by Naomi Lucas
“Your father was a bull?” It was hard to get the words out.
His eyes glinted with black stars. “Larger than me.” He took a step toward her and she held her ground. The heat of his body flowed into her as the mist fell upon him, licking and slithering over every curve and hollow. “My mother gave him many offspring. Each different from the last, and with her blood,” his fingers lifted to curl into her hair, “and her magic,” he tugged, prickling her scalp, “they quickly took over the tribe.”
“So it can be done?” She raised her eyes to his, swaying lightly on her feet.
“Oh, yes. It can be done.”
Her hair was suddenly yanked, tilting her face up to his and her mouth was captured. Her gasp of breath was lost between their lips. The kiss was hard, ungiving, a burst of force she wasn’t ready for. He claimed her mouth, taking it as easily and as quickly as one of the willow growths. Aldora squeezed her eyes shut as his dark, beady gaze tried to capture more from her.
Vedikus. His name was a rattled curse in her head, a word spat and hissed out as he licked at her teeth, seeking to fill her up in every way possible. Aldora clutched his wrists and arched away, only to be wrangled closer to him until her body was pressed completely to his. She was consumed and taken over, a fate she neither wanted nor asked for but had been given into regardless of how much she tried to fight it.
Her captor was violent. Primal. His lips crushed and controlled hers relentlessly. The thick, flat, wet stab of his tongue explored her own, coaxing it into battle. A frustrated moan sounded from the back of her throat as she fought for a sliver of control.
This wasn’t a kiss. It was power. The type that was addictive and sought after, the kind that dropped heroes to their knees. Her own grew weak.
His hand curved the back of her head and held her jittering body still, and every time she shifted, she brushed against his bulge. Aldora strained on her toes to keep her frame grounded, opening her eyes. In the back of her mind, she knew the moment he lifted her fully from the earth, she’d be nothing more than a receptacle for his dominion.
“Stop,” she rasped, tearing her mouth to the side, his teeth scraping her lips. “Is that all you want from me?” His fingers pressed along her back, lifting her shirt up to knead her flesh. He made her muscles ache and then he made them melt under his touch.
He answered her with a snort and a jostle, jerking her body back up against his. His breath tickled her ears and she closed her eyes again with a shiver, her core coiling up with heat.
He frightens me.
Aldora clung to him as he pressed his hand lower, under the seam of her pants and toward the front where the tie loosened under his fingers. A chilly breath of air ghosted over the back of her legs as her pants slid to the ground to get caught in the dry stalks. Her undergarment rushed to meet them next, leaving her in nothing but her tunic and undershirt.
His mouth found hers again in a brutal kiss. She responded in turn, frustrated by his gorging, by his sudden lack of control, with the animalistic pawing and takeover of her body. Her feet arched, her joints stretched, trying to meet his demand and rise up on his body, but he kept her right on the precipice, right between being on the ground and fully within the power of his arms. Her nails bit into them as they raked up to grasp his shoulders. Her chest heaved as she gasped for air.
“You asked,” he said, twisting his hand into her hair. “This is how it’s done.” He pulled her head back to pierce her with his eyes. They bore so deep within her head, her soul, that even if she lost the ability to see after this moment, the memory of them would forever be branded into her mind.
Her sex was barren and cold, exposed and open, her legs half hooked around his outer thighs as the flame of his hand pressed flat on her lower back; a warning. She could not look away from him despite the exposure. A breeze caressed her most intimate part, and she clenched around air, craving fulfillment.
His penetration.
Aldora tilted her head and watched him through her wisping hair, more nervous than she had ever been when it came to sex. Since the moment I heard his voice... She’d known, instinctively, he was already inside her then. The moment I heard his voice and responded...
Her core clenched again.
Vedikus is already inside me. His name had burrowed deep within and took root, intertwining with her own. I want him there.
A breathy, triumphant smile twisted his lips. Her sex throbbed, and she pressed herself forward instead of away.
