by Sarah Hawke
“I need to go home,” I said to no one in particular. Biting down on my lip, I slung my bow and quiver onto my back then scooped up the scrolls and bolted for the door. I had just turned the handle and started to leave when a glimmer on the floor caught my attention. Aluriel’s glittering belly jewel was lying there in front of the desk—it must have fallen off when she’d been crouched in front of the desk.
I leaned down and picked it up with my free hand. With luck, I could probably still catch her before she went out. She considered it a good luck charm and would almost certainly want to wear it tonight.
It carries an enchantment that protects me in battle, but it’s even better in bed, she had told me the first time I’d commented on it. Here, let me show you…
I grinned at the thought. We really were different people, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“Consider this payment for one of your favors,” I whispered, rising back to my feet and striding out of the office.
A few of my rangers looked surprised when I left the garrison before midnight, but they all knew better than to ask where I was going. Aluriel wasn’t wrong; my soldiers really were afraid of me. It made her uncomfortable, but she couldn’t argue with the results. The Duskwatch had been an undisciplined mess before I had taken command, and in a few short years I had whipped them into an elite fighting force every bit the equal of the Knights of the Silver Fist. The people here trusted us, and the monsters of the wildlands feared us. We were everything rangers were supposed to be.
You’re also lonely as hell, and if not for Aluriel you probably would have moved back to Nelu’Thalas already. Maybe she has a point. Maybe you do need to reach out to some of these people.
Scowling in annoyance at myself, I mounted Whisper and kicked him into a canter once we were out on the street. Night fell a few minutes before I reached her house, but my elven eyes could see almost as well in moonlight as humans could during the day.
Otherwise I never would have spotted Lieutenant Vander sneaking through the bushes behind her house.
I froze in place and tugged Whisper to a halt. Aluriel lived in the Artisan District, a bustling, modest section of the city that was generally safer than the slums or the docks but nowhere near as well-patrolled as the wealthy Redwater District. Most of my rangers lived here, actually, including Vander. Though I doubted they ever saw each other—the two of them had been at each other’s throats for months now, and today’s little skirmish had almost certainly soured their relationship even further.
Today’s skirmish—that’s what this is about, isn’t it? He must be pissed at her for dressing him down in front of his squad, and now he’s going to try and get back at her somehow.
“Le’thos,” I swore, sliding out of the saddle and leading Whisper to the edge of the road. Vander had made it up to the house by now, and he was in the process of opening one of the windows and sneaking inside. A part of me still couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Vander might have been reckless and cocksure, but I still thought he was a good man. I never would have allowed him to become a ranger otherwise. The idea that he would actually try to retaliate against one of his commanding officers was almost unbelievable.
And yet…
“Stay here,” I said, patting Whisper’s head and removing my swords from his saddle. The twin elf-forged blades—Gwathren and Dain—thrummed in anticipation when I attached their shared scabbard to my belt. It was conceivable that Vander was just trying to pull off some kind of juvenile prank on Aluriel as a petty act of revenge, but I wasn’t about to take that risk. If he attempted to harm her, a court martial would be the least of his problems.
Gritting my teeth, I crouched low and dashed across the street into the woods. The enchantment in my boots silenced my footfalls, and I made sure to duck beneath the branches and avoid rustling the leaves—I had trained Vander personally, after all, and he knew exactly what to look and listen for. I reached the windowsill a few seconds later, and I heard a male voice coming up from her basement. Vander wasn’t exactly shouting, but he wasn’t trying to be quiet, either. Was he talking to Aluriel? Had she discovered his intrusion already? If so, she was probably going to beat the hell out of him—unless he got the jump on her, she was more than a match for him with a sword.
Frowning, I hopped through the window and slinked across the kitchen to the trap door covering the basement. Vander had shut it behind them, but it wasn’t locked. I lifted up the edge and slithered through the gap, then gently set it back down.
It was that exact moment my ears decided to betray me.
