by Sarah Hawke
But not right now. For the rest of the night, we were nothing more than warm holes for male amusement and eager sponges for their seed.
We were cunts. And we wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Chapter One: Revelations
The arrow soared across the grassy field, the soft whistle of its flight completely drowned out by the ongoing melee. Its golden fletches glinted in the sunlight, and the magical enchantment coursing thought its shaft kept its trajectory straight despite the buffeting winds. Almost a hundred yards later, the tip struck one of the attacking gnolls directly between its oversized shoulder blades, knocking the creature face-first into the blood-sodden dirt.
I had already fired two more shots before the first landed. The gnolls, distracted by the chaos of battle and their own frenzied bloodlust, only had a split second to react. It wasn’t enough.
“There’s another band approaching from the north,” Aluriel warned, her keen wood elf eyes squinting off in the distance.
“Take them,” I said. “I’ll defend our people.”
Clutching my bow tightly in my right hand, I used my left to vault myself up onto the saddle of my horse, Whisper. A single kick of the stirrup was enough to start him charging towards the ongoing fray, and I guided him with my knees while I nocked another arrow and took aim.
“Felo’tala!”
Aetheric energy coursed through the limbs of my bow, and a moment later the arrowhead burst into flames. I released the string, hoping that the primal fear of fire would be enough to convince the rest of the gnolls to leave their victims alone. The arrow struck another of the beasts through the chest, piercing his heart and immolating his fur in a radiant orange burst.
His friends, regrettably, didn’t seem to care.
I grimaced and kicked Whisper into his fastest gait. My scout patrol was only about a hundred yards ahead at this point, but all of my soldiers were already wounded or unconscious aside from Lieutenant Vander. As skilled as he was with a blade, he wouldn’t be able to fend off the last three gnolls by himself. And if Aluriel couldn’t distract or delay the reinforcements pouring out of the forest…
She will get the job done—she always does. Just focus on the problem in front of you.
Reaching out to the Aether, I conjured and loosed another flaming arrow. I didn’t hit any of the three gnolls, but I wasn’t trying to. The arrowhead detonated when it struck the ground, blanketing the area in a billowing cloud of gray smoke. Vander used the distraction well, spinning into the choking mist and hacking down one of the gnolls before it could track his movements. The other two beasts turned and braced themselves for a charge by the incoming rider.
Unfortunately for them, I had no intention of engaging them in melee. Nocking another arrow, I vaulted sideways off my horse and fired in mid-air. The shot struck one of the gnolls in the neck, and he roared and flailed backwards as a fountain of blood erupted from his throat. His partner, rightly horrified, hunkered down behind his battered shield just in case the rolling elf woman tried to shoot him, too.
At which point Vander’s sword erupted from inside the creature’s chest, skewering him from behind. The gnoll slumped over, dead, just as I hopped back to my feet.
“Brace yourself,” I warned, whirling about into a crouch. “More are on the…”
I trailed off when I glanced back towards the forest’s edge. The gnolls were already retreating, though Aluriel continued firing from horseback and picking off as many of the beasts as she could. She had racked up an astonishing body count in a short period of time. I knew I shouldn’t have been so surprised—my adjutant was easily the second best archer in Highwind, and probably the best from horseback. What Aluriel lacked in sorcerous ability she made up for sheer athleticism.
While she finished chasing off the rest of the gnolls, I signaled for Vander to help me check on our wounded. Miraculously, all of our scouts had survived. A few had suffered serious wounds, but thankfully even my limited healing magic was able to stanch the bleeding and stabilize them until they could return to the city.
“I doubt the gnolls will be back for a while,” Aluriel said once she’d returned and dismounted. “We blooded their noses badly enough that they’ll probably hide in the forest until winter.”
“We got lucky,” I said, turning and glaring at Vander. “Especially you, Lieutenant. What in the abyss were you thinking? I specifically ordered you not to pursue anyone past the ridgeline!”
Vander swallowed and visibly braced himself. “I’m sorry, General. I just…I really thought we could take them out before they reported back to the main group.”
“And instead you walked right into a trap. Unbelievable. Unacceptable.”
The young man nodded and lowered his eyes. He was a normally a good kid, all things considered—he was a skilled fighter and scout, and he usually had a cool head on his shoulders. But like so many human males his age, his ego occasionally got the better of him. He had probably spotted the gnolls over a hill and started daydreaming about the prospect of regaling some bawdy tavern slut with stories of his “glorious triumph.”
Monster-hunting was apparently a potent aphrodisiac in human-dominated cities. There were times when I was convinced the only reason any young males ever signed up to become a ranger or paladin was so they could bluster their way beneath the skirts of as many women as possible.
“You are a Duskwatch Ranger, Lieutenant, not a glory-seeking Knight of the Silver Fist,” I chastised him. “We don’t recklessly charge into battle and put our fellow soldiers at risk. We calmly evaluate all our options, and then we strike when and if the time is right. Do you understand?”
“Yes, General,” he assured me. “I’m sorry, General.”
