by Noah Layton
‘Doing what?’
‘Being so kind. My father and I have never been met with such generosity from strangers.’
‘Because you’re good people, and I want as many good people to be a part of my tribe as possible. Don’t get me wrong, we need folks who can fight, but I value loyalty more than anything. Without loyalty my tribe would be nothing.’
Santana had stepped to the spot right before me. Our faces were just a foot apart as she looked up at me, her eyes searching and intense.
Her lips pouted ever so slightly, enticingly. I pinned it down to a tick of the moment, but another part of me was convinced of one thing.
If I kissed this girl, she would kiss me back.
‘Anyway,’ I said quickly, feeling my heart racing, ‘I should, uhh… I should get back outside, to… You know…’
‘Of course,’ Santana said quickly, nodding and taking a step back as she breathed deeply.
I turned and headed outside quickly, drawing in a big breath of fresh air in the late afternoon heat.
Christ…
In any other scenario I would have called myself an idiot for bailing like that, but this was completely different.
I couldn’t just kiss Santana – her father would probably spear me with a pitchfork and then tell me the deal was off to my corpse, not to mention the fact that I had just met her. And who was to say she actually wanted to?
I smacked myself over the head several times, only stopping when-
‘Jack? Are you all right?’
‘What?’ I said hurriedly, turning to the front door of the house to see Jeremiah. ‘Oh, yeah, sorry, I’m fine.’
‘I have prepared a room upstairs for you and your companion. You should get some rest before nightfall. There is some food up there, too. Fresh milk from the taurems, and bread.’
‘Thank you, Jeremiah,’ I said, heading over to him and shaking his hand. ‘I appreciate it.’
With a smile I headed inside the house, a smile which quickly fell from my face once I was out of sight of the head of the house and upstairs. Had I just made a pass at his daughter? Had she made a pass at me?
‘Lara? Where are you?’
‘In here,’ her muffled voice said from behind the door at the end of the short hallway. I stepped inside, closing the door behind me to see Lara sitting at the end of the bed in her underwear, sharpening one of her arrows with a flint.
‘Seriously?’ I said. ‘You get a little privacy and you have to strip down?’
‘What? It’s getting hot out there. Besides, there’s nobody around.’
I couldn’t argue with her. Today had been the hottest that I had yet experienced in Agraria.
‘Still,’ she smiled. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t prefer me dressed down like this.’
‘Believe me, I do,’ I remarked, ‘but we’re in a freaking cleric’s house. Him and his daughter are on the property. Just… Try not to leave the room without any clothes on.’
‘I’ll try… Master.’
I was already turned on after my brief encounter with Santana, but hearing Lara say that made it even worse.
‘I thought you were still considering whether to join my tribe.’
‘I am, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t role play, does it?’
If only she knew what that meant back in my world.
‘I guess not…’
‘I told you. I will join your tribe when you can properly tame me. When you can show me the real man that you are.’
‘I haven’t done that already?’
‘In battle you are formidable, and in the bedroom you are a pleasurable lover, but I still think that you are holding something back from me.’
‘And what would that be?’
‘Real domination. I have always been the hunter, but it is rare that I have been on the receiving end… Captured and submitting to a much more powerful creature.’
Lara set her arrows aside and stretched back onto the bed, presenting her perfect body before me as she writhed gently on the sheets.
I knew exactly what she wanted, and in the stifling heat and the thought of the oncoming battle that night, adrenaline was already pumping through me.
I pulled away my clothes and rounded the bed to her side. Staring intensely into my eyes and without saying a word, she grazed a hand down her body, further and further down until she had slid beneath the material of her underwear.
Her mouth fell open as she touched herself, steadily moving her hand in circular motions beneath her underwear. Her eyes began to flutter lightly as she smiled up at me.
I pulled my boxer shorts down over my legs, revealing my throbbing length before her. Lara’s eyes set on me greedily, turning her head to me as I brought my cock to her.
She opened her mouth, taking me hungrily and wrapping her wet lips around me. There was no build-up – she kept pushing her lips down my length until she was somehow taking all of me in her mouth while continuing to pleasure herself.
Lara held herself there, lapping at my shaft as I stared down, open-mouthed at the sight of her taking all of me. She rubbed herself faster and faster, stifled moans escaping her full mouth, until-
A high moan escaped her lungs, her body shuddering and shaking as she climaxed. She pulled away and panted deeply, unashamedly bringing a trail of moisture between me and her mouth.
‘You’re too much…’ I groaned. ‘What if they hear you?’
‘Would you really care?’
‘… Probably not, no.’
I was too turned on and too lost in the moment, but in the back of my mind the worry remained.
‘You’re right,’ I smiled. ‘You do need taming.’
‘Then show me, master. Make me submit.’
‘Get on your hands and knees.’
Lara gladly did as she was told, pushing up onto all fours on the bed as I stood at the edge.
She returned to my wet dick, taking me in her hand and guiding me into her mouth once again.
