The vulpi chirped as they sensuously moved, slipping through the shadows in an almost immaterial manner. One stopped, its red eyes fixing on Rose as it slowly morphed into a handsome young man. His lips stretched in a distinctly inhuman smile as he reached one hand toward her. Rose stumbled forward, the leash going lax as she collided with Saris.
He jerked around, an impatient growl turning to a snarl as he saw the shadowy male standing there.
“Join your kin, vulpo. She is mine.”
Rose opened her mouth to object to the territorial statement, but her leash tightened in warning and she swallowed her protest with a grimace.
The vulpo frowned, all six of his eyes narrowing on Saris. The lupo growled in response to the challenge in the other male’s gaze.
“You lupi are no better than vulpi. You are merely mage-made while we are natural spirits brought forth from the gods,” the male snarled. “I should take this female from you and hide her away among all my kin. It would be far more natural than what I see before me. She will feast with us and dwell with us beneath the hill, honored, protected, and well-kept.”
Rose was ashamed that her heart fluttered and part of her leaned in with a desperate eagerness. To no longer be chained and controlled, but pampered and adored…
“You would keep her as a pet, to feed your desires,” Saris snorted.
The vulpo’s gaze was scathing as it landed on her, and Rose blushed, knowing exactly what he saw. The simple lightweight tunic barely concealed the dark areolas of her breasts beneath the fabric, the thick collar around her neck keeping her at Saris’s heel.
“It seems to me that you are keeping the female as if she were a hound,” the male muttered. “At least she would be a cherished human pet among us.”
“You do not know of what you speak,” Saris snapped. “Her training has merely been interrupted for a far greater purpose than being anyone’s pet.”
The hypnotic red eyes of the vulpo met hers, pulsing with light. “Do you want this? Do you want to endure this male’s company? You would have great comforts with the vulpi, without suffering from any concerns—only pleasures.”
“And you will never grow. You will never be more than what you are now,” Saris countered.
Part of her was tempted. She wouldn’t lie to herself about that. All she needed to do was stretch out her hand and take his. His fox ears tilted toward her, his lean, muscular body, so much slighter than Saris’s bulky frame, leaned toward her. His tails shifted behind him.
Rose glanced up at Saris, his expression hard as he turned his yellow eyes to meet her gaze. He was stern and immovable. He would not soften and attempt to persuade her with the sort of comforts that the vulpo offered.
Did she thirst for knowledge that much?
Just yesterday, she would have said no. She would have fled captivity with the lupi for a more comfortable experience among the vulpi. But she had a taste of how her magic had felt under Saris’s manipulation of her body. Clearly there was something she needed to learn there in the mountain—and the book, with its tantalizing studies, fully baited the hook.
She could not leave. She needed to see what secrets Darthar had that the order feared so much.
With some regret, Rose shook her head, pressing closer to Saris. She caught the triumphant flash of the lupo’s grin only seconds before the vulpo darted forward, claws extended, tails whipping through the air, venomous heads at their tips rushing at Saris.
The lupo roared and yanked her behind him with one hand as he leaped forward with the claws on his opposite hand extended. They slashed through the male, the vulpo’s claws catching him in a glancing blow. An unearthly shriek filled the air as Saris lunged forward again, his teeth snapping around the male’s neck.
This was no dominance hold like he had set upon her earlier. A dark substance flowed down around his mouth, seeping from the ragged wounds that Saris gored into the other male’s neck. The male choked and staggered back, but Saris pushed forward, his teeth and snapping claws digging into the vulpo as he broke into the chest cavity and crushed the heart between his teeth, ripping it free. Dragging his head back up, Saris snapped his jaws, bolting down the heart while Rose looked on, queasy. Black blood stained his mouth and jaws, streaking down his throat and onto his chest as he turned and unapologetically met Rose’s eyes. Both desire and a raging need for domination stared back at her through those glowing eyes.
