Make Her, page 18
This meant that it was easy for Jelena to spend her coin—Lisane had apparently given her gems in quantity prior to vacating her former tent—and get us a few things for the road before shopkeepers also locked their doors and disappeared.
Lisane and I hid in darkened alleys with Finx while Sibyi and Jelena got what was needed—me because I was afraid I would frighten people, and her because she was worried she might be recognized. I didn’t know how to tell her that there was no way anyone would peg her as a high-born girl now, between her torn dress, her knowing eyes, and the mage-mark laced around her neck, but I also wasn’t sure she would take that as a compliment and so I kept it to myself. And when supplies were gained, we headed off, following the surge of people out into the countryside, keeping together, and keeping to ourselves. Jelena had gotten me a piece of fabric to wind about my waist, which I supposed made me a little less threatening, and Finx was in her bag again, though I could still see his outline when he squirmed.
As if by mutual agreement, none of us said anything until we were sure we were alone, and after we’d outpaced all the rest of them—or everyone else had thought better of running and had begun to head back—and finally it was just our small party traveling on the empty road by the light of the moon. Jelena let Finx out to scurry around our feet, and we felt safe comparing notes.
Jelena’s story was the shortest—she’d demanded Sibyi bring her, and Finx had made a silk rope ladder for her and Sibyi to escape over the wall surrounding the castle and so they did. He’d gone on to create the storm of a lifetime for us, almost drowning in the process, saved only by Jelena’s quick thinking and good timing. Finx had helped save Lisane, and when I heard what had happened to her, I quickly stood.
“We need to be alone,” I said, offering her my hand, so I could draw her away from the road and off into the nearby trees.
“What is it?” she asked when we were separated from the rest.
“Take off the top of that dress. I need to see you.”
She made a sound of surprise. “Rhaim—”
“You just told me you were pierced by spears, multiple times. ” The vision of Castillion hurting my moth haunted me. My beast had always been right about him; we should’ve killed him long ago.
“How can you even see?” she asked, twisting her arms behind herself to undo her laces.
That took me aback. “I . . . don’t know. I just can. ” I hadn’t questioned how much better my eyesight was now, even in the moonlit dark, as my beast—in the same way I hadn’t questioned how much easier it was to smell everything, for good or bad.
Lisane laughed softly. “Well, if you can—here you go,” she said, presenting herself to me. “He got me here,” she said, finding a spot beneath a breast, “and then here,” she said, fingering another, “and lastly here, too. ” She pointed to a spot right beside her sternum.
I ate her with my eyes. She was lovely, without even a scar on her, and more importantly than that, she was whole. I reached a clawed finger out to trace the path she’d made and heard her gasp as I set it upon her.
“How much of you is beastly now, Rhaim?” she whispered, after licking her lips.
I felt my blood race and my flesh become eager. “All of me. ” Her hands dropped to help finish freeing her from her dress, but I caught it before it could fall. “No, pretty moth,” I said, and watched her pout by moonlight. “I cannot take you without seating myself in you—and just because we’re away from your castle doesn’t mean that we’re safe. ”
She took her dress back from me reluctantly. “And you’re sure?” she asked . . . and the tone of her voice thrilled through me, because I already knew what she would do next.
“Very,” I said—at the same time she dropped her dress and turned to run.
I counted to three—it was all I could stand—and then chased her instinctively, hitting myself against the trees she dodged. She squealed and laughed ahead of me, racing into the dark, knowing that I would catch her—and knowing that she wanted to be caught.
“I am coming for you,” I promised her, gnashing my teeth as I listened to her pant, breathing in the light scent of her sweat and the heavier notes of her musk, snarling after her and playing her game until I couldn’t take it and I burst through a set of branches to pounce and pull her to me. I took the blow of our landing on a shoulder, as she breathily screamed my name.
“Rhaim!”
“You think you can taunt me?” I growled at her in play, letting go of her to flip her on her back.
“I could’ve gotten away if I’d had better shoes,” she said with a laugh, still kicking away from me.
