History of Beauty

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  Randr breathed shallowly, pressing the root of his hand against his forehead, and Elakdon felt useless. All he could do was sit next to him and stroke his arm.

  Windin returned and placed a bowl next to the bed. “Is this side best?”

  Randr began to shake, his breath coming in sharp yet shallow intakes. Elakdon grabbed the bowl, thinking he recognized the need to purge. And sure enough, Randr turned and threw up into the bowl, and Elakdon held it, trying not to let the smell make him lose what he had finally managed to get into his own stomach.

  Finally, Randr laid back down, breathing more easily.

  “I have water, too,” Windin said.

  Elakdon took it and helped Randr drink from the cup, then held the bowl for him to spit in.

  “It’s fading now,” Randr said.

  “Good,” Elakdon said, continuing to stroke him.

  “I think I want to sleep, though.”

  “I hope you can. I hope it is gone when you wake up again.” Elakdon leaned over and kissed Randr’s forehead. He then stood and covered Randr with the blanket.

  Windin’s gaze was glued to Elakdon as he stood. He flashed her an awkward smile. “He’s your first love?”

  “Yes. And I am the reason he is such a late Changeling. I lost a dose today kissing him.”

  “Oh, cubdon.” She took his hand, looking happy. Cubdon? She hadn’t called him that pet name since he was a Cub. “Come, let your Allon sleep, and I will take this away.” She took the bowl with puke.

  Foldon bumped shoulders with Elakdon as they left. “Cubdon,” he mouthed theatrically.

  Elakdon glared at his grinning friend.

  “My mom hasn’t called me that since I was ten,” Foldon said.

  “Me neither.”

  Foldon laughed and tossed an arm over Elakdon’s shoulder. “I’m happy for you. To find love. May Freya be moved by your unique love and keep it strong.”

  “Thank you, my friend.”

  Elakdon returned to his meal, happy they’d saved him some, yet it was getting cold. “How many Earls are we expecting tomorrow?”

  “Three, and approximately twenty men accompanying them,” Trygve said.

  “And as far as we know, none of them have been bathed for this new God,” Gunhild said, flashing a smile.

  That had to mean she wasn’t expecting him to bury any more men with their faces in their own asses. How could Randr forgive him doing that to his friend? Maybe Randr was waiting to ask for his friend to have a different burial.

  “I don’t mind people believing in something different, but I have heard about how this new God thinks about women, and I will not let a Succubus feed on them then. If a man thinks so little of a woman that she becomes his property, he can poison her. To have a man sit here and talk about free women like they are thralls is dangerous to us. That is the real threat to our people that I have to consider.”

  Nol-Plydon sat forward and looked at Elakdon with pride. “And that, young Nol, is what you must take to Ting.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  It was strange having formulated the core problem the men in cloth posed, yet it worked as a flame to a dry field. Each day, Elakdon would dose Foldon, and he and Styrk would be showered by the pleasurable skills of his hips. Elakdon would then dose Randr and watch the Guard Lord, Trydon, who loved the curve of Randr’s cock, ride Randr. And he’d sit in consort with five Earls, two Royals, and their Ilkil-Nol’s, and his own Lokil-Nol, Father.

  They prepared a speech for the human King, and they hashed out all the possible answers and their reactions to every possible outcome from open arms and friendship to a King not willing to recognize them.

  When speculating too much in the negative outcomes, Elakdon would go lie next to Randr and be reminded that there were strong and honorable people in the world, willing to stand up for what they believed in. He even found the strength to recognize that those beliefs didn’t have to corollate with his own to be right for the ones who had them. But he would not stand idly by and watch his people suffer as a result of other people’s beliefs.

  That was the whole point of going to Ting.

  The Yule time also demanded their attention, and when not working on how to secure his rising Kingdom, they feasted with the humans of the village. They visited each other’s homes, played with the children, horsed around in the snow, and got warm again around the hearths, drinking warm ale and mead.

