“Clean me,” he ordered, finally taking his attention from me. Obliging his demand, the girl crawled to Yorwrath’s still erect phallus. Though her face was still dirty and tear-stained, she licked that rigid flesh clean of his seed and her juices eagerly. “You said she was innocent, Pwyll. This is not innocent.” Yorwrath gestured to the girl on her knees, and Pwyll looked away. “Have you ever been with a man, Pwyll?” Yorwrath’s face lit up with delight, and I cast my gaze at Aneurin, who was glaring at Yorwrath.
“You claimed the girl. Now get out,” Aneurin growled.
Yorwrath ignored him. “Maybe in twenty-two years we can play for your grandchild. Though I can already tell you now, they won’t be an innocent.” He cackled uproariously, and the implication made my stomach turn.
“Yorwrath!” Aneurin shouted.
Again the red-bandanna’d elf ignored his brother. Yorwrath stood and snickered darkly. “You know I’m not a lover of men. But we both know I’ve been known to make exceptions. Particularly when people try to fuck me. So I think now, I’m going to have Grwn hold you down while I plow you like you tried to fuck me over with your little Dy’ne whore daughter.” And that’s my cue to leave. I left, slipping through the tent opening behind Grwn and Pwyll.
Outside seated on the logs around the smoldering remains of the fire from the night before were a group of beautiful women, and every last one of them was human. All of the slaves gathered wore thin shifts that barely veiled their bodies, and at each of their throats was a thin leather band with gold ornamentation on it. Their origins seemed to span the known world. Clearly Yorwrath was a connoisseur of slaves. And that’s why he calls them his collection. I paused for a moment as one of the women approached me. She had tan skin, green eyes, and long hair the color of burnished bronze that brushed the small of her back with every step. She smiled as, behind us, loud, masculine screams came from the tent.
“So you’re the one Aneurin has chosen,” she said with an appraising glance.
“I suppose I am.” I narrowed my eyes, scrutinizing her as she beamed at me.
“You’re lucky. Aneurin is kind and gentle. When Yorwrath lets him have one of us, it’s always a delight.”
“You’ve all had him?”
“Not in a year or so, but yes…” She took a step close to me. She was taller than I by a few inches and peered down into my face. Her brows furrowed and then with the softest of whispers in my ear she said, “You need to flee; you’re not safe here. No human is safe here. He will take your name. He will take your identity, and the only comfort you’ll have will be the arms of the other slaves. Flee.” Her frantic tone was betrayed by her grin. I wasn’t born yesterday, so I didn’t trust this sudden outburst from the smiling woman. Still, I nodded and smiled at her warning before taking a step back. They wanted me gone, for some reason. Unfortunately, I didn’t have too long to think on it, as Aneurin stepped out of the tent. When he saw me his lips pulled into a wide smile, and those irises sparkled, the green gleaming like a polished emerald in the natural light.
“I thought you had run.” His brows furrowed. Stopping short of me, he glanced at the gaggle of women who watched us far too intently for my liking.
“I had intended to, but…” I shrugged, and Aneurin grinned wider.
“Well… I have a yearning to have you all to myself.”
“Do you?” My cheeks grew hot with blush.
“Mhm,” he purred happily, those odd irises practically glittering in the morning sun. “Would you like to go for a ride?”
“Mmm…maybe. Is this just an excuse to get me alone in the middle of the woods?”
“Mhm.” There was something about that simple utterance that turned me into a complete smiling moron.
“All right then.”
Sharing a quiet giggle, we stepped past the throng of women, their gaze heavy on me as Aneurin led me through the camp to where the horses were tied. He saddled a large milk-white stallion with a thick silvery mane. It was the sort of horse a prince would ride in a fairy story while clad in shiny, silver armor that gleamed in sunlight.
“This is Ysbaddaden. Ys for short,” Aneurin explained as he quickly mounted the horse. He looked better on its back than any armored knight could have. The set of his jaw while in the saddle read nothing short of kingly. He could deny it all he wanted to, but he was clearly born to lead.