“Like I will ever let you leave again,” I said, grabbing her knees and pulling her to me on night-damp grass.
“Rhaim!” she protested again, before laughing, as I settled myself on my stomach between her legs. “Fine!” she started, the very voice of feigned irritation, but when she felt my tongue swipe her whatever she was about to say next fell into a soft moan. “Oh,” she said, quickly rocking back and giving herself over.
I chuckled evilly against her, licking all of her, up and down, and whatever joys I thought I’d had tasting her before were beyond redoubled in this new form. I kept licking, then grabbed the bottom of both her soft thighs and pulled her legs up for her, until her heels were kicking against my back.
“Rhaim,” she whispered, between pants, and I lifted my head.
“I may not be able to mount you out here, little moth, but did you think you’d be unsatisfied?” I asked, before pushing my tongue in deep.
She moaned again and I snarled to hear it as her hands reached down to grab the fur below my ears. I fucked her with my tongue, my formidable teeth pressed against her clit, and she was fearless in the way she ground down and tried to ride me. And when my tongue was coated in her juices and her pussy about to clench, I pulled back and lapped at her clit like I was drinking water, torturing the both of us until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Rhaim,” she gasped, her heels digging, as her back arched.
“Come for me, little moth,” I whispered with my new rough voice, urging her forward. “Come for the beast that captured you. ”
She cried out then, rocking wildly beneath me, calling my name, and of course I was hard—not getting the chance to fuck her, it was a miracle I wasn’t rutting the ground. The second she was conquered, I rose over her on all fours, balanced myself on one hand, and used the other to fist my cock, pounding myself wildly as she lay below me, breathing hard. I knew the sounds of flesh hitting flesh were echoing into the night and I didn’t care. My clawed fingers tore into the earth beside her head as I chased my satisfaction, and my knot flared, sending me shooting onto her. I grunted and rocked into my hand, ropes of my hot cum spattering her, gleaming in the moonlight and making her smell like me.
And when I was finished, my cock still hot and hard, I smeared my cum all over her body, first with the pierced head of it, and then with my hand.
“Mine,” I growled, and I wasn’t playing anymore.
Lisane gazed adoringly up at me, pale in the moonlight, but no place so white as the fresh mage-mark about her throat. “Yours,” she dreamily agreed.
After that, things were easy, though denying her was hard.
We’d decided to travel back to my castle, and if I’d realized how far away we were, I might have made different choices when I’d settled it on the ground. But because I knew Sibyi wouldn’t be able to fly the thing, I’d chosen someplace I’d have wanted to stay myself: remote, but surrounded by good land with both deep woods and running water, plus a scenic view from the topmost floors.
Once we were on the open road, Sibyi had graciously “ceded” my castle back to me, as long as I promised to call it the Lightning Palace thenceforth.
Oddly . . . I agreed.
“You’re joking,” he said, squinting at me. “You’re even harder to read now, with beast eyes. ”
“That’s not true, don’t listen to him,” Lisane said, readily coming to my defense and sticking her tongue out at him.
So for the next three months, Jelena’s coin eased our passage across the continent, buying supplies to camp with or nights in inns in turns. For some reason, innkeepers thought better of me with Lisane at my side, and soon everyone seemed to know there was no new magic in the world, so the story of who I was—clearly a poor piteous mage, now trapped in this form for good—made them sorry for me rather than fearful. It helped now, too, that we’d fashioned a loincloth for me and a robe of sorts to wear, and now that I was in charge of this body, I was able to smile in a fashion and definitely able to laugh.
So the four of us plus Finx spent nights around fireplaces in warm, sturdy buildings, listening to stories from other people while hiding knowing smiles, or passing a pipe around the campfires we started outdoors and chatting, and for one entire season, I got to watch Lisane blossom.
Every day of freedom was new for her, every experience we had together was fresh. She laughed readily, ran through meadows of wildflowers, learned with abandon, and threw herself into living her own life with passion—the same way she threw herself against me.