  Elakdon even let the kids rope him into a war armed with snowballs, and after losing, Trygve, Elakdon, and Father pulled shields tied together with all the winning kids sitting on them as they were dragged from Earl Trygve’s house to Elakdon’s Hall for another feast.

  Randr was healing well, and the doses were helping him. At least as the headaches diminished. Windin smiled more and more at Elakdon as she left Randr’s bedside with bandages and jars of ointment.

  One evening, she nodded him to join Randr in his enclosure.

  Elakdon stepped inside, smiling as Randr sat on the bed with no bandages on his body.

  Randr stood and moved his arm out of the way for Elakdon to finally see the wound.

  “The axe did that, didn’t it?” Elakdon reached out and placed his hand on it.

  “Yes. I was sure it had destroyed my gut, but the onion soup revealed it hadn’t.”

  Elakdon stepped closer and looked at the now closed gash that reached around the side of Randr’s ribcage.

  “My arm is still weak, though, but your mother is sure the bones are straight.”

  There was a scar to match on his lower arm from where he’d grabbed the axe and held it close to his body to prevent Knud from stepping away from the final blow that had killed him.

  “And I have not had a headache in a day now.”

  Elakdon looked up from the angrily red scar, finding a cautious smile on Randr’s face. “Then come to my bed tonight. Stay with me tonight.”

  Randr cupped Elakdon’s face. “Yes, My King.” The secretive smile warmed Elakdon’s heart, knowing his title was a pet name, too. Randr leaned in for a kiss so tender and sweet that Elakdon melted into it.

  He felt the hunger as it raced through Randr at their touches. Elakdon smiled as Randr pulled him close and groaned into his mouth. He then pulled back, the fight to control his own urges so evident on his face.

  “Feed your hunger,” Elakdon whispered. “Feed on me.”

  “You should be more to me,” Randr said, his body shaking.

  “I am regardless of your hunger.”

  Randr opened his eye and looked at Elakdon.

  “I am your King.”

  Apparently, that did the trick, and Randr brought their lips together in a bruising kiss. His still strong arm pulled Elakdon so close it was like he tried to merge them to become one body. Elakdon’s hunger roared to life along with the sense of being the very center of Randr’s world, and not just his hunger.

  Randr pulled at Elakdon’s clothes, the neediness of his touches making Elakdon moan and fumble as he tried to get his fingers to cooperate to assist.

  They stumbled into the bed frame and fell over, the hunger and eagerness too high to recognize pain from knocking an arm against the other side of the bed. The wool grated Elakdon’s skin as Randr finally got the belt off, and Elakdon blindly fumbled to get a legbinder off to get a leg out of his pants.

  Randr moved in for another heated kiss while he pulled Elakdon to the center of the bed with one arm. He then sat back and repeatedly spat in his hand, then brought his fingers to Elakdon’s ass.

  That was it. He’d finally get to feel his lover himself, and Elakdon kept his gaze locked on Randr’s face as he’d also finally see what his expression of rapture would look like. What heightened it all the more was that Randr’s gaze never left Elakdon’s either, and the intensity in his blue eye left Elakdon’s skin feeling sunburned as hunger rose even more.

  The roughness of the touch and less than careful preparation was irrelevant under such hunger, and Elakdon alm
ost felt dosed by the old King himself, yet it was all going to his spine, so it was Randr’s hunger that fueled him.

  A finger pressed inside Elakdon, and he released a dose in his ass to ease the spit-slick finger’s way. Randr would feel that when he penetrated. Another finger pressed in, and Randr released a loud groan as his fingers bottomed out in Elakdon’s ass.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “How are you for me?”

  Elakdon cupped his face and kept his gaze locked on Randr’s. He had no eloquent answer—his entire focus was on the fingers inside him and the look on his lover’s face.

  Randr set a rhythm pulling his fingers in and out, stretching Elakdon, his gaze so intense.

  “Now, come on, please,” Elakdon said, moving his legs to make room and try to pull Randr’s body down.