I wrapped my hands into her soft hair and pushed into her mouth again, thrusting into her slowly as I fucked her mouth. Lara happily submitted herself, lapping her tongue at me ferociously. The feeling of her wet mouth against the ridges of my length felt unbelievable.
This time it was me who had to stop myself from making too much noise.
A few minutes of this and I could have finished into her mouth again – back at her room in the cove it had been impossible to resist. But I had more of her body to enjoy.
I pulled myself from her, guiding her body back onto the bed and spreading her legs. She couldn’t resist touching herself again, and I was glad to let her.
I guided myself between her legs, the soaking wetness of her body apparent the moment I met her. I pushed into her, filling Lara with my length slowly before taking her hard and deep on the bed.
The deeper and faster I moved, the tighter her eyes clenched. Suddenly she clasped a palm over her mouth to stifle her moans as she clenched the bedsheets in her other hand.
I commanded her hips, pulling her body to me and holding myself inside of her before grinding her body up and down against my length. I could have spent my entire life inside of her, but I was being pushed to my limits already.
Lara’s eyes suddenly went wide as she gazed up at me.
‘Oh my god…’ She moaned. ‘You’re gonna make me…!’
But I wasn’t going to let her have it that easy. She wanted taming, and I was going to do just that.
Commanding all of my will, I pulled from her body as she writhed.
‘Please, master…’ She moaned quietly, ‘please keep going…’
‘Beg me.’
‘Please, master, I’m begging you… Please fuck me.’
‘Present yourself to me.’
I had never spoken like this before in my life, but with Lara it felt right. This was how she wanted it.
She got on her hands and knees again, but this time facing the other way. She could hardly support herse
lf as she shook, but she was desperate to take me.
I admired the sight of her perfect behind as I guided myself into her one last time, taking her hips in my hands and filling her up.
‘Yes, yes…’
Her arms gave and she kneeled before me, balling the sheets in her fists and lowering her head against the bed as she took me.
The sight and the sensation of her body was incredible. The owners of the house could only be nearby, and here we were fucking each other like there was no tomorrow.
‘That’s it, master, there…!’
‘Tell me…’ I grunted. ‘Tell me.’
‘I’m yours, master… Oh, gods…’
Lara’s body seized hard. She bit into the bedsheets, releasing a stifled scream as she came around me, her walls clamping down on my shaft tightly.
I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I buried myself in her, finally releasing myself and filling her up with my seed. It pumped out of me in waves as I groaned hard.
By the time our orgasms had subsided we were both shuddering and shaking with the aftermath of the rushing adrenaline. Lara’s body shook, a light whimper escaping her as I pulled out of her and collapsed onto the bed.
‘How’s that for a role play?’ I breathed.
‘Not a role play…’ She panted. ‘That was exactly what I needed… And you’re the man that I need… The master that I need.’
She reached a hand out to me. Our fingertips wrapped around each other’s lightly.
Of all things that I wanted to appear after sex, a box wasn’t one of them, but it was here anyway.
Accept Lara into tribe?
I tapped the accept button and welcomed in my second partner.
‘Two women in my life,’ I said. ‘What did I do to deserve this?’
Lara only smiled and snuggled up to me, but I already knew the answer.
Fighting a pack of wolves in the dark. That was the cost.
Chapter Eleven
After eating and drinking from the food Jeremiah left for us and napping for a few hours, we awoke just before sunset and equipped our clothes and weapons. We possessed my longsword, Lara’s bow and 15 arrows, and eight charges of Arcane Blast. It had seemed stupid to waste two charges practicing, but after commanding the power of magic I realised how important practice was. It was far more powerful and more formidable than anything I had wielded so far.
I was reluctant about heading downstairs, worrying that Jeremiah or Santana had heard something, but going by their behaviour they were none the wiser. Santana was locking up the livestock while Jeremiah was closing the wooden panels against the windows.
Together the four of us locked down the house and the stables, and just as the sun reached the horizon Santana returned through the front door, barring and locking it behind her.
Jeremiah lit candles in the dimness of the house’s cosy ground floor and boiled another pot of the sweet tea that Santana had served us earlier, and a few minutes later we sat in the quiet, sipping at it.
‘How sure are we that they will come tonight?’ I asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Jeremiah replied. ‘Some nights they stalk in the grass. Others they remain in the forest. But one thing is always present; their howls. They are always echoing in the forest.’
‘You said there are three, right? Wolves hunt in packs, which means they will probably stick together. If we can hit them by surprise then we might have a chance at ending this battle quickly.’
‘They do hunt in packs, but they are willing to split from each other if it means taking their prey. We have been problematic for them. They have learned how to attack from different directions.’
‘And if one goes down,’ Lara continued. ‘No doubt that the other two will come running to its rescue.’
‘As long as we stay inside the house, we should be safe, though, right?’
Jeremiah and Santana exchanged a look.
‘They… Have breached the house before,’ she said. ‘They are used to fighting in the wild and becoming hurt. The submission of their prey is the most important thing to them, even if it means risking great injury to themselves. They will endure pain… As they did when they broke the windows before.’