Aneurin held his hand out to me, and I took it, allowing him to pull me into the saddle in front of him. He took my pack from me and leaned back before stuffing it into one of the saddlebags. He wrapped his hand around my waist, guiding my body back against his warmth. “Here, move your leg to the other side. It’ll be more comfortable.” I kicked one leg awkwardly over the other side of the horse as he positioned me in the saddle so that the pommel was directly in front of me, brushing the sensitive heat at the apex of my body.
The slight pressure of it against my sex was a curious sensation. Nervously, I glanced back at Aneurin as he pressed his hips flush against mine, showing that his already hard length was right at the curve of my bottom.
“Now let us ride,” he purred into my ear, his voice thick with desire as he heeled the horse. I gasped as every motion sent that pommel caressing against the most sensitive part of me. I cursed to the wind, throwing my head back over Aneurin’s shoulder as he heeled the horse faster. The scenery was a blur. All I cared about was the heat and pleasure building inside me. The world could have ended, and I wouldn’t have cared as long as I reached my climax. I clawed at myself and Aneurin as we continued our ride. My breathing was nothing but frantic heaving. The pleasure was almost unbearable as we rode through the wood. My skin felt like it was made of fire as I started to grind my hips against that leather-coated stub. And that was when he stopped, as my body teetered on the edge of bliss.
My sex was throbbing and as hot and moist as lakeside in summer when he dismounted. I didn’t take in my surroundings. I just sat in the saddle, panting, as I felt my body tense and release over and over again with a murmur of the pleasure denied. He held his hand out to me, and I almost slapped it away. But I could feel the unsteadiness of my legs as I sat astride the horse.
“I wanted to show this to you.” He spoke softly, gesturing around the forest.
“Oh?” I scanned our surroundings. The tree canopy was thicker, and it was clear that we were near the remains of something great. Massive oak trees stood all around us, some as thick as houses.
“I was born here.” He smiled weakly. “My mother took refuge here during a storm. She had intended to have me in the… It doesn’t matter as you wouldn’t have any knowledge of this. But I was determined to come into the world here. Which is ironic because…” He helped me dismount and led me in silence to one of the largest trees. It was thicker around than the largest inn. There was a hollow in it, and that was where Aneurin took me. I followed him hesitantly into the darkness. “This is the resting place of True Kings. Which, if you believe what most elves believe, means I am the chosen child. The king born amidst royal ash and dust. The one who drew first breath amongst the dead.” He wiggled his fingers. “Some goat-plowing whoreson foretold that the one king, supposedly me, would restore all that we had lost. Which would be ironic, wouldn’t it? The godless king foretold by the gods to bring back the old religion.” He laughed bitterly. “But that’s not exactly why we’re here.” He flashed me a smile and then wet his lips. “We’re here because I don’t want you to be my slave.”
“So you’re not going to fuck me in front of your entire camp and take away my name?” I skeptically inquired, peering into the darkness of the crypt that the almost luminescent stones led to.
“I’m not Yorwrath, and you’re not some girl I won playing cards or stole away after slaughtering your family. I don’t aim to break you and reshape you. I just want you, Valentina. You as you are. The claiming is because… Well, it’s not merely for your safety. It’s the only recourse I have to bind myself to you. I could marry you, but no one would
honor it.”
“So you want to marry me?” I cocked my head, and he nodded eagerly.
“More than anything, were it possible.”
“You don’t know me, Aneurin.”
“I know you. I lived with you for a month or so, remember. And we wrote each other for an entire year… We’ve made love. I know you better than I know my own brother.”
“But I don’t know you,” I countered with a sigh.
“What do you mean?” His brows furrowed, making him seem in an instant impossibly young.
“I saw you with Islwyn last night.”
My words made him pause and run his fingers through his dark locks. He stopped for a moment, then tugged at his hair in frustration. After muttering something under his breath in the elven tongue, he let out a sigh that was almost lost in the rustle of the green leaves in the forest around us.
“Last night I was exceptionally drunk. It was part of the ceremony, the drinking. It wasn’t until I had…finished that I knew what he had tricked me into. Islwyn has confessed his love for me on numerous occasions. However…I will be honest with you and say that for a time I thought I had similar feelings. But then I met you. Since meeting you, you’re all I can think about. I don’t think I’ve been happier than when my leg was mangled and I had you all to myself.” He stared at his hands before looking up at me. “Do you forgive me?”
