Claw and Crown Bundle

by Richard Lunch

  The warmth was immediate. It spread through my lips and cheeks and body. I drank him in, tasted him. I bit his lip and heard a moan catch in his throat. I scraped my teeth along his lower lip again, expecting to hear him moan.

  Instead, I was swept into the air and flung down into the pile of furs that made up Draugr’s bed. It knocked the wind out of me, but before I could catch my breath, he was over me, on top of me. His hips pressed into mine and a hardening member in his pants pulsed against my groin. It stretched midway to my thigh. Draugr moved his body into mine, pressing his hardening cock alongside me, indicating his intent. I spread my legs and let him push deeper into my groin until we were rubbing against each other, panting, frantic. My cock throbbed as it filled with blood, hardening to an iron rod against his own. He pulled on the back of my hair forcing my chin up and bearing my neck, and trailed his lips up my skin, his breath hot. He bucked his hips into mine, and I felt like snow melting beneath him.

  “Is this what you want?”

  His hand dug under me to the small of my back and brought me closer into him. He rocked me so that my hips were raised in the air and my thighs were wrapped around him. His other hand snaked between us and rubbed against me.

  I whimpered at his touch. The sound surprised me and he paused his lips hovering above my skin. He was waiting for my response.

  I slid my fingers underneath his chin and guided his lips toward mine. The air between us seemed to quiver.

  I whispered, “Yes.”

  The space between us collapsed. His lips were on mine. I felt myself slipping away. He resumed his stroking between our hips and I lost all sense of time and place. His strong hands pulled my clothes away, and then his. The heat of his skin where it met mine sent goose bumps over my flesh.

  I trailed my hands up Draugr’s back. He removed his hand from my cock. He stared into me with irises that shone like polished silver. He thrust his hips into mine, rubbing his hard cock against mine.

  I longed to have him in my mouth, thought of what it would be like to have him inside of me. I moved to grab his cock, but he brushed my hand aside, and wrapped his long fingers around both of our pulsing rods.

  “Draugr!”

  The feeling drove me wild. I let my fingers claw down his back. He held us together, joined at our hips. I bit into his shoulder and screamed. My legs twitched and vision blurred. He stroked us once more, decisively, and I exploded in a wave of hot seed between us. He followed me, a soft grunt in my ear the only indication that he had come. The seed mixed together between us, hot and sticky. He lay on top of me for a moment, his hand playing in my hair.

  I trailed my fingers along his shoulders. His muscles were tensed. I was struck by the feeling that he had been restrained.

  “I would have let you…” I whispered.

  He put his fingers to my lips, “You went through something that no others do. You met the ancestral wolf god, and you survived.”

  He withdrew from me. The place where our seed had spread across my abdomen was cool in the night air.

  “I hope that this remedies the tension you have been feeling. You have a great deal more to learn. I do not want,” he gestured at the air between us, “this to get in the way.”

  He wiped himself off with a cloth and handed it to me. I took it but longed to take his hand instead. I cleaned myself.

  “I-”

  I wanted to tell him something. What that was, I did not know. By the time another word could form on my lips, he was out the door.

  He did not return, and after a time, I threw another log into the fire and crawled into my furs. Sleep did not come.

  It was sometime in the hours just before sunrise, when the fire had gone to embers, that he came back. In the night, I had found the words I wanted to say, but there was no way I could bring them to the forefront, now.

  What could I tell Draugr? That I wanted him? That I thought, that after all this time together, that after all he had taught me and after bringing me back from whatever that place was, that I thought I might be falling…

  I rubbed my eyes and screwed them shut. I could say nothing, and I had to get some sleep.

  Chapter 11

  Draugr

  The letter arrived by eagle. The royal bird, its wings edged in golden brown, grew from a speck in the evening sky into a bird whose wingspan threatened to engulf my home. It stretched out its leg, and I removed the leather pouch that contained a roll of parchment. It was sealed in wax with the royal mark, and one word indicated its recipient, Hafporir.