“Aldora,” he laughed low and deep, his voice milking more from her, making her forget the danger of their situation. “Are you trying to manipulate me?”
She hiked one leg up to hook over his hip and his hand moved down to cup her backside and lift her against him. “No,” she breathed, believing it.
His sudden burst of dry laughter caught her off guard. The hand in her hair dropped out of sight, and suddenly she was shifted higher until she came to rest on top of his naked member. His engorged head thrummed with heat, and she tensed, realizing Vedikus had shed his loincloth. But it was his eyes holding her captive that kept her from fighting him, and the delicious tease of her core constricting as she felt his tip so close to where she ached. It slid through her folds, and his nostrils flared to release a stream of smoke.
“Mount me,” he demanded, raising the hair on the back of her neck.
Aldora shivered and narrowed her eyes. He pressed his tip to her entrance.
“Mount me, female.” This time his voice came out pained. His hands, rough on her skin, moved down to hold her just upon him. He seated her on his bulge, pressing into her but going no further. She squirmed from the burn and felt more wetness leak out of her in response.
His fingers moved to press and rub up and down her sex, slipping through her essence to widen and expose her sex even more.
“Don’t...” he growled in the misty morning daylight, “make me ask again.”
She was afraid to try and a whimper escaped her lips. Vedikus was giant compared to the men of her past. His gaze darkened upon her and a need to please him suddenly consumed her. She moved upon him slowly at first, then jerkily and the pleasure grew. He gripped her bruisingly and she thought he would impale her but as her movements slowed he loosened his hold slightly.
She moaned and clutched his bestial length, and forced herself on him. A soft cry escaped her lips that grew into breathy shrieks, her body stretching slowly, painstakingly over his hard flesh. She couldn’t see what was happening, and he kept her from doing so, but she could feel everything.
This was different from feeling him inside her, imagining it from the beginning. She always knew there would be pain, pain from the intrusion, the invasion, the domination, but the delicious lick and burn she felt as she worked herself over him was something more. To be stared at so intensely, that she could not deny what he was, captivated her.
If he wants fear from me, it won’t be from this.
Aldora slipped down his shaft with a mewling wail, squeezing her eyes shut as his hands pinched her flesh. Her body shook, but he held her upright and in the air as her hips quirked to gain more ground.
“I don’t think I can,” she cried out, twitching on his length, still only half-seated on it, her body opened as far as she could get it without his help. Her legs gripping his hips.
“You have no choice,” he grunted, squeezing her again, but hefting her off his length and pressing her shaking form hard against his chest. “Now you know what you should prepare for,” he growled. She wrapped her arms around him and held on, flinching from the sudden loss of him inside her and confused why he had allowed her to stop. Time passed as she caught her breath and the strain of her muscles eased. His shaft continued to twitch and seek her heat against her inner thigh. She waited for him to position her again, but as time continued to pass, she knew they were done.
But for how long? Her core clenched, seeking his intrusion, his burn, but it was gone. And only the ache of her brutal stretching
remained.
Sweat formed on her brow, over her palms, making her skin slippery as she exhaled and lowered her legs to stand. His loincloth fell back into place.
Vedikus released her, and the mood shifted between them. Aldora peeled her hands off his flesh and brushed her fingers through her tangled hair, refusing to meet his eyes. Minutes before she was staring him down but now she couldn’t muster the courage to look at him. In her periphery, steam continued to trail from his mouth and nose. Her body wouldn’t stop shivering as she turned away and dressed.
His voice stopped her as she lifted her undergarment. “We will try again soon, female, do not bother layering yourself up.”
Aldora gripped her pants.
I belong to him.
Chapter Twelve
***
Vedikus scanned his surroundings, searching the plains for a sign of Prayer. They had been walking for hours with nothing but shallow bog and high grasses to greet them in every direction.