I grunted but continued glaring at him. He was a good-looking kid, despite his idiocy. Tall and whipcord lean, he had the body of a runner and the reach of a swordsman. He kept his brown hair short—a rarity amongst the male rangers—and he always had just enough scruff on his square jaw to add about five years to his twenty-something face.
“I’ll remind him of his place, General,” Aluriel offered, grabbing Vander’s shoulder and dragging him away. She didn’t stop until they were well out of earshot, but I still watched her silhouette as she dressed the kid down.
Unlike Vander and his squad, Aluriel was completely reliable. She always obeyed orders, and she never let her ego get in the way of the mission. There was a reason I had made her my second-in-command long before I had taken her my lover.
Short, supple, and slender, Aluriel was a physical paragon of her people. Her brown hair dangled just below her ears, and her almond-shaped eyes were a piercing shade of green. Back home in Nelu’Thalas, our people were often rivals; highborn like myself saw wood elves as little more than savages. I had treated her like one myself when she had arrived in the city last year, and I’d regretted it the instant her soft tongue had first slipped between my lips.
“Round up the horses and get the wounded in their saddles,” I ordered, turning away from the shouting match and facing the rest of my men. “I want to be back in Highwind before nightfall.”
We met my deadline with at least half an hour to spare, and I made certain the injured received the attention they needed in the temple infirmary. As annoyed as I was with Vander for putting his men in such a difficult position, they were still my rangers. Their safety was ultimately my responsibility, and I had no interest in seeing them suffer. We could discuss their performance later, after they had all recovered.
Aluriel wasn’t so generous. She used the extra time to further scold and discipline Vander and the other mostly healthy men. I knew how much they all despised her, but that only made me respect her more. Like any good adjutant, she was willing to take the heat in her general’s place. In the long run, it was better for morale.
After a short meeting with Highlord Kastrius, the commander of the Silver Fist, I finally returned to my office in Duskwatch Tower. Aluriel followed and locked the door behi
nd her.
“It could be worse, all things considered,” she said, tossing her bow and quiver onto the nearby couch. “We didn’t suffer any permanent casualties, and we won’t have to deal with the gnolls for months.”
“Maybe not, but we still can’t afford to get soft,” I said. “Vander and his men need to be punished.”
Aluriel grinned slyly, dispelling the aura of grim determination that always surrounded her when we were on duty. “You’re unbelievably sexy when you’re angry, did you know that?”
I snorted and sighed. “I’m being serious. With all the new recruits coming in, it’s more important than ever to enforce discipline.”
“I know that. It doesn’t change how much I love that wicked twinkle in your eye.” She sauntered forward until she was standing barely an inch in front of me. “It makes me want to hold you down and fuck you all night.”
Aluriel leaned in and kissed me. Her lips were so soft and warm they melted my lingering annoyance in a heartbeat. As our tongues embraced, she placed her hands around my bare midriff and pulled us closer together.
“You really are insatiable,” I whispered when she finally leaned away.
“We survived a battle, and every one of our men made out alive,” Aluriel said. “Seems like as good a reason as any to celebrate.”
I grunted softly. “I could summon one of the servants and have them bring us up some food.”
“Why? I have all I can eat right here.”
She shifted her hands down to my thighs and promptly lifted me up onto the edge of my desk. I leaned back on my palms and let her get to work, knowing full well how dangerous it was to get between Aluriel and her meal. Her slender fingers dexterously pushed up my leather skirt, and before long she had stripped off the silken thong beneath. My bald quim tingled in anticipation as she gently pushed apart my thighs and dove in for the kill.
All the day’s strains and worries evaporated on the tip of her tongue. I propped my leather boots up her shoulders as she ate, marveling once again at her voracity and skill. We had only been lovers for a few months now, but she already knew exactly how to make my spine tingle and my toes curl. I bit down on my lip as a climax shuddered through me, thankful as always for the sound-proofing spell Headmistress Telanya had woven into the walls at my request.
Aluriel was smiling up at me when I finally came down, her lips glistening and her face smushed between my slender thighs. “I wish the men could see you like this. They think you’re stern and serious all the time. They don’t know the real you at all.”
“And I plan to keep it that way,” I told her, still breathless. “I need their respect, not their friendship.”
“There’s no reason you can’t have both. Look what happened when you reached out to me.”
“You’re a rare exception. You’re also not a man, which makes all the difference.”
Aluriel grinned as she slipped a finger inside me. My thighs clamped even harder around her cheeks. “You should give men a chance again sometime,” she said. “Not many of them know to properly eat cunt, but there’s no substitute for a nice, hard cock now and then.”
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
“You can’t tell me you don’t miss it every once in a while. You said you had plenty of lovers back in Nelu’Thalas.”
“I did, but that was a long time ago,” I said, biting down on my lip as she eased another finger inside me. There were times when I genuinely wondered if she was just concealing her sorcerous powers; her ability to know what I wanted was downright supernatural.
“Well, I still think you should try getting back in the saddle at some point,” Aluriel said. “Or maybe not. Once you try the real thing again, you might get sick of me.”
I smiled back. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Probably not,” she agreed with a wink. “Now lean back and let me finish my dessert.”