  I offered the eagle the remains of a deer we had killed several days ago. The eagle ate hungrily, and then curled its head under its wing to sleep.

  I went to go find Hafporir.

  Our situation had not improved since that heated night, but I had not succumbed to his desires again. I could tell that had upset him. Each day, as Hafporir grew colder toward me and threw himself into his studies, I regretted my night of weakness. I longed for his touch, but the whole idea was foolhardy. He was, as he had liked to remind me when he first arrived, a prince, and I, a servant of the crown.

  The mistletoe had berries on it now. Winter was coming to an end, and the spring was just under the snow, waiting for its chance. I had known this day would come, when his fathers would summon him home, but I had not thought so soon. My chest ached at the thought.

  “Steady, Draugr. Think - the spirits have been neglected since Hafporir has arrived. You do not tend to the wood. You do not listen to the whispers and act on their behalf.”

  My words, my own advice, were lost on me. The spirits would go on, with or without my presence. If I was to be honest, before Hafporir’s arrival, I had lived a half life, already one foot in my grave in this wood, ever since he left me. What future was I waiting for? Nothing.

  I found Hafporir meditating by the stream. Where Hafporir had once been nervous to tread because of the spirits, he now sat in perfect calm. His light hair blew in the late winter breeze. I longed to be that wind, to touch him over every surface. I buried the thought.

  “Hafporir, a letter.”

  He was up the hill in a moment, his eyes eager for the news. I handed him the sealed parchment. After inspecting the wax and running his finger along the crest, he opened it. His expression went from excitement to gravity.

  “We have to go back.”

  “We?” My heart skipped a beat, “What is wrong, Hafporir?”

  He paused for a long moment. The only sound came from the rushing water of the stream. “We have riders at our gates, but it must have taken two days for the eagle to fly with this, and it will take us four to return. We must go now.”

  “Hafporir, I cannot come with you. My place is here.”

  “Here? With the trees? Your place is serving your kings...and your prince.”

  “Who are the riders?”

  “I don’t quite understand. My father says they’re humans. I thought for certain that if anyone were to threaten us…”

  “That it would be another wolf tribe?”

  “Yes. But this is strange...how he describes them. He says they bear the brand of Yor.”

  “And we must see who Yor is, then.”

  “But that humans would brand themselves…how strange.”

  “I doubt,” and my stomach knotted at the thought, “that they branded themselves.”

  “So you will join me?” He affixed me with that bright blue gaze. I thought of the first day he had spent with me, of his nervousness around the spirits, and his unwillingness to work. Now, he took to tasks with ease and comfort. In sparring, we often reached a stalemate or he overtook me. And his demeanor, while cold and pensive after our night together, was also so much more collected. The kings would find a different wolf than the one they sent to me. The only thing that made me hesitate...they would want a royal marriage, and I should not have touched him in that way.

  “Draugr,” the way he said my name was almost a command.

  “Yes, my prince. When
do we leave?”

  “We must depart as soon as we can. Tonight if possible.”

  “It is a full moon and we can travel faster and farther as wolves. I will shut up my hut and lay my affairs in this place to rest.”

  “I am going to bathe. I will see you at moonrise.”

  “I will see you,” I nodded.

  Chapter 12

  Hafporir

  Our breath left clouds in the late winter night air that trailed in our wake. Leaves and snow and ice and tree roots crunched beneath my paws. The air smelled of possibility. Draugr smelled of fear, and apprehension, and lust.

  We had been running for hours without end and the moon was already reaching the end of the horizon. Without it, it would make staying in wolf form more difficult. But the transformation had been worthwhile. We had covered a great deal of ground. My limbs were growing tired, but Draugr, his body pumping with adrenaline that was so strong in the air I could taste it, was yet stronger than I, more powerful, and a bigger wolf.

  I thought of the time I had seen him face the Wolf God. I thought of the night after. His ear flicked in my direction. He surely smelled my desires. My thoughts tore between my need for rest and the journey that still lay before us.