“I’m ready for you, master. Please, fuck me! Fuck my tight elven cunt!”
My breath caught in my throat at the sound of Aluriel’s voice. I froze in place, unwilling to accept what I’d just heard.
“You have to earn my cock, bitch!” Vander practically shouted. “Kiss it. Worship it. Show me how you can’t live without it!”
A loud slap echoed up the stairs, followed by an incredibly familiar moan of pleasure from Aluriel. My brain finally snapped out of its stasis, and I dashed down the rest of the way down the stairs. My view was still obstructed by a wall when I reached the bottom, but when I carefully peered around the side my mouth dropped open and my breath froze in my lungs.
Aluriel was stark naked on a chair in the center of the room, her ankles and wrists tied together behind her head. Her cheeks and tits were glowing red with hand marks. Vander loomed over her, his trousers open and his thick cock bulging in his right hand. If not for the words I’d heard her utter just a few seconds ago, I would have assumed he was raping her.
“Kiss it!” Vander repeated.
Aluriel leaned forward as far as she could with her restraints. Her lips kissed the tip of his cock, and a moment later her tongue emerged and began lathering the tip. Her green eyes, round and wide, remained locked on his face like a hound waiting patiently for her master’s next command.
I shook my head and crouched down behind a stack of empty crates. I didn’t sense any magic, but this had to be some kind of illusion…
“Good girl,” Vander said, brushing a stray hair from her face. “Now tell me how much you want it. Tell me how much you need it.”
“Please, master,” she begged. “Please, give me your cock. Feed me with it. Choke me with it. Treat my throat like a cunt!”
I cupped my hand over my mouth to mute my horrified gasp. I couldn’t accept what I was hearing. I couldn’t cope with what I was seeing. It was literally unbelievable.
“I suppose you’ve earned a little taste,” Vander said, clasping onto her hair with both hands. “Open wide, slut!”
He practically slammed his thick member between her lips. There was no way for her to resist with her hands and feet tied up in the air behind her; all she could do was gasp and gurgle while his cock pounded her throat and his testicles slapped against her chin.
I almost leapt out from behind my cover and tackled him. I probably would have if not for the fact I could tell how much she was enjoying it. Her toes and fingers curled in their restraints, and on the rare occasions he pulled back and allowed her to breathe she was smiling up at him like he was a god. It was disgusting. It was disturbing.
It was…arousing?
My quim was practically on fire, and squeezing my thighs together didn’t seem to help. I didn’t understand what was happening. What in the abyss was wrong with me?
“Are you ready, cunt?” Vander asked between labored breaths.
“Yes, master,” Aluriel gasped, her lips and mouth covered in spittle. “Please, let me taste your seed!”
“Oh, no,” he said, shaking his head while he stroked his shaft barely an inch in front of her nose. “You have to earn the right to drink my seed. After the way you acted today, I think you need to be reminded of who is in charge here. Now keep those pretty green eyes open wide!”
His cock erupted over the bridge of her nose, splattering seed all over her cheeks. She continued starin
g at him, visibly elated as he pumped strand after strand onto her face. It dribbled down to her lips and chin, and some even ended up smeared across her tits and belly. Her hands and feet writhed as a climax shuddered through her.
“I own you, slut,” Vander said, stepping away to evaluate his handiwork. “Now what do you say?”
“Thank you, master,” Aluriel replied.
“That’s a good girl.” He looked down at her approvingly as he rubbed the still swollen head of his cock against her sopping quim. “I should leave you like this, you know. I should walk away and let General Serrane find you hanging here drenched in my seed. What do you think about that?”
He slapped her face again, and she squealed in delight. I couldn’t take it anymore. I ducked back down behind my cover and tried to force myself to calm down. As hard as it was for me to accept what I was seeing, it was even harder to accept how unbelievably wet it was making me.
You want to go over there, don’t you? You want to join in. You want to lick the seed from your best friend’s face while he fucks you in the ass.
