roken to return, but he didn’t make an appearance that day, nor the day after. I stayed in the cabin, passing the time by reading books, and when he didn’t come back on the third day, I went out. I looked around the treetops, trying to see if I could catch sight of him, but I saw nothing.
What if I was wrong? What if he didn’t care after all?
My own insecurities plagued me, and I did my best to ignore them, yet it proved especially difficult. The longer he was away, the more I worried that something had happened to him. It was possible that he’d held onto his sanity for as long as it took to bring me to bed. What if he’d lost his mind and it was already too late?
I shuddered, remembering the dark vision of the realm’s future. I had only just begun to accept this place as my new home, and I didn’t want to lose it.
I didn’t want to lose Roken, either.
I had to find him. Maybe he was hurt, and I was the only one who was here to help him. My mind whirled with worst case scenarios as I paced back and forth in my cabin.
Eventually, my patience wore out. I needed to do something, so I pulled on my leather boots, a long dress, and a fur mantle. The sun was on its downward trek in the sky, and the temperature was beginning to fall, so I needed to stay warm. Lastly, I grabbed my pack and stuffed it with a few supplies as well as the prophecy scroll.
With silence reigning throughout the forest, I made my way to the great hall and then down the winding staircase until I found myself on the ground. I looked back and forth, trying to decide which direction to go when a roar sounded to the west. I started and backed into the tree, sliding my fingers along and finding the trigger to open it and hide inside if need be.
A chorus of shouts and yelling joined the growl, and all at once, Roken broke out of the brush at a full sprint. In an instant, his eyes were upon me.
“We cannot stay here. It is no longer safe. We must make for Eldoria so we can warn them,” he explained.
“Warn them of what?”
“The armies of Helheim have come for Terraheim, and the realm must be ready!” he shouted, looking back over his shoulder. He raced towards me and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me up off the ground and jumping into the air.
I shrieked as he shifted around me, his arms lengthening and his fingers edging with sharp talons. The hard muscles of his chest expanded behind me, and I closed my eyes as we shot up into the air, his massive wings forcing the tree canopy to give way. We were up above the treetop in seconds as his claws wrapped around my waist, fierce yet gentle as he flew upwards into the sky.
My stomach rolled and almost gave way. I closed my eyes, but that only seemed to make the vertigo that much worse. I opened them back up and that’s when I saw what was coming for us.
An army of monsters, tailed by a supernatural, purple cloud of magic, was storming through the trees. Thousands of beasts like the werewolf and the infernox patrolled down below, joined by stone giants, ogres, trolls, and orcs. There were massive, scraggly-haired mammoths with six tusks and giants with oozing blood and flesh. More grotesque forms followed, but soon enough, we were too far away for me to identify them.
Terror consumed me. It was one thing to see Helheim’s army from the safety of a vision that may or may not come true. It was something else entirely to be faced with it in reality. This wasn’t a slow trickle attack. This was a full-scale invasion.
“Roken is your destiny. You must save him before you can save the realm. If not, this visage of the past will only be a pebble in the ocean of what is to come.”
The old woman’s words repeated in my head, and I bit my lip. I curled up within Roken’s talons and closed my eyes. Eldoria had been mentioned in several of the historical books I had devoured, but those were centuries old. I hoped what they’d said was still true. It had been the woodland city of the elves over five hundred years ago. Now, it was the capital of the realm.
Roken’s incoming return would not go unnoticed. I just hoped we’d survive our arrival.
During the day, the army of Helheim slept. It was nightfall when their fires lit up the night. I could see their progress as the days passed and it was harrowingly fast. Their unnatural speed cut through the forest far more swiftly than I thought possible. Nothing seemed to hinder them—not the dense forest, the rushing river, or the deep furrows of the canyons to the west of the tree top village.
Roken traveled faster, but only just. We flew together in silence, only stopping when I needed to eat or relieve myself and then getting back into the sky just as quickly after I was done. Finally, when my limbs were starting to ache from disuse, Roken dipped into a valley and spiraled down to land in a clearing.
He placed me down gently and shifted behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders.
“They already know we’re here,” he whispered quietly.
“Who?”
“The elves,” he whispered.
For several moments, there was complete silence. The birds stopped singing and the bugs stopped chirping. There wasn’t even the slightest rustle of the wind in the trees. It was as if the entire world had gone quiet.