  As though he could read my mind, Hafporir turned and led us to a small brook. There, he stopped, and leaned his wolf’s head to lap up the water. It gurgled and gleamed in the moonlight. His fur shone a silvery gray, and mine threatened to match the moon. I joined him, trying not to let my panting become too obvious.

  I finished drinking and then did something I couldn’t help. I changed back into a man. I was too exhausted to maintain my wolf form. When I returned to human form, my clothes were, of course, gone. We had decided to travel with nothing, knowing that we would be clothed at the castle upon arrival. Draugr had mentioned staying in wolf form so we would not grow cold, and I suspected, so that we would not be tempted by the sight of each other’s naked flesh.

  But I was tempted, and I wanted him to be as well.

  I pulled my fingers through my hair, and stood up, tall, in front of the brook. I could feel Draugr’s wolfish eyes on me, but I did not look. I could feel my cock slowly becoming more erect with the thought of putting myself on display to him. It was a welcome distraction from my worries. You cannot travel at this point. You are too tired, I told myself. I hoped that I was right, that this moment, this piece in the fabric of time, was something I could afford to spend.

  I dipped my foot into the water. It was ice-cold, but refreshing to me. I slipped into the water, which came up just to my hips. My cock bobbed just below the surface. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Draugr transform back into a man, his tattoos reflected in the starlight, the divots in his muscled body made even more obvious by the shadows that pooled in their recesses.

  I dunked my head below the water and ran my fingers through my hair, clawing out the snarls and cooling my scalp. I scrubbed at my face, at my lips and neck and beard, and emerged from the water and into the night air with a gasp.

  The cold air whipped against my skin. My nipples hardened and the hairs on my arms and chest rose. I splashed water across the front of my body and scrubbed, still looking at the sky. I hoped that Draugr was watching. I let my hands trail up to my chest. I pressed them against my nipples, warming the soft circles of flesh, and then let them trail down my abdomen, brushing water off the muscles there.

  I cast a furtive glance at Draugr. He was watching me. His expression was difficult to read. His leg was bent, hiding his cock, but I chose to believe it was hard. I let my fingers play down the front of my hips to my thighs.

  I turned, so my back faced him. I scrubbed my shoulders first, and made my way down to the small of my back. I leaned forward slightly at the waist and parted my buttocks more than should have been necessary to clean them. I splashed water between my cheeks and scrubbed. My ears caught the slightest sound. I smiled, knowing Draugr could not see my face. It was his breathing, ragged, animal like, and full of need. I moved to where a tree dangled into the water and leaned against the trunk with one arm. With the other hand, I began to work on my ass again.

  I parted my cheeks and slowly, gradually, loosened my asshole with water. I had tried this only a few times before, a finger or two when I was alone, but it was something Draugr wanted, that I could tell from the way he had slid on top of me, as though that was his place, above and inside.

  I pressed into my hole with a single finger. After a moment of struggle, it popped in. Draugr’s breathing was audible now, and something else, the soft swish of a hand on his cock. I bit my lip at the thought. My cock hardened and twitched. He wanted me. I just had to convince him that he should take me.

  I plunged my finger into my hole and let out a moan. I heard a soft echo of my moan from Draugr’s lips. I worked the tight muscles of my hole until they loosened enough for a second finger. I drew the first finger out entirely, and splashed water onto my ass. Then, I made sure that my fingers were visible as they slid into my hole. Draugr made a choking noise.

  I let my face hit the tree trunk and leaned into it. It scraped my skin with the sharp bark jutting out like tiny claws. The water was numbing my legs. I could feel myself slipping, my knees buckling. If Draugr would not touch me, he would have to watch me pleasure myself. I spread my legs wider and plunged my fingers deep inside. I groaned, feeling the way it made my buttocks tingle, my cock ache. I let out a wail of longing and abandon. If Draugr was still pleasuring himself, I could not hear it. The splashing of water, and my own ragged breathing, and the rush of blood and lust filled my ears.