I bit down on my lip and silently dashed back up the stairs before they spotted me. I was practically panting by the time I escaped the house and returned to Whisper, not from exertion but because I found myself unable to breathe properly. There was something wrong with me, and I had no idea how to explain it.
I curled up into a ball on my bed the moment I returned home. My hands were shaking, my lungs were rattling, and my quim was dripping. The instant I slipped a finger inside myself, I climaxed so hard I had to bury my face in the pillow to avoid worrying my neighbors. I was embarrassed and disgusted, but I couldn’t stop. I brought myself again and again, and every single climax was more intense than the last. But no matter how hard I came, I couldn’t quench the fire between my legs.
I didn’t know if anything could.
Chapter Two: Denial
“Vander’s unit didn’t find a single gnoll anywhere on their patrol. Given how badly I scolded him yesterday, I imagine he was pretty thorough. I doubt we’ll have to worry about those disgusting furballs until next year.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Aluriel while she delivered her report. I just continued staring straight ahead as we slowly meandered down the dirt path leading out of the small outpost at the forest’s edge. The Duskwood sprawled out before us, its thousand year-old oaks shrouding everything below in long, ominous shadows.
“Hey, you awake?” she pressed, nudging her hip against me. “Do you want to send out another patrol or just take his word for it?”
“We’ll take his word for it,” I said, my voice sounding hoarse to my own ears.
“Okay,” she murmured. “I guess we can focus our efforts on the Shattered Peaks to the west. The orcs have been regrouping of late, and frankly the Knights of the Silver Fist could use our help. Their dipshit squires keep running off and getting themselves killed, and even their knights are having trouble recently. I heard that Sir Dravis was wounded a few weeks back. He’s been stuck in the temple with some kind of rare affliction.”
“Mm,” I murmured.
I could feel her eyes on the side of my face. “Is something wrong? You’ve been quiet all morning.”
Taking a deep breath, I reached into one of my belt pouches and retrieved her navel ring. “I found this in my office last night.”
Aluriel smiled. “I was looking for that! Thank Shalassa you found it.”
“I was surprised you didn’t come back for it. I figured you’d want to wear it on your date.”
“I probably would have,” Aluriel admitted as I dropped it into her palm. “Most of the men around here seem to love belly jewels.”
“I doubt they recognize it as a wood elf symbol of fertility. They just like seeing your stomach.”
“You should talk,” she teased, gently smacking my exposed midriff with the back of her hand. “Anyway, I’m glad none of them know what it means. Trust me: the men don’t want me to be fertile.”
“Obviously.”
Aluriel stared at me for a long moment, her eyes narrowing as she slid the jewel pin back into her navel. “Is that what’s upsetting you? The fact I went out last night?”
“Why do you think I’m upset?”
“Because I’m not blind. Every time we spoke out on the plains today you choked up on your reins and squeezed your thighs around the saddle like you were about to kick Whisper into a charge.”
I sighed and brushed a blonde lock out of my eyes. I had never been one to play coy or massage the truth—I preferred that my friends and soldiers be direct whenever possible. But I had stayed up all night thinking about how I could possibly broach this topic with Aluriel, and I had never developed an answer.
“You’re annoyed that I didn’t come home with you last night,” Aluriel said after a moment. “I promise, I’ll make it up to you tonight. I’ll bring some wine and oils…we’ll have so much fun you’ll have trouble walking straight in the morning.”
I swallowed and tried to ignore the heat rushing into my cheeks. I might have preferred directness, but I was still a private person by nature. How in the bloody abyss was I supposed to talk about—?
I froze in place when I caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. My long elven ears perked up, and I touched Aluriel’s arm in a silent warning. We’d been so distracted that we had unwittingly drifted at least a hundred yards from the outpost.
While keeping my eyes locked on the forest, I carefully plucked my bow off my back and nocked an arrow. I still couldn’t see anything, but I was convinced we were no longer alone...