I reclined onto the desk as her tongue returned to my folds. She brought me again in less than a minute, and by the time I came down I was a sopping, exhausted mess. Ten minutes with Aluriel was more draining than a three-day excursion through the forest.
“You should come over tonight,” I breathed when she finally crawled onto the desk and straddled me. “I think I owe you at least ten favors at this point.”
“I’m not keeping score,” she replied, leaning down to kiss me. I had no idea why, but tasting myself on her lips and tongue always drove me wild. Thankfully, she wasn’t shy about sharing.
“I’ll leave the back door open, like usual,” I breathed. “I doubt anyone will see you.”
Aluriel leaned up and brushed aside a long stand of my blonde hair. “I actually can’t tonight. I have a date.”
“A date?”
“Yeah, with a man,” she said, chuckling. “You know, one of those things you hate.”
“I like men just fine,” I protested, propping myself up on my elbows. “You should be careful, though.”
Aluriel arched one of her dark eyebrows. “I’m the best shot in this whole city, present company included. You know I can take care of myself.”
“That’s not what I meant. Everyone in Highwind knows who you work for. They might try to exploit our relationship.”
“You sound like a paranoid dwarf worried about the goblins coming after his gold,” Aluriel said, grunting and hopping off the desk.
I sighed and leaned up. “All I mean is that people in positions of power can’t afford to live normal lives. If any of the soldiers see you out partying, they’ll—”
“Think I’m a regular woman who likes to have fun when she’s not working?” Aluriel interrupted. “It’s not a crime to actually live your life once in a while.”
“I know, but…” I sighed and shook my head. “It’s hard enough to convince a bunch of twenty year-old human males to respect a woman, let alone an elf. We can’t afford to show weakness.”
“They’re overeager boys, not a pack of feral orcs.”
“Is there any difference?”
Aluriel scoffed. “First, our soldiers smell a lot better. Second, some of them have really nice bodies…”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Forget I said anything.”
Aluriel placed her hand on my leg. “You are way too hard on yourself. Even the Ranger-General of Highwind is allowed to have a life outside of work. Do you really think Highlord Kastrius and his knights sit around reading their holy tomes all night? Trust me, his warriors are some of the biggest sluts in town.”
“Escar’s mercy,” I muttered, burying my face in my palm. “I can’t believe we’re seriously having this conversation.”
Aluriel snickered. “All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t kill you to let yourself go once in a while. Let your hair down, put on a nice dress, maybe suck a few cocks behind the tavern…”
I lowered my hand and glared at her. “What in the hells are you—”
“I’m just kidding,” she said, snickering and slapping my naked thighs. “You make it way too easy.”
I grunted and pushed her back far enough I could hop off the desk. “I should really demote you for insubordination.”
“You can, but we should get a pillory moved into your house first. You keep me there as a prisoner for a few days.” Aluriel winked and her impish smile grew wider than ever. “Come on, that was funny.”
“Go and enjoy your date,” I said. “Just make sure you get enough sleep. I want you to lead another patrol through the forest tomorrow and clean up any gnoll stragglers.”
“I’ll be rested and ready to go, General,” she said with a mock salute. “Don’t worry about me.”
I sighed and retrieved my thong. Aluriel and I were so different I often wondered how we were friends, let alone lovers. The fact that she was one of a handful of elves in a city with a hundred thousand humans didn’t hurt, but that wasn’t what had drawn us together. I respected her competence and martial skill—and her lean, supple body, if I was being completely honest—but we
viewed the world very differently. She took her responsibilities and position seriously, of course, but the instant we were off-duty it was like she became a completely different person.
“Let’s do something tomorrow night instead,” she said, tracing her fingers along my stomach. “I’m sure the proud Ranger-General is eager to start repaying all the favors she owes me.”
I smiled despite myself. As annoying as her frivolity could be sometimes, it was still infectious. I placed my hands on the back of her head and pulled her in for another long, deep kiss before I finally let her go. She sauntered out my office, and I sat down and behind my desk to finally get some work done.
After half an hour of trying and failing to concentrate long enough to read through the latest reports my scouts in the north, I tossed the scrolls back on the table and sighed. I couldn’t stop thinking about Aluriel. Our relationship wasn’t exclusive by any means—I knew she spent plenty of time with her head beneath the skirts of other women in town—but for whatever reason the thought of her being with a man tonight was…different.
I wasn’t jealous. I knew full well that an attractive high elf like myself could have basically any man she wanted, but the point was that I didn’t want them. I had sworn off men since moving here from Nelu’Thalas, not because I wasn’t interested but because relationships were far too complicated and draining. Humans were obsessed with marriage and monogamy, neither of which I found remotely appealing. I had at least a hundred prime child-bearing years left anyway—what was the rush?
Still, I couldn’t deny that her offer of a night on the town did have some appeal. It just wasn’t an option for a woman in my position, and it never would be. I had known and accepted that when I’d taken this position a few years ago. Life was filled with trade-offs, and in the grand scheme of things this was an easy one to make.
Then why are you sitting here thinking about Aluriel flirting with someone else? Why are you getting hot imagining her slowly sinking down to her knees and wrapping her lips around a thick, throbbing cock?