  A splash behind me brought me out of it. Draugr had gotten into the stream. I pretended not to notice him. I continued to thrust my fingers into my hole, slamming my buttocks back onto them, moaning all the while. Then there was a hand on my throat.

  “This could have been the end for you,” Draugr whispered in my ear in a way that made me shudder. I froze in place as his fingers traced the lines of my chest, “You need to be more alert.”

  I withdrew my fingers from my hole and leaned back into his body. His cock, as I had predicted, was hard against my back. I allowed myself to hum a moan. His fingers on my throat tightened. He pulled me into him so that my body was flush against his. His cock rested upright between my cheeks. He gave an experimental thrust.

  “You are running in dangerous territory, my prince. Do you truly want your hole ruined by one as lowly as me?”

  The roughness of his words caught me off guard. I sensed the same raw animal power I had felt the first night we were together, the way his muscles strained underneath his skin like he was holding back a team of horses. I thought of that power being unleashed on me and gripped the tree in anticipation.

  He parted my cheeks and slid a hand between them. I felt something at my hole and braced myself for the impact of his cock.

  Instead, I felt something warm, and much thinner than his cock slide inside of me. It was his finger. He gently moved it in and out of my hole, testing me. I felt myself relax and loosen around his touch.

  A second finger joined the first. His fingers on my throat loosened. His breath on my neck warmed my skin. His teeth met my flesh and scraped. It made me want to howl. Then, he crooked his fingers inside of me and pressed.

  Feeling made my legs go loose. He caught my chest and held me up. I clung to the tree, and then, I did howl.

  He worked his fingers against the spot he had found inside of me.

  “Draugr! Take me.”

  “Beg for it,” he growled.

  I complied, “Please, please, please fuck me.”

  “No.”

  He said it with such definiteness. I groaned. His fingers inside of me sped up their pace. My body was on fire. I would not be able to hold out much longer.

  “Please…”

  “No.”

  He released my chest. I fell forward into the tree. As soon as he wrapped his hand around my cock, I came in shuddering, howling spurts. My
asshole clenched around his fingers and my body convulsed against the tree.

  “Draugr!”

  He let me go. It was a long moment before I could feel my legs enough to stand and face him. Draugr watched me, his tendons twitching under his tattoos and his eyes glinting.

  “Why do you try to tempt me into doing what I must not?”

  My head was still buzzing from my orgasm. I got to my knees in front of him. The water went up to my chest. It was a shock of cold, but it brought me back to my senses.

  “Because I want you. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone. Because I admire you, and I want you to think of me, at least, with respect.”

  “You have my respect,” he said, “you are my prince.”

  “Let me show you my admiration,” I said and reached for his cock. He tried to take a step back, but before he could, my hand was on him, gripping him, stroking him.

  He wrapped his fingers in my hair and threw back his head. I smiled at my victory, and while he was not looking, wrapped my lips around his cock.

  “Aaah!” He yelped like I had just burned him.

  I sucked his long, hard cock deep into my throat. I ran my tongue along his shaft and felt every groove, and every vein. I cupped my hand around his balls and bobbed up and down, eliciting groan after groan from the man towering above me.

  He dug his fingers into my head, his nails scraping my scalp. The contained ferocity of his movements made my cock firm again, even in the cold water. I reached down and stroked myself. I moaned as he plunged into my throat. The thrusts of his cock choked me and made me struggle not to gag but I adored every moment of it. With my hand on my own cock, it was absolute bliss.

  “Hafporirrrraaaaaaaaaaoooooo!” His moan turned into a howl.

  I took his cock deep into my throat and felt my mouth and gullet fill with heat and his sweet, salty seed. I drank it down, feeling it warm my insides, wishing I could feel his seed inside my ass. The thought pushed me over the edge. I came for the second time with my mouth around Draugr’s cock and my hand around my own.