  Randr groaned and removed his fingers. He then positioned himself and pressed inside. As the sensitive skin of his glans came into contact with the dose, it absorbed, and the next groan was laced with the insatiable need to get off. He shuffled his good arm under Elakdon’s back and grabbed onto his shoulder, then set a deep pace.

  It was so different from how Elakdon had seen Randr hump the Guard Lord. It was way more intense and…claiming. Elakdon felt claimed by the man he’d fallen in love with, and it was insanely erotic. A different kind of pleasure spread in Elakdon. One that warmed his core and made his heart flutter as he stared into his lover’s eye.

  It was so passionate, and as Randr picked up the intensity, Elakdon lost himself in it. A dose burst from his mouth, and his orgasm claimed him.

  Randr cried out, his body losing its rhythm, but Elakdon finally got to see his expression when overtaken by pleasure and the orgasm barreled through him.

  Elakdon pulled him down to clutch him close, his body quivering from the emotions that still ran high, and he’d just lost a dose. The beauty of their first time together crashed over him.

  Randr pulled back a bit to look at Elakdon. Apparently, he didn’t feel the same.

  “What is it?” Elakdon asked, caressing his hair, sadness spreading at not finding the same emotions on his face.

  “This isn’t how I wanted our first time to be,” Randr said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hunger. I…” Randr closed his eye.

  “Hunger? But there was so much more, too.” And right then, Nol-Plydon’s words made sense. “To me, at least. I’m sorry if I didn’t make you feel that, too.”

  “Oh, you felt amazing!” Randr said. “I just wanted to give you more.”

  Elakdon felt that Randr was still hard inside him, so he smiled. “Then continue. You’re not dosed now. Just don’t kiss me, because I spilled a dose.”

  Randr pulled out slowly, then pressed back inside, the curve of his cock massaging Elakdon’s insides deliciously. He kept that slow pump, his gaze still locked onto Elakdon. “What does it mean? That you spilled a dose?”

  “That I lost myself in passion. It’s like…a Cubi way of orgasming during lovemaking, and we don’t even have to have sex for that.”

  Randr looked surprised at that and stopped. “Really?”

  Elakdon smiled and ran his fingers through Randr’s hair. “You take me differently. I’ve seen you satisfy your hunger with the Guard Lord, but you take me differently. I felt so craved, so…”

  Randr buried his face in the crook of Elakdon’s neck and pumped in and out slowly, his grip on Elakdon’s shoulder tightening. Again, it felt so intense being in his arms, and a blissful sigh escaped Elakdon. “That’s what I wanted,” Randr whispered. “To make you feel like the very center of my world. It’s how you make me feel when you look at me from across the room.”

  Elakdon tightened his hold around his lover with both arms and legs and enjoyed the slow pump in and out. Such a gentle feel to it all. But being a man who had always only watched the Cubi from afar and never really been let in on the way they fed, then Elakdon figured they needed a good long conversation about how Cubi could both feed and make love at the same time or how they merely made love. He even began to wonder whether he knew too little of the way humans loved if it could be that different from how Randr had experienced their first time together.

  Randr’s breath slowed, but his slow pump didn’t stop. He propped himself up again to look at Elakdon, keeping the slow rhythm. “Is it wrong to want to be in full control of myself when making love to you?”

  “No, not at all. I love this, too. I love every way I can be with you. I love how I can sit in your company, silently, and feel stronger from your mere presence.”

  Randr smiled. “Is that why you came to sit with me so often?”

  Elakdon smiled.

  “And if I kiss you now, I will be dosed?”

  Elakdon chucked and nodded. “I know, I’m difficult to make love to in that regard.”

  Randr studied his face. “I wonder why you lose it. The sons and daughters, I mean.”

  “I don’t know. I guess a hungry hump is a good way to top off the intense feelings that are needed for us to lose a dose.”

  “Really?” A grin spread on Randr’s face, and he leaned in for the kiss, thus getting dosed again. The hunger spread in him, and he upped the pace again, the intensity back in his gaze as he pulled Elakdon closer and pumped into him harder.

  Elakdon could only imagine what Randr would be like when he had the full use of his left arm again, because the strength of the right alone, as he clutched Elakdon close, could make him feel completely enveloped.