Then all of a sudden, we were surrounded by dozens of elves, their bows nocked with arrows trained on the two of us. Roken’s arm curled around my waist, his body shielding me from much of the threat. He breathed out, and I could have sworn that there was relief hidden within the sound.
“It has been a long time since you’ve come by our woods, your grace,” a musical voice spoke to the left of me. I turned my head to see a man that I could only describe as ethereally beautiful.
His long blonde hair shone in the dappled light of the sun, perfectly tucked behind pointed elvish ears adorned with sparkling gold jewelry. Bright blue eyes met mine as he cocked his head, his perfectly carved high cheekbones mesmerizing.
“That it has, Lord Valdar,” Roken answered.
“Queen Isolde was not expecting you, your grace,” Lord Valdar threatened, his smooth melodic voice lulling me into a false sense of security. I glanced around, taking note that every bow was still nocked and drawn, ready to fly at a moment’s notice should Roken and I pose a threat.
“I do not come without cause,” Roken replied.
“Speak now, mad king, or forever keep your silence,” Valdar growled, his harmonious voice dropping to a more sinister tone.
“Helheim has come for us,” Roken answered simply. He didn’t show any signs of fear before the elves, and Valdar set his sights fully on me.
“And who is this?”
“She is human, innocent in the ways of war.”
Valdar’s gaze assessed me coldly. The books suggested the elves of this land were something to be feared, but I hadn’t believed them until now.
“My name is Sophia, and I’m the key to breaking the mad king’s curse and saving the realm from the hands of the Dark King,” I said quickly.
Now was not the time for vague mistruths. Time was running short, and the armies of Helheim would be here within days.
Roken started, his surprise quickly apparent, but he did not let go of me.
Valdar grinned, cocking his head as a smirk graced his devastatingly beautiful face. “Queen Isolde is going to want to meet you,” he replied smoothly. There was a hint of danger to his tone, and I quickly realized that if he was someone to fear, that meant that the queen might be someone to be terrified of, too.
“Then take me to her,” I replied.
Valdar smiled and my blood ran cold. Roken took a step back, and I shivered, no longer surrounded by his warmth. His hands squeezed my upper arms, but then he took another step back as Valdar offered his hand.
I strode towards him and took it. All at once, the wind rushed around me and the world fell out beneath my feet.
“Roken!” I called out.
“One does not enter Eldoria without an invitation, princess.”
As I started to fall, a scream emerged from my lips. Suddenly, the world rushed by, and my feet slammed into the ground. Blackness edged my vision, and I raised my head.
Valdar had taken me through a portal, and straight into Queen Isolde’s chambers.
At first glance, Queen Isolde emanated an aura of ethereal regality and grace. Her slender figure, draped in flowing robes of lavender iridescent silk, moved with an otherworldly elegance as she stood by the window. Light cast her in shadow. Long silver hair interwoven with delicate floral adornments cascaded down her back, framing her delicate features and giving her an air of beauty and wisdom. A sparkling diamond silver crown sat atop her head, and her pointed ears were adorned with matching earrings that wound along her earlobe. Her silver eyes were like pools of shimmering moonlight, soft and warm on the surface, yet cool and calculating beneath it.
“Sophia White,” she greeted, her voice melodic and soothing, but instinctually I knew that it could turn the exact opposite if need be. For a moment, I forgot myself and just stared, captivated by her beauty, before I quickly bowed my head.
Was I supposed to curtsy?
“Queen Isolde,” I greeted quietly, dipping slightly with respect.
“You bring danger to my people,” she began, her musical voice dropping to a more dangerous tone. I swallowed nervously as she lifted her hand to the side, a soft tendril of shimmering magic shooting towards a lamp. It lit instantly, both a wonder and a warning at the same time. Elves had access to magic, and she would use it to protect the city of Eldoria if she needed to.
“Danger was already at your doors,” I replied. Her eyes flashed with uncertainty as she slowly walked over to a pedestal full of sparkling water. Her fingers flitted along the edge as she glanced over at me.
“I have protected my people for a long time,” she murmured.
“You do not know what is coming. I have seen it. There isn’t much time,” I replied softly, trying to implore her to listen. There was something in her expression that gave me pause, though, like she had decided what to do with me long before I set foot in her chambers.