His hand tightened on the leash, drawing the lead in shorter until she was so close that his breath fanned her face. She couldn’t smell the blood on him, a fact for which she was grateful, but she wasn’t prepared when his mouth fastened hard on the side of her neck as he lifted her up against his chest. His claws raked her thighs and her bottom as he hastily pulled her tunic up.
Once she was appropriately bared to him, he swept aside his loincloth, the dark head of his cock jutting against her, and jerked her down, burying the thick length as deep in her as it would go. The head bumped at a pleasure spot deep within her, making her gasp and writhe, but his grip was merciless around her waist and on the leash holding her against him.
The gore on his chest smeared on the fabric covering her chest and belly. It dripped from his jaw onto her neck, running down between her breasts. Rose squealed at the sensation and in mortification as desire bloomed swift and hot within her.
Her legs drew up around his waist, her body clinging to him, her sex squeezing aggressively around him as he fucked up into her, slamming her down onto him with every thrust. It was fast and hard, his cock delving deep with her, and it swelled, lodging him within her channel as they ground together. His fur tickled her flesh as their bodies slid against each other, rocking at a frantic pace despite her restricted movement, and never had she felt closer to the ultimate bliss of the gods.
Her fingers dug into his fur, her breath coming out in shallow pants as she felt the energy coil within her. She arched her back as much as she could with his hold on her throat, leaning into him, accepting his domination, her cries breaking from her throat as the current of power rushed up unchecked and unrestrained. It burst through her, and she was certain that she was drowning in wave after wave of pleasure, her scream muffled by his chest where he suddenly pressed her face, his own roar lost against her flesh.
They remained pinned like that for several minutes before his cock, still thick, slipped free with a long, slow tug from her body. Rose moaned at the sensation and was saddened at the loss before she brushed the feeling away. She was proud that she staggered only a little when he set her on her feet, but noted that he didn’t loosen his grip on her leash as he glanced around warily.
“Come, we are late. Let’s join the lupi and get this over with.”
Rose’s eyes fell once more on the vulpo, and she nodded. Another vulpo and another paused in their flight. Red eyes fastened on Rose and Saris, watching as they proceeded to walk away before darting toward the corpse that remained on the forest floor. A mournful sound rose, the eerie wail running down her spine.
“Have you made an enemy?” she whispered.
Saris’s mouth tightened. “No more than they have ever been. They have been determined to wrest this mountain from lupi control, but vulpi would be near useless protecting the mortal world from the creatures of the abyss. We must deal with them regularly.”
“Do you kill many of their number?” she asked quietly as she walked so close behind him that she could feel his soft tail every time it shifted toward her with his long stride.
“No,” he growled. “But they would be smart to heed the warning. They will not attempt to take what is mine.”
Rose frowned at him. “I recall it being my choice.”
His mouth curved as he turned to glance back at her. “It was, but until the moment you choose otherwise, you are entirely mine and I will not allow any other male on this mountain to threaten my claim on you.”
His tug on the leash sharpened, forcing Rose to quicken her pace. She still saw the occasional shadow of a vulpo sl
ip by, but something else stirred threateningly in the air. Her wariness heightened as her breath came out in heavy rasps the nearer they drew to their destination.
She grimaced down at her blood-smeared skin and clothes. “Why exactly did you fuck me back there?”
Saris gave her a sidelong glance, mouth parting with a deviant grin. “Because I desired it and that desire at that moment was natural and appropriate. I had bested a rival and needed to solidify my claim on you. So I accepted it and let it be, following it to its culmination. Do you object? You were receptive and desired it just as much as I,” he reminded her .
“You are right—I did. I just wish it could have waited until you bathed,” she muttered.
He laughed, the sound deep and rumbling. “But this is our nature, isn’t it? It is the nature of the lupi, and I suspect secretly yours as well. It is not about what is demanded as right and proper. It is the power at the moment, and now you hum healthily with it.”