He sucked in a breath, feeling the slick chill of the mist flood his senses. In all sense of the mist, it should have been untouchable, unfeelable, but it wasn’t. It could be felt, and it was tangible. Like the steam his body released could be felt. The mist was like a vaporous poisonous gas so thick it whispered across your skin like a brush of feathers.
He never noticed it unless he fixated on it because the curse had been a constant in his life since the second he was birthed from his mother’s womb. Even through the wet slop of his birth, he could feel the curse envelop him into a new, more horrid womb. One he would never be delivered from.
The rope tied about his waist tugged at his middle and he waited a moment for Aldora to catch up.
He only focused on the mist because of her. It grounded him enough to not strip her anew and have her mount him again.
I begged.
Vedikus sneered, palming the handle of his axe. His prick was as hard as ever, now coated with a human female’s essence, and chafing against his leathers. It had been a distraction before, but now that he had sampled Aldora’s hot quim, he was now deranged with an entirely new curse.
His body was primed to mate. And when a minotaur was primed, its true self came to light. Blood was shed, and scars were made. He had not expected to feel so desperate so quickly after capturing his her. He had not been prepared, and despite how much that agitated him, it was the truth. If anything should ambush them now, he would thank his gods for coming to his salvation.
His father had become the tribe’s chief several years after he had brought back his mother from the border. She had arrived already pregnant with his eldest brother and free of the corruption, but what had happened to his mother and his sire between her capture and delivery was lost to him. Their couplings were often frenetic and public during his youth, but so were the mating habits of the rest of his old tribe. There was no shame in the act, but with Aldora...
Her skin pinkens, her voice hitches. She cannot mount me at will. He liked how she reacted. He liked the struggle. He liked it so much it made him throb and crave her more. His fingers danced over his weapon. The way she shudders and moans. It made the act heretical.
Vedikus cracked his neck.
He looked around. Nothing but eerie stillness and the ever-present buzzing of swamp bugs met him in every direction. In the daylight, all appeared deserted and settled here, but it was a trap to all outsiders. The moment the tiny ball of sun that shone through the mist began to descend, the bog would wake up like a gaping mouth stretched into a toothy yawn. He had traversed the lands around Prayer many times in his travels but rarely did he ever enter its grounds. It was protected with heavy wafts of dark magic that pulsated from its source: the settlement at its center. A place no one ventured despite its safety, because of how easy it would devour your soul.
Vedikus stilled as a breeze twitched his ears.
“Is something wrong?” Aldora asked quietly at his side.
He listened further but the wind was gone. “No.” Vedikus glanced at her, his hooves slowly sinking into the muck. She had redressed herself despite his order, and the sudden need to tear her clothes to shreds quickly overcame him. She hid her mouth behind the back of her hand and her tongue darted out to swipe across it.
His eyes sharpened as she lifted her chin to meet his gaze. Her eyes widened, lips pursing, and the damning need to have her mount his body had him forgetting the real danger they were in. Vedikus tasted blood in his mouth, impure sanguine that teased at the purity just within reach.
She braces for me. His prick twitched uncomfortably. If she had been a half-breed like him, a female of his tribe, he would have had her under him in the grasses already, feeding his bulge between her thighs.
Vedikus could hear her heart begin to pound under his scrutiny. She pressed the back of her hand hard against her mouth.
“Why do you do that?” he asked, tense.
He watched as Aldora slowly comprehended his words and drew her hand away from her face to study it. The silence lingered and he flicked his tail. Vedikus reached out and tangled his fingers into her hair and forced Aldora to look at him. “What is wrong?”
“I couldn’t taste the meat.”
It took a moment for him to realize she meant the meat from earlier. He stiffened and drew her near. “You did not tell me?”
“I didn’t know until I ate. I thought it was because I couldn’t smell, that its taste was dulled, and the more I chewed, the more I realized it was me. I’m afraid of what will go next,” she blurted out. “I keep licking my skin, hoping to taste sweat.”