  Randr let go and changed their position, sitting up a bit. And the curve to his cock showed its wonders.

  Elakdon jolted and cried out from the sudden burst of pleasure. “Oh, yeah!”

  A victorious smile spread on Randr’s face, and he repeated his thrust, sending another jolt through Elakdon. He went torturously slow, his hand roaming Elakdon’s body and searching out all the spots that sent thrills through him. And between that, the delicious jolts sent Elakdon to teether on an edge of too little and too much at the same time.

  He had definitely made an active pleaser if he could go that slow under a dose, and judging by the amount of energy pooling in Elakdon’s spine, Randr was well and truly following his feeding pattern when tormenting Elakdon with pleasure like that.

  It was exquisite, and Elakdon’s body shivered more and more as the stabs of pleasure grew increasingly intense, and he needed so much more to tip over into what felt like an all-consuming orgasm.

  He’d had a few that rose as intense as now, and Dendon teasing his mind was one of them.

  “More, please, Randr, I need more!”

  Randr sped up, and Elakdon swam away in the sensations showered upon his body, and it finally went into the needed overload to tip him over into an orgasm that made his body convulse against Randr’s.

  Randr came before Elakdon was done thrashing around, but he got to see that blissful expression on his face as he tipped over and filled Elakdon’s ass with another load.

  “I see what you mean,” Randr said, gasping for air. He then leaned over to lie on top of Elakdon again, this time slipping out of him but pulling him close again. Randr then rolled off Elakdon, landing spent next to him.

  Elakdon felt like a sweaty and tangled mess, and he loved it. One leg was spilled out over the side of the bed with his pants still stuck to that leg. His shirt was pulled up to his chin, and his cum had been smeared all over. And his hair was a mess. Had to be the way he’d flopped around.

  He turned his head to look at Randr, and his lover definitely looked like he enjoyed their first time together now. “You should still stay in my bed tonight.”

  “And your Fountain and Styrk?”

  “Well, that’s why Styrk made me a new bed. There’s room for them, too.”

  Randr smiled, then nodded.

  Elakdon caressed down Randr’s flank, feeling the scar tissue under his skin. “How are your wounds after this rumble?”

  “They are fine. Sore, and so
am I after having done nothing productive for so long, but you are worth it.”

  Elakdon felt hopeful and lax and unable to get out of bed, so he snuggled up to Randr and kicked around to get to the cover. Randr chuckled and helped, and they cuddled for a while, saying nothing at all.

  Elakdon felt happy. Truly happy.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The Winter Solstice blót was over, and they had finally digested the feast and sobered up. It had been a busy morning getting everybody ready to ride out at dawn. Elakdon had fed Foldon four doses and Randr two. Trydon, the Guard who helped feed Randr, had been chosen for the trip to help Elakdon out with feeding, too.

  All three Royals, at least fifty Royal Guards per Royal, and at least as many humans were saddled and ready to leave. Ole was one of them, and he stayed close to Randr.

  Elakdon felt the chill of the snow pinch his nose and cheeks as he kissed his mom goodbye.

  Twenty Cubi stood outside in the cold, most of them were members of the household, but a few were of his Royal Guard, and they would stay behind to secure his House.

  The five Earls and their entourage were gathering, too, and once the little Succubus had taken her leave with her hero Earl Gunhild, they’d be ready.

  Finally, the little girl’s dad picked her up and stepped back, both waving, so Elakdon pulled back from his mom, gave her a last kiss on her forehead, then mounted his horse.

  It was going to be a long ride to the boats, and an even longer trip across with a wind as chilling as the one they felt belt them. Feeding was going to be even worse. Feeding pants would have to do. They wouldn’t allow Elakdon the intimacy he needed with his people, but he wouldn’t get sick from getting too cold.

  It was a long ride, yet Nil-Savadin, coming from the south, kept commenting on the beauty of the landscape. Having grown up with it, it escaped Elakdon who instead asked and got long descriptions about the warm south.