The observation made her fidget. There were many among the mages who would consider his desires to be unnatural. The fact that she had more spirit lovers during the years of her solitude than mortal ones would have been enough to raise an eyebrow, but the surge of her lust at watching the male tear apart another male who would have claimed her unwillingly would have made her a pariah.
Those carnal urges would have seen to it that she wouldn’t have been considered fit to walk the higher planes with the Masters and adept mages. It had been a secret shame, the biting lust she enjoyed with summoned beings. The lessons she attended hiding the evidence of their touch upon her psychic body. Now she was covered just as thoroughly, but it was all physical, evident to the eyes of anyone who had the ability to see it.
Wincing, she followed Saris through a grove of trees as the sounds of the other lupi pierced the air around them. He glanced at her before they stepped into full visibility and, noting her strained expression, he tightened his hand on her leash, drawing her closer to him.
“There is no shame,” he snarled in a low voice. “Nor is there pride. It simply is.”
Rose met his yellow eyes, and… she believed him. A tiny smile twisted reluctantly on her lips as he pulled her out into the open.
Chapter 12
The cursory glance the lupi greeted them with contained no judgment. Instead, they appeared relieved and greeted her with nods, their eyes cool and their expressions flat. There was no trace of anything taunting or lascivious in their expressions. She had no doubt that they recalled just as she did the way she had nearly been passed among them just yesterday. Now they treated her as if she were just one of them, their focus entirely on the monstrous creature that lay dead among them.
Saris pulled her up to their side so he could look over the remains, and Rose peered around him for a clear glimpse at one of the horrors that lived in the mountains. She had accepted a lot of what he said, backed up by her own fear of the things she had seen in the shadows and the evidence of human remains.
But with this evidence in front of her, she immediately wished she hadn’t.
The creature was enormous, with a face that vaguely resembled a lion except sharp horns jutted from its head in several places. His face had almost humanlike features in its structure. The body was twice the size of hers, heavy with powerful muscles and terminating in an enormous scorpion tail that jutted out from its hindquarters. It was a creature made to be lethal.
The creature lay twisted at an angle, more of the black bloodlike substance flowing around it as lupi continued to tear into it with claws and teeth.
She swallowed back bile. “What is that?”
“Manticore. Odd, they normally don’t come from the great deserts of the Fire Kingdom.”
Her lips parted at the observation. “I don’t understand, elemental creatures—beasts like this—shouldn’t be able to cross without summons. Who would open the gates to a creature like this?”
“Except the Urgal Mountains are not like any other place. It has portals that cross through the various realms and kingdoms, even as we guard the portal to the underworld. These creatures are able to cross through access points, but once they are here, they are as living flesh and blood—as close as they can be without being mortal beings. This is why the goblins can come and go through the castle at will. As long as someone is there to maintain the castle as an access point, they can enter freely.”
Her stomach soured. “If these things got into the human world…”
“They wouldn’t,” Saris growled, and the other lupi raised their voices to growl in agreement with him. “The boundaries cannot be crossed by them unless someone lets them through, and we do not hesitate to kill threats such as this creature. It is solely a being of destruction and does not belong here.” His head turned casually. “Where is Gnaval?” he asked a male closest to them.
The male nodded to a thicker end of the clearing. “Over there, trying to lure it out,” he growled unhappily.
Rose didn’t understand the unpleasant attitude. It couldn’t be that bad. Saris didn’t need to tug at her leash to have her hastening to keep up as he strode to the other end, where Gnaval’s pelt became visible, crouched low among the brush.
She instinctively flushed at the memory of the male leaning over her as he drove into her mouth with wild abandon and dominance nearly equal to that of Saris. A warmth spread through her, although short-lived. The arousal of the memory was immediately followed by embarrassment as she stood beside Saris, stained with blood and smelling of sex and fresh arousal.