‘They broke your windows?’ I said. ‘How?’
‘Their skulls are incredibly strong. We managed to go unseen in the attic,’ Jeremiah added. ‘It is likely the safest place, but there is no other exit than the trapdoor. On the occasion Santana spoke of, we were trapped in the attic for two days before the waiting wolf finally relinquished and returned to the forest.’
‘Jesus…’ I muttered, running my hands through my hair. After taking down Ga’lash this job seemed like a breeze, but the logistics of pulling it off were becoming more and more complicated.
Lara shot me a look and took me aside.
‘We focus on one,’ she said. ‘We do whatever it takes to bring it down from the house. Once we’re past that hurdle we can worry about the others. But splitting up two will be much easier than dealing with three, particularly when you and I are the only ones wielding weapons. It may also be wise to use some of your Arcane Blast.’
‘You think they’ll be okay with the use of magic? A lot people are afraid of it.’
‘We must choose between using magic and getting killed. To me it seems like a rather simple decision. Master.’
I was still getting used to her calling me that. From Ariadne’s mouth it had come unashamedly and quickly, but from Lara there was a twang of sarcasm – not that I minded her attitude.
‘Things will be fine,’ I said, returning to the kitchen. ‘I’m sure that-’
A high, chilling howl suddenly burst through the forest somewhere nearby. All four of us fell silent, listening until its haunting echo disappeared.
The sound may have ended, buts its presence remained.
The sun had set quickly before I could even realise.
‘Santana,’ Jeremiah said in a hushed voice. ‘Douse the lights.’
Over the next few minutes their movements were mechanical. They blew out candles and checked the shutters in a precise order. It was so efficient that I could tell they had done it countless times before.
While Jeremiah checked the first floor and Lara readied her bow and checked her arrows, I joined Santana’s side at the window. Her profile was like a portrait as the moonlight seeped in through the cracks in the wood. She was paler and more beautiful than I had even realised, but her expression was filled with a weathered fear.
‘Does the light attract them?’ I said quietly, looking out onto my limited view of the pasture.
‘Yes.’
‘How come they don’t come out during the day, then? I would have thought that they were afraid of the light if they’re nocturnal animals.’
‘They are only nocturnal because they choose to be. Darkness provides the best opportunity for an attack. The moonlight guides their way, and the light that humans strike calls them forth. There are more than a few stories of plenty of travellers that have gone missing in the forest at night, with only bloody clothing, bones and burned-out torches remaining.’
I gulped and checked the handle of my sword at my side.
‘But then there are other stories, too,’ she continued.
‘What other stories?’
‘It is strange… On many nights the howls of the wolves dominate the trees, but on quiet nights something else takes their place. Something else quietens their calls.’
‘What something else?’
Santana turned to my slowly, the moonlight illuminating one half of her face, the other shrouded in darkness.
‘Something much bigger. Something that releases a roar that makes the trees shake and the roots themselves hide beneath the dirt.’
Another howl suddenly sounded out, this one higher in volume.
‘That was closer,’ Lara said quietly from close by.
I ordered Santana to head upstairs with her father. There was no sense in keeping them in
the kitchen. The attic was the most obvious, sensible option.
After giving Jeremiah a leg-up and then Santana, his silhouette looked down at me from the darkness above.
‘I’ll leave it open,’ he said. ‘Just in case you need to retreat up here.’
‘Let’s hope not,’ I nodded.
Lara and I headed into Jeremiah’s room and crossed to the boarded window. She pulled the shutters slightly to the side, and pushed the wooden barriers out, giving us a space one foot wide and two feet tall to look out of.
Moonlight spilled over the pasture from the sky above. It lit up the field precariously, creeping around the clouds and onto the tall grass wherever it could.
‘This would be a lot easier if they had cut the grass, wouldn’t it?’ I whispered.
‘The wolves are smart. If the grass was short, they would just avoid it. They would approach the house from a different direction. This way they can get to us without being seen… In their minds, anyway. Which means we need to keep our eyes open.’
Lara readied her bow and arrow.
We waited for dragging minutes, surveying the pasture. Just as a breeze of hot air swept through the gap in the window, Lara shifted.
‘There.’
I followed her line of sight and saw it. There was no shape, but a trail through the grass was forming unnaturally quickly, and it was heading straight for us.
It reminded me of a spider – at a single touch it moves impossibly fast, scurrying across the floor.
But this was no insect.
The wolf knew where to look for its prey, but it didn’t know we were up here.
Lara quickly drew an arrow and aimed it, her line descending inch by inch as the wolf drew closer.
As it reached the end of the grass, approaching the cleared space outside the front of the house, it slowed.
She didn’t hesitate. The arrow was let loose, vanishing into the dark. It moved so fast that I didn’t even see it in the air, but I heard its effect.
It struck something in the field, and not a moment had passed when the pained howl of the wolf was unleashed.
Then, silence.
‘Got him,’ Lara said.
‘You think he’s down?’
‘Definitely not.’
I looked at her in confusion, but she was still analysing the scene ahead.