We were at an inn and in her absence, I’d turned on the lamp in our shared room the old-fashioned way, with a stump of a candle borrowed from the innkeep. If you’d asked me to live without magic before, I would have been horrified, but in some ways, it made me as newly born in the world as Lisane, which was good for us both.
She returned from a bath in trader clothing, her fragile dress long since left for rags. “How far away are we now, Rhaim?” she asked like she did every evening, as I blew the candle out and set the lamp down.
As we were traveling quickly and there were flat lands ahead . . . I did quick mental calculations. “No more than a month. ”
“A month,” she complained, like she always did, even though it was one day shorter each time—and as though I didn’t lick her delicious cunt clean every night.
She sighed and took off the silk scarf Finx had made for her that hid her mage-mark, and looked between me and the bed. “And you’re sure?” she wondered.
I grinned at her, as I sat down by the door. “If we broke that bed, we’d definitely have to buy it. We shouldn’t be so quick to spend our coin. ” And very few beds at inns had looked sturdy enough to also fit me.
“What if I met you down there?” she said with a grin while looking at the floor.
I couldn’t deny that I wanted that—but as if to grant me strength, we heard a commotion in the main room, right below us, through the thin floorboards. She heard it too and gave me a resourceful look.
“What if,” she supposed, turning her back to me, kneeling on the ground. She took off her shirt and hitched her pants down far enough to present herself to me. “We met halfway?” she suggested, over one shoulder, leaning on the bed with both her elbows. “And I promise to be very, very quiet?”
“I do not believe you,” I whispered, going to all fours.
“That I am pressing the matter, or that I can be quiet?”
“The latter,” I said, coming up behind her, “because I can already scent your wetness from here. ” I pushed my loincloth aside, revealing myself and my familiar piercing, sliding it between her tight thighs. She moaned at that, feeling it rub against her in its passage. “See?” I asked, and she turned to roll her eyes at me.
“It’s not wrong to want my pledgebond, Rhaim,” she whispered.
“No, it is not,” I told her, licking the shell of her newly bathed ear, where she tasted clean. “As I want you all the time. Spit into your palm. ” My little moth did as she was told, eagerly, and then looked to me for more instruction. “Now press me to you,” I said. She sank her hand to do as she was told, and I began to thrust.
She instantly opened her thighs a little wider, to give me room—I couldn’t go inside her yet, but this was good enough, stroking myself against her dripping valley while she ground against my cock. She was panting in an instant, so well trained, already expecting pleasure from me. I wrapped an arm around her, palming one of her breasts with all my claws, and whispered, “Be glad it’s not a boot,” which made her whine.
I stopped. “What did you promise me?”
Eyes that were already pools of darkness fluttered open, thinking. “That—I’d be quiet. ”
“And will you be?” I asked, thrusting again.
She nodded very quickly. “Yes. ”
“No matter what I do to you?”
I watched her slowly come back into her body at that. We’d furtively played in the woods some on our travels this far, but I hadn’t done anything cruel to her because I didn’t want to hurt her. She was my most precious possession.
But sometimes it was good for precious things to break.
Because sometimes, in the breaking, it lets them be reborn.
“Yes, sir,” she softly breathed, knowing everything she was giving over in that moment.
“Good, moth,” I whispered, then carefully pressed my claws against her, and thrust.
Her pants turned to gasps as she bit back moans. I laid my teeth upon her and carefully pinched her, leaving little red welts behind, feeling her flinch and tremble. I pulled my hand away from her breast and stroked my claws in reverse against her stomach and upper thighs, before switching directions to do the same, leaving even red lines. Her body was hungry for mine, and because of that, I could play her like an instrument. The hotter she was, the longer I could torture her, which let me further turn up her heat. It was like I was twisting giving her and taking pleasure from her into a tightly wound golden thread, that any moment now I would be tempted to strum.
I kept thrusting, her juices slicking the length of me, so much so they might’ve been pooling on the floor, as she pushed the thick head of my cock up against her, making it rub up and down her clit. My fur would smell like her now for days, and I licked my lips at the thought.