“You thought I was dead. I don’t hold it against you. I just wanted to know what it was between you two. Yorwrath called you a catamite.” I left the hollow of the tree, and he followed me into the open.
“Yorwrath is a brat, if you haven’t noticed.” He smirked at me, quickly closing the distance between us to place a kiss on my forehead. My sexual frustration revived with that innocent act. “Even if no one would honor it…” He dropped to one knee before me. “Will you marry me?” I blinked at the proposal.
“No one would honor it, and you don’t believe in the gods,” I teased him, tussling his hair. That mismatched gaze of his was deadly serious as he stared up at me. My knight, true heart, who rides a milk-white stallion and believes in true love, I mused with a smile.
“I’ll swear on my blood.” He took a dagger from his shoe and pulled the blade over his palm, slicing into his flesh. “My heart will never belong to another save you.” After a moment, I dropped to my knees in front of him and took his bleeding hand in mine and placed it over my heart. “No others shall grow fruit from my seed as long as you draw breath. I will honor and keep you, and cut down those who aim to bring you harm.” And then he said some gibberish in his native tongue and the wind picked up around us. With that odd breeze enveloping us it seemed like a bad idea to make a blood oath with a Swynwr who couldn’t control his magic. He opened his jerkin, exposing a pale expanse of that perfectly sculpted chest. And then he held the dagger out to me. I hesitated for a moment before I took it by the hilt. Wincing, I drew the blade across my palm, slicing open my flesh. A single drop of our mingled blood touched the leaves beneath us, and the world screamed like twisting metal. I placed my hand on Aneurin’s chest above his heart and with a shaky breath composed my oath to him.
“I swear to love you, and hold none other above you in my heart until I breathe my last.” I was careful in my wording. Holding my hand to Aneurin’s chest, I felt the wind kick up once more.
The squealing earth continued to confirm our vows as the trees cast odd shadows on the forest floor—shadows that seemed to move like creatures with wills of their own, creatures who came to view our vows taken before no one in front of a crypt. The breeze intensified. It tossed my long hair about and blew some of the fallen leaves away from the ground at our knees, revealing that we weren’t kneeling in just any spot. We had chosen the middle of a circle of white quartz to make our vows. I quickly grabbed Aneurin’s bleeding hand with mine and kissed his lips, sealing the oath. The wind whistled through the trees as he probed at my mouth with his tongue and my hair whipped about, stinging wherever it touched. The moment the kiss broke everything stopped.
Birds chirped overhead, and the sun came out, casting its rays through the heavy canopy onto the small piece of exposed quartz, illuminating it. I quickly stood and wiped my hand on my trousers, my earlier ardor completely snuffed out by a vague feeling that the power that had been evoked during the blood oath wasn’t only Aneurin’s.
Ys, Aneurin’s horse, was still standing where he had been before, as though the world hadn’t screamed in agony with the mingling of our blood. I dug through the saddlebags until I came across the gauze I had purchased the day before. I was still a Cunning Woman at heart and I would always carry gauze. I wrapped my hand silently as Aneurin wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, careful not to smear his blood on my bodice.
“I cannot wait to take you to bed tonight, wife,” he purred happily in my ear. His light, loving tone coaxed me out of my mood almost instantly. A smile slipped over my lips as he placed a trail of kisses down my throat. Standing there with his warm body resting against mine I found myself suddenly in an amazing mood. I didn’t care about the mystical garbage that was probably lurking on the horizon.
“Me too,” I agreed. It was an honest agreement. The thought of lying with him as wife and husband made me feel warm inside, like everything was as it should be. A quiet giggle left my lips.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, and he squeezed me, rocking me back and forth.
“It was something, tell me,” he whispered in my ear, before placing the softest of kisses on the ridge.
“I was thinking that tonight will be rather fitting. Every king beds his bride for the first time publicly.” A dopey smile parted my lips, and I felt a fool for it.
“Ah, but I doubt the king’s advisors will taste and touch their future queen’s secret parts.”
“In Vanotti, the advisors would place their fingers inside of the future queen to officially declare that she is a virgin intact. I’d much rather Islwyn and Yorwrath’s hands on my sex than nine horny, toothless, old men.”