The movement was so subtle I almost missed it. The leaves on one of the trees to our left rustled as if a gentle breeze had swept through the forest, but the air today was completely still. I didn’t wait to check to my target—I immediately drew my bowstring and fired.
“Raskaaaaa!”
The gnoll scream echoed through the Duskwood as my arrow pierced his shoulder and knocked him from his perch. The fall almost certainly killed him even if my shot hadn’t, but I didn’t have time to check. A dozen other gnolls emerged from the underbrush brandishing spears and axes. They charged.
Aluriel and I moved in unison as our instincts and training took over. We each fired off more shots as the monsters rushed towards us, killing three and crippling several others. Once the rest closed into range, however, we drew our blades and fought back-to-back just like we had practiced a hundred times before.
The Lin’faleel remained the preferred combat style of the blade dancers, and for good reason—few could match the natural dexterity of our people, and we spent decades studying warfare while our enemies typically only spent a few short months. Individually, the gnolls were no match for us; we scythed them down one by one as we danced in near-perfect harmony. But even as my sword drank deep of gnoll flesh, I knew we still weren’t safe. The savages couldn’t have possibly sneaked up on us so easily, especially in this number.
Not without the aid of magic.
I had just cleaved through the muzzle of yet another monster when I spotted the shaman lurking between a pair of oaks some twenty yards away. His hands glowed with dark power, and he unleashed a brackish bolt of green energy in our direction. Falling into a crouch, I parried the wild thrust of one gnoll while retrieving one of their cracked wooden shields with the other. I hoisted it in front of us just before the bolt struck—
The explosion hurled me back at least ten yards, and I would have flown even further if I hadn’t crashed into a stump. The air rushed out of my lungs, and my vision blurred so badly I couldn’t actually see for several seconds. All I knew for certain was that the shield had disintegrated on my forearm and my sword had fallen somewhere mid-flight.
“Le’thos!” I hissed, rolling to my side as a precaution before I bounced back up into a crouch. Most of the gnolls were dead, but I was barely paying attention to them or the shaman at this point. My eyes remained locked on Aluriel’s blood
ied, unmoving body a few yards away.
I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead from this distance, but the sight of the blood on her forehead was enough to throw me into a frothing rage. As the shaman channeled another spell to finish us off, I rolled forward and drew the dagger in my boot, using the momentum of my tumble to hurl the weapon well beyond its practical range. The dagger whirled end-over-end at the gnoll’s muzzle…and then bounced harmlessly off the invisible magical barrier protecting him.
I swore again. With my bow, I could channel Aetheric energy through an arrow and pierce his defenses as trivially as a suit of regular armor. Without it, I was virtually defenseless. I waited in place as he finished casting his spell, cursing myself for getting distracted by something as stupid as—
Without warning, an arrow whistled just past my ear and struck the shaman an instant before he finished his spell. His barrier dulled the impact enough to save his life, but only for a few seconds. Behind me, Vander and his men unleashed another salvo, dropping the remaining gnolls in a flurry of blood, fur, and magic. A few seconds later, it was all over.
I dove on top of Aluriel and let out a silent prayer to the gods that she was still alive. Healing magic flowed through my fingers and into her flesh, knitting her wounds and slowly rousing her back to consciousness.
“Have your men establish a perimeter,” I called out. “Make sure that’s the last of them!”
“Right away, General!” Vander called back.
I should have been proud of the skill and professionalism they demonstrated, considering I was the one who had trained most of them. But the world was so strange right now I wasn’t sure what to think. About much of anything.
I placed my hand on Aluriel’s forehead as her green eyes slowly fluttered open. “What…what happened?”
“It’s all right,” I soothed, squeezing her arm. “We’re safe.”
She licked at her lips and tried to glance past me. “You took them all yourself?”
“We…had some help,” I said, glancing back towards Vander. “Come on, let’s get you back to camp.”