“Rhaim,” she whispered hungrily.
I made a low growl of warning. “Do not let them hear me pleasure you, little moth,” I said in time with my thrusts. “Be ever so quiet. None of them deserve to hear your song. ” She swallowed and nodded, breathing hard. “Move your hand, Lisane. ”
She quickly did as she was told, and I reached down to smack her cunt.
She yelped, and I growled at her. “Did you forget your promise to me?” I said hoarsely in her ear, as I used the pads of my thumb and forefinger to pinch her swollen clit.
“No, sir,” she whispered apologetically, her expression aching with barely suppressed lust.
“Good,” I said, and then smacked her again.
She whimpered at that, and I seized her. “If you cannot be quiet, I will make you be quiet,” I warned, wrapping my other hand atop the mage-mark on her throat, as I went back to rubbing her, which made her arch her hips harder back into me. The lamp I’d lit cast our shadows on the wall, making me look even more fearsome than I was—and then the shadows showed me her hand reaching up, right before she took hold of my lower jaw, wrapping her fingers over my teeth, trying to claim me in return.
“Moth,” I growled at that, bowing my head over hers. I needed her, this beautiful creature who trusted me enough to let me hurt her, to come, and I no longer cared if it made her scream. Her other hand was wound in the thin bedding, her neck bent forward, as her body longed to curve.
Her thighs trembled and her ass shook. “I can’t be quiet,” she said, sounding pained.
I chuckled darkly in her ear, around her fingers. “All right, moth. Then be loud,” I said, releasing her throat, and right after that she almost howled, her hips bucking in my hand as she held onto me by my teeth. Her orgasm flooded through her, making her cry out, again and again—to riotous cheers from below—and when she let go of me and I pulled away from her, she turned, and I saw she was pink with shame, from her cheeks down to her rosy nipples.
She put her hands to her face in embarrassment, then saw me through her fingers, my hard-on pitching up my loincloth like a tent. Her eyes went cunning in a moment, and she whispered, “Fair’s fair,” before coming for me with her mouth.
I didn’t even bother trying to be quiet as her lips found me. “Fuck,” I growled low, running my fingers through her hair so I could watch her. “Yes, moth. Lick yourself off me. ”
Lisane made an accommodating sound, and tried to take me as deeply as she could—it was enough. I moved to push her back, but she fought, and I gave up quickly—if I couldn’t come in her cunt, her mouth was the next best thing. I made an animalistic sound, shooting into her, and kept pulsing, until my balls were dry, my knot was taut, and she’d swallowed every drop.
I gasped as she pulled off of me, still hard but satisfied, although it always made her unhappy to see me so. “Can you not taste my pleasure with you?” I asked her when I saw her worried look, after pulling up her pants.
“I can,” she said, wiping her mouth delicately with her fingertips, before picking up her shirt and pulling it on quickly. “But I just want to be with you, Rhaim. Fully. ”
I reached out a hand for her, which she took, and she let me reel her into my arms. Once she was there though, she started pushing me to the ground, and I let her win, as she nestled up against me, like we were still sleeping outside. “You should’ve wished for patience, moth,” I said, brushing her hair back with a claw, and breathing a kiss as much as I was able against her cheek.
“That would’ve truly been impossible,” she said, smiling at me as her eyes closed and she drifted off.
Lisane
A season later, I was practically a new person. My skin had gone red then tanned brown, I knew how to cook, and I had learned words to very naughty songs. I could recognize a hundred different flowers now, and every night Rhaim made a point of teaching me the stars.
The four of us plus Finx had taken our time on our journey, seeing as there was really no need to rush, but when we finally reached the nearest town to wherever it was that Rhaim had set his castle, Jelena came up with a reason for her and Sibyi to stay there for a time. I knew after having had to listen to the sounds from our tent for the past few months, she was just trying to give us some privacy . . . but there’d been quite a lot of sounds coming from their tent, too, and maybe they also wanted a little time alone.