“The only fingers that will be inside of you tonight will be mine, wife. That I can assure you,” he growled into my ear, nipping the lobe, cajoling a playful yelp from my lips.
Chapter Eight
Aneurin and I rode back to camp as we had ridden from it. Only now, he clearly took the long way around, not stopping until I had climaxed against him from the maddening pressure of the pommel against my sex. Needless to say, when he dismounted, I was glassy-eyed, flushed, and trembling. As he helped me down from the horse, a knowing smirk spread across his lips, and as we made our way through the camp, he stole kisses from me constantly. It was as though the oaths we took made everything instantly okay. But through the warm afterglow, I knew something dark awaited us on the horizon. The whole world felt like it was taking a deep breath before a scream.
“It’s growing late, and you need to be made ready for tonight,” Aneurin said as we paused outside a medium-sized tent. Beyond the flap was giggling, and on the flap itself was a symbol embroidered in gold that seemed familiar to me, though I couldn’t place it.
“And what does being made ready entail exactly?” I quirked a brow and Aneurin grinned.
“I love that you always question. You’ll be stripped, they will shave your secret parts and your legs. Then you’ll be bathed in rose water and covered in oils. They’ll comb your hair and thread lilac blossoms through it. And they’ll also give you some sort of sacred liquor to imbibe.”
“So I’m to trust strangers with sharp objects around my most sensitive bits.” I sucked my teeth. “Good to know.”
“They do each other every other morning. You’re safe in their care.”
“If you say so. But I’d rather do it myself.”
“I know. But will you humor me?”
“Fine. I’ll just let strangers ogle what’s between my legs for the night.”
“That’s the spirit.” Aneurin chuckled as he pecked my cheek. His laugh
ter was infectious, and after a few moments I too giggled.
We walked into the tent together, with Aneurin leading me. Thin exotic white silks hung from the ceiling; Yorwrath spared little expense for his collection. I noticed one of the slaves was missing. The blonde with the green irises wasn’t to be found, but Catrin was there now, dressed as the others were. They looked like goddesses almost, and the moment their gazes fell on Aneurin, all their charm came out in full force. They closed in on us, separating me from his side as they fawned over him, ushering him to a heavy cushion-covered bed. Their hands tugged at his jerkin, but he stilled them every time, though I couldn’t hear his words among their soft, lilting voices, speaking in that language that I didn’t understand.
After a few moments, I cleared my throat, and the women paused as though they hadn’t seen me all this time. The silence brought on by the shock of realizing I was there gave Aneurin time to speak. His entire speech was in the elven language, and I realized I should probably try to learn it.
“Stay right there. I’ll linger for a little while,” Aneurin offered, as I was advanced on by six women. My gaze locked with Aneurin’s as the slaves’ small, diligent hands untied my bodice and deftly removed my shirt and hood, which they passed to Catrin, who was waiting nearby. Then they removed my boots, belt, and trousers, leaving me in the short shift that didn’t even cover the curve of my bottom, let alone hide my sex. Aneurin watched with greedy eyes as they slipped the shift over my head, unveiling my nude body.
Standing there naked in front of a room of women wouldn’t have bothered me except for their stares, which were perhaps too long. One left and quickly returned with a steaming pitcher of water, which they poured into a shallow pan. With a small sharp blade, they shaved me, giggling among one another in the elven tongue as Aneurin watched me curiously. His watchful gaze caused my nipples to harden in spite of the warmth. The aching points soon made me all too aware of the weight of my full breasts. One of the women took note. A sultry brunette with amber-colored eyes, she cupped my heavy breasts, feeling their heft as she glided her thumbs over my aching nipples. I swallowed as I felt my cleft moisten at the touch of her soft hands… But still I slapped them away. The women pouted, and another of them, with auburn hair in loose ringlets, said something huskily that I also didn’t understand. She and the brunette peeled away from the group and began kissing and stripping each other beside Aneurin on the large bed. Catrin walked my clothes over to Aneurin, and he took them from her, but his attention was all for me. He didn’t seem to notice the two fondling each other beside him. Catrin left and returned with two more pitchers of water, and others slowly peeled off, ceasing their voyeuristic behavior. They brought a massive bronze tub to the middle of the room and proceeded to file out to fetch more hot water.
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