All of the lupi would know, including Gnaval who was currently crouched so nearby. No doubt they were all judging her at that moment, thinking less of her for her behavior. What had she been thinking when she participated in that frenzied rutting? Not that Saris had given her much choice in the matter, but she hadn’t exactly resisted either. No...she had eagerly spread her legs and...
Saris lowered his head and pressed his muzzle to her throat, snarling in warning. It was enough to jerk her out of her fretting, and clarity flowed through her as she recalled what he had said at the edge of the clearing. Gnaval and the other lupi, despite once being human, were no longer human men. Her breath released in a slow, shaky sigh.
The moment she relaxed, she felt the swipe of Saris’s tongue against her flesh in gentle reward, and she instinctively leaned into the touch. If Gnaval noticed the exchange at all, Rose couldn’t tell. He was speaking to the thicket in front of him in a calm, quiet voice, attempting to reason with whatever was hidden there.
Rose didn’t really believe it was a unicorn. Every mage knew that unicorns were simply allegory. She prepared herself to see some sort of misshapen goat or horse, but she was unable to deny what she saw when she finally laid eyes on it.
It was a unicorn. Its appearance was a bit unexpected from the manuscripts, but it was readily identifiable. It was much larger, with a body like a large deer but with sturdy legs like a stallion, each cloven hoof tufted with white hair. Even the shape of its face and long ears resembled a deer, except that its muzzle was slightly wider closer in appearance to a horse, all except the goatlike tuft of hair trailing from its chin.
The unicorn tossed a very horselike mane, purple eyes fastening on her. An ivory tail like a lion’s drew back from where it was curled around its leg, baring its injury to her. She would have been happy to say it was the only spot of red marring its ivory coat except that red blood, clearly not its own, flecked and splattered over its face, neck, chest, and forelegs, and nearly dyed the length of its horn crimson. It had no doubt gored the manticore before the lupi arrived to finish the job.
“It’s about time,” the unicorn said irately, startling her from her careful examination.
Saris growled. “Be happy that we have a female here at all or else you would be limping back to your home realm to recover.”
The unicorn snorted and stumbled to its feet, still graceful despite its injuries. Its violet eyes peered at her.
“She’s not
maidenly,” it sighed.
“Quit being insolent and take what you need,” Saris barked, nearing the end of his patience. “Your taste preference aside, you know as well as I that it is not required.”
“At least that young male you brought the last time one of my kind was injured had been pure. Not a female, but the purity was a nice flavor that hadn’t been enjoyed in some time, from what I’ve heard. This one smells like she has been riding your prick,” it sneered uncouthly.
Rose couldn’t help but to stare at it in disbelief. Never would she have imagined such things coming from the mouth of a creature that was lauded and hailed as being a symbol of perfect purity.
“Very well, fair… maiden… Come place your hands on me in welcome that I might drink of your… pure… essence.” The unicorn sneered, bringing Rose’s estimation of the majestic creatures down a further notch.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at it. “That’s okay. I think I’ll pass.”
The unicorn jerked its head up, its mane fluttering gracefully around it. “Excuse me? You cannot decline! It is a great honor to receive an energy exchange with a unicorn. My energy will become a part of you forever… and regretfully, yours will be a part of me, although thankfully my systems will adequately purify it,” it mumbled.
“I’m good,” she said flatly.
The unicorn turned its head to stare aghast at Saris. “How does this help me? The human is not acting like one of her species should. They are naturally enchanted by my magic, willing to embrace me at the slightest request. Your human is flawed.”
Saris shrugged, his brow dipping low at the unicorn before turning to her with exasperation. Drawing up on hand, he stroked first her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest, then brushed his knuckles over the column of her throat to her jaw so that he might caress her cheek.
“Will you please do as he likes so I can get him off my mountain? Without adequate energy to make a portal and leave, he is as stuck here as any other creature, and I don’t want to be responsible for him or hear any more whining,” he growled.
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