Had she lost two senses in that many days? How is that possible? “Have you lost anything else?” The need to get her the cure weighed down on him again and he cursed the distractions that had delayed them. Cursed his lust.
“N-no. Nothing else, not yet at least. Is it supposed to take effect this fast?” Aldora licked her hand again and he captured it afterward, sliding his tongue where hers had just been. I taste salt and sweat, bitter and sweet. The flavors burst over his tongue.
Vedikus raised his head and scanned the perimeter, peering as far as he could before the haze closed in on him. He glanced at the sun and knew they had not turned around or walked in circles. The mud was a clear indication that progress had been made. This is why the wetlands around Prayer are so dangerous. The more you wanted to reach your destination, the quicker the paranoia came to take over your mind. He checked again and closed his eyes. Aldora pulled her hand from his and wiped it on her tunic.
“No,” he said after his initial unease left him, and with it his immediate need to mate. “It should take a moon cycle for it to weaken you enough to take your sense of self.”
“I still feel like myself.”
“And you have lost your ability to smell and taste.” He grasped her arm and continued walking. “It should take longer than several days.”
“Did it take longer for your mother?” she asked.
Vedikus stilled and thought back to the stories he had been told, then moved forward once again. Time chased them faster than the other labyrinthian creatures did. Their steps slurped with their speed.
“My mother was treated when she made it back to the tribe.” He was sure of it. “They journeyed a fortnight prior. Most humans, if they live past the first night of entering here, are treated away from the walls. It’s too dangerous otherwise. I wouldn’t be taking you to Prayer if you weren’t degrading so fast.”
Faster still than he had thought.
Aldora matched his pace, and her long hair breezed over his arm. The touch did little to ease him. She brought her hand to her mouth again and he stopped her.
“Don’t do that.” Vedikus took it and held it firmly this time. “You’ll just lick your skin off trying to seek something that is no longer there for you.”
“It brings me comfort.”
“Then it is a trick of the mind.”
“Everything has been a trick here. I’m not supposed to be here!” He p
icked up his pace and pulled her after him despite the mud trying to slow them down. “I’m supposed to be on the farm,” Aldora’s voice had gone hollow, “tending to the apple trees and preparing deliveries. My father would be hauling the crates onto the cart while my mother spoke to the townsfolk. She and Mr. Branis would be arguing and the sickeningly sweet smell of fresh jam would be making me nauseous. I hated it...” Her tone deadened on a whisper. “I shouldn’t be here.”
Stopping short, Vedikus turned and faced her, forcing her to look at him. Her brown eyes were glazed over and his throat tightened, imagining her going blind. “Aldora,” he warned. “I will have your thoughts.” She looks at me as if she doesn’t see me.
“I wish I was back home, with the apples, and their nauseating scent,” she said quietly.
He did not know what she spoke of but knew, when her eyes did not focus on him, that she wasn’t listening to his command. Aldora lowered her head and looked away, allowing her hair to fall before her face. He swiped the strands away. “Tell me about them.”
“The apples?” she sniffled.
“Yes.”
“They were the best in Thetras, the best in all the western regions of Savadon. They’re bright and blood red with a gleam that reflected the midday sunlight. When polished for market, I could see my reflection mar their surface, a blight to their natural beauty. They filled my arms and when not watched carefully, would tumble and roll away.”
They had nothing like that in these lands. “Do you speak of mountain rocks? Rubies?” he asked.
“No.” Aldora focused on him. “They looked like rubies, the best ones of the yearly crop, but those were saved for the celebrations in the capital. Have you never seen an apple?”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“I can’t believe that.” She gripped his wrist and pulled his hand from her face. “They’re a common crop. My mother’s grove is right on the other side of the wall and stretches for a hundred acres.”
“So, they are a grown food,” he stated, thinking back. Vine bread was considered food given by the land if cooked correctly, and there were edible roots and herbs that could be found if one was looking, but not much else, and not something that looked like rubies.